A new backpack can be a big part of getting ready for a new school year.
For children, it holds the notebooks, pencils, folders, and other supplies they’ll bring to school. And there’s something fun and special about getting a backpack that’s new and their own.
For parents, getting ready for school often comes with a much longer list. There are supplies to buy, clothes and shoes to check, forms to fill out, and schedules to manage. Those expenses come alongside groceries, rent, transportation, and everything else a family needs.
This year, two Way to Grow community partners helped take one important item off that list.
Greater Twin Cities United Way and Best Buy provided more than 600 new backpacks for Way to Grow children, along with the school supplies to help fill them.
United Way’s Action Day
Every year, Greater Twin Cities United Way brings together volunteers and organizations across the metro for Action Day, a community effort to provide school supplies for local students.
This year, volunteers assembled backpacks at corporate events, through United Way’s Volunteer at Home program, and at the main Action Day event at Allianz Field. Altogether, United Way distributed 55,000 backpacks through more than 130 organizations serving students across the greater Twin Cities metro.
Way to Grow received 328 elementary backpacks through this year’s effort! That’s 328 backpacks that Way to Grow can put directly into the hands of children and families who need them.
Best Buy Shows Up for Students
Best Buy also supported Way to Grow children this summer with the help of Corporate Program Leader ShaDonte McMorris and the team behind Best Buy’s Enterprise Inclusion Group Summit.
For the second year, Best Buy delivered more than 300 backpacks directly to Way to Grow, along with additional school supplies.
Between the two donations, more than 600 backpacks are now being distributed to children across Way to Grow’s children and families!
When Back-to-School Costs Add Up
Of course, a backpack is only one part of getting ready for school.
Families may also need shoes for growing feet, headphones, lunch boxes, water bottles, notebooks, folders, markers, and other classroom supplies. For families with more than one child heading to school, those lists can add up quickly.
Sometimes that means deciding what can be purchased now and what may need to wait.
A donated backpack doesn’t solve every challenge. But it does ease one piece of the puzzle. It’s one less purchase for a parent and one school item a child already has covered.
That’s the practical value of donations like these. Hundreds of individual families have one less item on their back-to-school lists because people in our community chose to help. It eases some of the stress, stretches a family’s back-to-school budget a little further, and leaves more room for the other things they need.
Become a Neighbor Who Cares
Back-to-school needs don’t necessarily end when school begins. Supplies get used, children grow, and families may need different things throughout the year.
Through Way to Grow’s Neighbors Who Care program, businesses, faith organizations, book clubs, neighborhood groups, and groups of friends can collect school supplies and other essentials for Twin Cities children and families.
Interested in hosting a Neighbors Who Care Drive? We’ll provide a ready-to-share flyer and wish list to make getting started easy.
Email Ann Frances at afgregg@mplswaytogrow.org to get started and thank you!
