News and social aggregation site Reddit has granted one of its largest online communities, Poverty Finance, $30,000 as part of its recent community funds giveaway. Poverty Finance is an online community of over 1.2 million users who congregate to share financial tips and advice for those with low incomes, while also serving as a support group for those who identify as experiencing poverty.

Reddit is awarding community funds to a select few of its online communities for volunteer moderators to distribute among their users accordingly. Poverty Finance has decided to award its share of these funds to its users in the form of 500 Costco memberships so that its community members in poverty have the opportunity to purchase groceries and other items on a cheaper per unit basis.

“It’s a great opportunity for people and families that are on strict budgets or lack any discretionary spending money to sidestep the barrier to entry to a resource that will save them money and increase their standard of living through bulk purchasing. ” said Poverty Finance’s creator and lead moderator. “Not only do warehouse clubs offer much better prices for various food staples and necessities per volume/calorie, but buying in such quantities also affects the behavior of the people who buy them. When you stop shopping for “tonights dinner” and start buying food for a month, you become more likely to plan ahead, food prep, and take other actions that ultimately lead to more efficient use of your food (and by proxy, your money!) A person cooking rice from a ten pound bag of rice is more likely to plan to package leftovers for lunches than someone pulling a single serving fried rice frozen dinner out of the freezer. That person is then also less likely to stop at a fast food restaurant later in the week for convenience, or out of a lack of time/preparation/resources. In the end, this will save the people who get the memberships a LOT more than just the $40 signup fee.”

Poverty Finance’s goal is to distribute the entirety of its awarded community funds to its users by the end of 2022. Volunteer moderators for the community will select users from an applicant pool and work with the Reddit site administrators to disperse awards accordingly.

To find out how to enter for your chance to be awarded one of these club memberships, go to http://reddit.com/r/povertyfinance and click on the “stickied” thread at the top of the list.

Poverty Finance is a “subreddit” (a community group) within the Reddit Platform. It is dedicated to helping people in any state of financial insecurity find advice and support with their immediate financial problems from people who know what it’s like to survive without an economic safety net. Despite the name, the community isn’t just for people below the poverty line. The community rapidly gained in popularity as it offered alternatives to the commonly available online financial advice that typically assumes some degree of savings, car ownership, stable housing, and disposable income.