Groupon partners with CPS to offer discounted school supplies

Groupon: It’s not just for two-for-one falafel deals and cheap Chicago Fire tickets.

Starting today Chicagoans can purchase deeply-discounted school supplies for Chicago Public Schools students in need through the Chicago-based online coupon site. The deal is similar to a traditional Groupon in that there is a minimum number of supplies that have to be purchased by the public by Thursday the 28th to reach the tipping point, which turns the deal on. 

The kits cost $12 and include folders, spiral notebooks, filler paper, a hardcover pop-up book, a pencil case, crayons, markers, a paint set, glue sticks, #2 pencils, pens, erasers and a ruler. Once a kit has been purchased, it is shipped directly to a school and is ready for student use on the first day. The kits are also distributed at neighborhood festivals and back-to-school events.

The promotion is part of the Groupon’s G-Team campaign, which creates donation deals for local causes. It has partnered with CPS’s Kits for Kidz campaign, a two-week blitz aimed at providing underprivileged children with school supplies for the upcoming school year. According to school officials quoted on the CPS website, more than 85 percent of CPS students come from low income families and more than 15,000 students are homeless, so it is definitely a worthy cause.

Visit groupon.com/deals/cps July 26–28 to purchase the Kits for Kidz deal. For more information on Kits for Kids, including additional donation opportunities, visit shop.kitsforkidz.org/catalog/Chicago_Public_Schools,255.htm.