A Gift For Teaching

A Gift For Teaching's mission is to improve public education by transferring our community's surplus materials and resources free to teachers for their students in need.

Reduce, reuse, recycle, reinvent…and most importantly, reinvest in thousands of low-income students in Central Florida. This is what A Gift For Teaching has been doing since 1998. After learning that the average teacher spends between $500- $1000 of their own money on their students, local philanthropist Gary Landwirth began to dream of a way that the community’s surplus could be put into the hands of teachers and students in need.

A Gift For Teaching opened its doors in September 1998 to 30 schools in Orange County, FL, distributing $331, 736 worth of surplus supplies. In just eleven short years, this self-initiated, grassroots organization has expanded to serving three counties in Central Florida and has distributed over $50 million worth of supplies. This has resulted in recycling over 3,095 tons of material that was otherwise destined for a landfill.

More than 150,000 economically disadvantaged children in Central Florida attend school each day without the basic supplies necessary for academic success. In the most impoverished neighborhoods, the epidemic is school-wide with 119 schools in the tri-county area having more than 60 percent of their students on the free or reduced lunch plan. These children can’t afford meals, let alone school supplies.

Unfortunately, A Gift For Teaching is becoming more relevant than ever. According to the Orlando Sentinel, Florida ranks 38th in the nation in spending on public school students. Orange County Public Schools has recently had to cut $70 million from their budget. In the current economic climate, more and more teachers are turning to A Gift For Teaching to meet the needs of their students.

For more information on how you can get involved, please visit www.agiftforteaching.org

1. Education is the foundation to success.

2. All children should have the opportunity to succeed, regardless of socio-economic status.