Extreme Couponer Feeds 5,000 Hungry People

For most people coupons are a good way to save a bit of money on groceries, but one New Jersey woman has figured out how to use them to feed thousands of hungry people in her community.

According to NJ.com, 29-year-old Lauren Puryear is a mental health clinician with two master's degrees and a Ph.D., and as if those weren't impressive enough achievements, she also set herself a goal of providing 30,000 meals to needy people by her 30th birthday.

Puryear founded an organization called For the Love of Others and was doing her best to feed people by purchasing food in bulk, but she really started making progress when she heard about couponing and realized that by playing the supermarket coupon game, she could feed needy people for basically free.

"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 to NJ.com.

Puryear says that once she got the hang of couponing it became very easy for her, and now she's on track to meet her goal of 30,000 meals by next year. So far she's fed about 5,000 people.  

Puryear said she's taken on this task for the joy of helping others, and also to serve as an example for her son.

"It is very important to teach him to help other people," she said to NJ.com. "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."