Leander School District to Provide Clothing for Students In Need

A group of volunteers is providing free clothing to students in need for the new school year.

Clothes Closet, funded and operated by the Leander council of parent-teacher associations, provides new and lightly used clothing for students of all age. The only requirement — enrollment in a Leander school and a voucher from a school nurse, according to the program’s website.

Most of the clothing available at Clothes Closet, located at 324 South West Drive in Leander, comes from donation bins set up in Leander schools and at clothing drives. All of the clothing is gently worn, and any sock or underwear being provided are new. There are also some new changes coming to Clothes Closet in 2015.

“This year we’re letting people take more shirts and outerwear,” Poppy Jones, the chair of the program, told Hill Country News. “Eight shirts a semester instead of five, and more jackets.”

Also new this year, clothes will not be rotated seasonally but kept in-store all year.

Clothing must be picked up by a parent or guardian and there is no income requirement to shop at Clothes Closet.

“A lot of people think that you have to make under a certain amount of money to shop here, but they don’t need to show anything like that,” Jones told Hill Country News.

Clothes Closet is open every Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and an average of 10 to 20 families visit the program each week, and sometimes counselors and nurses come to the program for students. The store is also open one Saturday every month, but closed for school holidays and bad weather days.