Cold challenges children of poverty. They arrive at school with numbed fingers and blue lips, frost-bitten, because they don’t have mittens, gloves, a hat or a scarf, not to mention a decent water-resistant jacket. Frequently they walked to school wearing a cotton sweatshirt – on a rainy or snowy day, a child could be soaked through to the skin.

In 2014, the Heinz Endowment granted $50,000 to purchase, among other things, new winter outerwear for Wilkinsburg children.