Hi Mark,

Thanks for posting about this. I worked at a youth development agency in NYC for six years and every year we had young people in this situation. We’d usually ask for donations from staff of backpacks, suitcases, notebooks, pens, etc. One time I took a young person shopping for literally everything he would need for his dorm. He didn’t have a pillow. Or toothpaste. He had no idea why he would need shower shoes. For me the biggest realization is that it wasn’t just about not having things, it was about not speaking “college” — not knowing that you could shop classes, not knowing that the “math” building can have all sorts of different classes in it, not knowing that everyone steals the cafeteria food… there’s a whole knowledge bank that’s completely new to most young people who also don’t have anyone buying them anything. They need so much support during those first couple of years.

Anyway — so wonderful to see folks chipping in.