For years, when Lauren Puryear went into her local grocery store with a huge load of coupons, those who saw her may have assumed the 29-year-old mother was simply trying to save on food. But she still wanted to do more and, because she was buying the food with her own money, providing the meals started to take a serious toll on her pocketbook. Clipping coupons for staples like spaghetti and meatballs, she quickly she realized that this money-saving-strategy-turned-zealous-hobby could help her feed not just hundreds, but thousands, of hungry people.
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“There are coupons in the Sunday paper, or online that you can print.so I collect as many as I can, match them to the store and that is how I am able to get the items for free”, she said.
A young woman is setting out to deliver 30,000 meals to the hungry and homeless before her 30th birthday next year – and she wants to do it all with coupons.
Puryear, who works as a mental health clinician, has said that she can feed up to 150 for around $20 with her extreme couponing. It requires going to specific stores and buying certain items, but Puryear said it’s an easy process once you get the hang of it, and it has enabled her to expand her giving to thousands more people. She’s using couponing as a tool to help her achieve that goal. Oh, just a little something like earning four – four! – degrees, including a bachelor’s, two masters, and a Ph.D.in psychology. And, having already delivered more than 5,000 meals, Puryear is confident that she can reach her 30,000 goal by next year, right on time to also mark her 30th birthday on September 14.
To Puryear, helping others is the most rewarding experience.
But she also does not forget to pass along to her son what her grandmother had passed along to the rest of her family. “The little things we take for granted, the food we throw away every day … and if we just spread a little more love around, the world would be such a better place”. Puryear chose to start an organization in her grandmother’s memory ― and so, For The Love of Others was born.
She hopes to impart the same sense of devotion in her 5-year-old son.
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Information from: NJ Advance Media.
