“This is the way public schools should be,” said a proud Mayor Jim Kenney, after touring South Philadelphia High School Tuesday, one of the nine new designated community schools being funded by the soda tax.
Among the more unique offerings being featured by SPHS is the new “Clothing Closet,” which is essentially a clothes bank stocked with new and gently used items given to and from students at no cost.
Harper said the “Clothing Closet” offers students a relatively real shopping experience, without the monetary transaction, but most still maintain the appreciation of the exchange.
“We have men’s stuff, women’s stuff, clothes, hats, gloves and these socks donated by CityLife Church,” she said.
“So, take a sock, give a sock – everything is free in the room. It’s free to parents or community members, or students that actually go to South Philly High.”
While the mayor fights court battles with Big Soda, he insists that the students are the ones suffering from the delays from ongoing litigation.
He argued the recent announcement of 80 to 100 layoffs by Pepsi was merely a showing of “lack of respect” for Pepsi's employees and the city’s students at large.
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“PepsiCo, for example, is a $35 billion-dollar company that posted $6 billion in profits last year. Their CEO makes $25 million in her base salary. She spent $11 million fighting the soda tax on television and hundreds of thousands of dollars a month on lobbyists and lawyers. If they want to take that out on the people who work at a bottling plant, it doesn’t show much respect for their own employees, frankly, and it doesn’t show any respect for these kids who are trying to make their way in the world.”