A revolution is coming. Well, if they have their way it is.
One couple has made it their mission to get children healthy, schools funded and parents happy. And if their new business model is right, they will do just that.
Sarah and Darryl Davis are a couple and now founding partners of Wealthy School Revolution (WSR), a website where parents can go to order their groceries online and up to 20 per cent of the sales will go back to the school of their choice.
Its really simple, Sarah Davis said. You order and really just a part of the profit goes back to the schools.
Wealthy schools, which is based in West Vancouver, is a for-profit company, but its able to give a percentage of its sales back to the school and still make money because it doesnt incur the costs of traditional retail (building and labour.)
And since we are using the school building (which already exists) to distribute the products back out to parents, we create efficiencies in our shipping costs, said Darryl Davis.
Products are shipped from Vancouver.
To date, Davis said they have more than 50 schools signed on to the program, but none in Richmond. This is a wall they hope to break.
The Richmond school district is very much in need of cash, but we dont have a school there yet, she said.
We have in our system 58 schools in Richmond, not to mention all the pre-schools that would join as well, Darryl Davis said in an email interview. The 58 schools have approximately 25,000 students enrolled, we assume this equates to 15,000 families taking into consideration families with more than one child.
If 7,500 families purchased $100 each month two $50 orders per month of groceries with WSR over the course of 10 months, those parents would inject $1.5 million dollars into school funding just by shifting where they purchase their products from, he added.
Sarah Davis said schools are in more need than ever for any extra funding they can get.
Every year budgets get more and more tight, she said. And schools ask parents for more and more.
She said parents are asked to buy items such as baked goods or chocolate, which usually tends to be unhealthy in the first place. But, as of right now, its the only way for parents to raise money.
With the Wealthy School Revolution they hope to change that.
The website offers parents the choice to shop online, piling all the healthy food and supplies they need into their e-cart and checking out.
When they do, parents will notice 20 per cent of the sale cost is put aside to the school of their choice. After everything is cleared, the website lets you know when the order is available for pick-up.
The parents pick the food up right from the school when they drop their kids off, Davis said.
When the food is dropped off at the school, a cheque of 20 per cent of the total sales is also given to the school.
WSR is hoping to expand into the Richmond area very soon. To do so they are willing to meet with schools and parents alike to speak about the program.
To learn more, visit www.wealthyschoolrevolution.com.
