St. Anthony’s Ladies of Charity in Calvert County Maryland offers Backpacks filled with school supplies to our Food Pantry clients each year. This year we began asking clients in July to sign up for backpacks for their school age children. In the church bulletin, we asked parishioners to donate school supplies. One very generous parishioner donates most of the backpacks, in an assortment of sizes from pre-K to high school and designs appropriate for girls or boys. Our LOC members checked with local schools to see what supplies were needed by grade level.
By mid-August, we had 126 requests for backpacks from clients and lots of donated supplies and backpacks. The LOC had a “stuffing” party one evening in the church hall; about 20 Ladies were there to help. We used an assembly line approach to pack each bag based on the grade and sex of the child. We loaded the finished bags in wagons and took them to the Pantry House. On the following Sunday afternoon we asked the Clients to come to the Pantry House where a dozen LOC members distributed the “stuffed” Backpacks to the Clients. The kids seemed pretty excited about the new Backpacks so it made it all worthwhile!
Back to school we go a-runnin’. We have our supplies, and we’re lookin’ stunning!