K To College

Causes: Children & Youth, Education, Homeless & Housing, Homeless Centers, Human Services, Literacy, Remedial Reading & Encouragement

Mission: Addressing the unmet material needs of homeless and other impoverished children, and adults working towards self-sufficiency.

Results: From 2010-2013, we have donated $17,000,000 of school supplies, dental supplies and other basic materials to more than 300,000 children in more than 100 school districts throughout California.

Target demographics: the unmet material needs of homeless and other impoverished children, and adults working towards self-sufficiency

Direct beneficiaries per year: Homeless children and youth throughout California

Geographic areas served: California

Programs: K to College (K2C) is the story of a humble nonprofit that evolved from a UC Berkeley student group with a pickup truck into the first effort of its kind in the nation. Just as food banks act a central hub that works with farmers, government and private entities to acquire food cheaply or in-kind and send it to front line organizations such as soup kitchens and churches, K2C uses a similar approach to address the unmet material needs of homeless and other low-income children, youth and adults working towards self-sufficiency. Building the nation’s first “supply bank,” K2C exists to provide an efficient solution to ensure that each individual, from a child in grade-school to an adult in community college, does not have their path to the workforce impeded by unmet basic material needs. K2C works directly with manufacturers, government and private entities to acquire materials cheaply, kit them by age and gender, and verifiably distribute to those in need. Instead of soup kitchens, our “front lines” for distributions are more than 250 county offices of education and school districts, traditional and domestic violence shelters, early learning agencies and as of 2015, community college districts. 2015 will also be the first year K2C provides basic material needs assistance in every county in California.