These Latino Teens Have Turned Shopping For Vulnerable Neighborhoods Into Full-Time Work

There’s no denying the fact that the recent spread of COVID-19 has left certain groups disproportionately in need of basic necessities. While stimulus checks have been delivered to millions across the country, many are still waiting to receive their portion of financial help from the government and others are struggling to make ends meet with the limited resources that they have.

While various services are offering delivery assistance during this time of crisis, one organization in particular truly stands out.

Six Feet Supplies is a free service that uses volunteers who are willing to shop at multiple locations to deliver items to customers in need.

The service was co-founded by California-based high-school students Zoe Monterola and Eric Luo and is serviced by 37 volunteers. According to Newsweek, the group is made up of teens who know each other from an after-school program called Global Prep Academy based in Valencia, California. The program offers these teens who attend public schools, amenities that are usually reserved for those who attend expensive boarding schools.

The service is pretty straight forward.

Head to the organization’s site and provide your name, address, phone number, and the needed items and the budget required to fulfill the order online. What happens next is that a Six-Feet shopper will text or email an image of the receipt to the customer and leave the purchased goods at the front door.

Unlike other delivery services, Six Feet Supplies differs not only because it’s free but also because it allows consumers to receive items from multiple locations.

In a recent interview with Newsweek, Monterola explained that she came up with the idea after the head of Global Prep Academy, David Najar, told her a story about how a neighbor left a note on his doorstep asking if he needed anything from the store.

“I wanted to do that on a larger scale,” Monterola explained in the interview. On March 17, Monterola and her partner, Luo teamed up to create Six Feet Supplies.

Seven days later they were in business– or rather, volunteering.

“Just creating the order form was a huge process,” Luo explained to Newsweek. Convincing consumers to trust teenagers to shop for them was difficult at first but a week after their launch, Six Feet Supplies was in full swing. They already deliver to over a dozen people per day, and they’ve received requests from outside the city of Santa Clarita where they reside.

“We’ll keep this up for however long the need is or until it becomes a big danger to our delivery team,” said Monterola.

Learn more about the program here.