United Way of the Piedmont brings local nonprofits, businesses, and community members together to tackle the biggest challenges facing our region. We go beyond temporary fixes to create lasting change in Cherokee, Spartanburg, and Union counties in South Carolina.
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RECENT NEWS
Chunsta Miller is United Way of the Piedmont's 2025-2026 Morgan Award winner.
Picture a parent in the school supply aisle in early August, list in hand, doing the math before picking up a single item. Pencils, two dollars. Folders, three for a dollar. A three-ring binder, four dollars. A backpack built to survive a school year, twenty-five dollars or more. The list is longer than the budget. Something has to come off it. This parent is probably working. Full time, maybe two jobs. Across Cherokee, Spartanburg, and Union counties, more than four in ten households cannot cover the cost of basics. Many of them are working full-time. There is a number behind that parent's math, and it is bigger than a school supply list. In South Carolina, a family of four needs $76,908 a year to cover housing, food, childcare, transportation, and health care. The federal poverty level for that same family is $31,200. Here is what it takes locally: Cherokee County - $74,484 Spartanburg - $79,080 Union - $70,548. That number climbs faster than paychecks do. The ALICE Essentials Index tracks the cost of the basics: rent, groceries, gas, childcare, health care. In South Carolina, those costs rose 6.3% a year between 2021 and 2024. From 2007 to 2019, the annual increase was 2.9%. Essentials have been outpacing wages here for most of two decades.
This month, thousands of students across Cherokee, Spartanburg, and Union counties headed back to the classroom. Many of these students’ families in our region work hard and still struggle to cover the basics — let alone school supplies. Over four in ten households in Cherokee, Spartanburg, and Union counties earn their paychecks and still cannot cover basic expenses. In response to this need, United Way of the Piedmont rallied the community through its annual United for Students School Supply Drive, ensuring that students across our tri-county footprint started the school year with the tools they need to succeed. Thanks to the generosity of corporate partners and community members, over 1,800 students received essential school supplies this year, backed by almost $65,000 in donated supplies. That is real support landing in real classrooms across our region. Here is how it broke down by county: Cherokee County: 3 corporate partners contributed over $5,200 in supplies to support 131 students. Spartanburg County: 32 corporate partners contributed over $51,000 in supplies, supporting 1,543 students and their classrooms. Union County: 5 corporate partners contributed over $8,300 in supplies, benefitting 201 students and their classrooms. The need in our community continues to grow, and there is room for even more businesses, organizations, and individuals to join this effort next year. Every new partner means more students starting the school year fully equipped. United Way’s School Supply Drive mobilizes local businesses, organizations, and individuals to collect and donate supplies like notebooks, pens, pencils, and backpacks. The goal is simple: to relieve the financial burden on families and help every child thrive academically. "Every backpack packed and every notebook donated makes a real difference for a student on the first day of school," said Marissa Human, Director of Engagement & Events. "Our corporate and community partners see this need firsthand in their own communities, and they show up for it year after year. That kind of local commitment is what makes this drive work." United Way is deeply grateful to the many local companies, volunteers, and community members who stepped up to make this year’s drive a success. Want to be part of next year's drive? Contact Marissa Human at mhuman@uwpiedmont.org .
