PRESIDIO — Over the holiday season, the Dollar General in downtown Presidio made a $5,000 donation to the reading program at Lucy Rede Franco Middle School. Store regulars might have noticed that the keypad at checkout asks if shoppers would like to round up their change to support literacy programs — last month’s donation speaks to the generosity of local Dollar General patrons. “The store collects funds from donations from customers and donates the funds to programs in local schools and libraries to ensure that students have access to books and other literacy-related materials,” explained store manager Azucena Romero.
The company has been collecting donations to the Dollar General Literacy Foundation for 31 years. Former CEO Cal Turner Jr. started the program in 1993 in honor of his grandfather, J.L. Turner, who was also the company’s founder. Since then, the foundation has raised over $254 million to libraries, adult literacy programs and other organizations designed to educate and instill a love of reading.
J.L. Turner dropped out of school after the third grade and was functionally illiterate when he founded a dry goods store that would later become Dollar General, which now operates just under 20,000 stores — more than the number of McDonald’s locations nationwide.
For folks like Romero, the Literacy Foundation program is a way for employees of the massive chain to make a difference in their local communities, ensuring that every cent donated by shoppers trickles down to charitable causes within 15 miles of each location. “Dollar General believes that a good educational career begins with a strong foundation in reading,” she said.