Watch DSN: The vital link between literacy and community health

Julianne Mobilian, managing editor of Drug Store News, caught up with Denine Torr, executive director of the Dollar General Literacy Foundation and Dollar General’s vice president of corporate social responsibility and philanthropy, to discuss the foundation's 30-year journey. 

During the conversation, Torr emphasized the crucial connection between literacy, community health and the retailer’s initiatives, and expressed the need for partnerships to address widespread literacy challenges.

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“All great education begins with a strong foundation and being able to read—and read well. That is the foundation of great education. What we know is that there are specific indicators that if you can learn to read, and you can get your high school equivalency, all of a sudden doors open,” Torr said. “You get that pathway to higher education, the pathway to increased employability, decreased poverty rates, decreased crime rates, better health outcomes. You see better food security, better housing security. When all of these things rise and—it starts with that very basic level—they all rise. Great things start to happen in communities.”

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Watch the full conversation in the video.