Back-to-school initiative gives out 1,000 backpacks filled with class supplies
As the beginning of the school year approaches, volunteers at the Salvation Army are filling backpacks with school supplies.
“We don’t want kids going to school without the proper supplies,” said program supervisor Matt Hoeft.
“We just want to make sure everybody is kind of on the same ground when they go to school.”
The Back-to-school Backpack program has provided more than 4,000 backpacks to children in need since it began in 2010. This year, the Salvation Army has funding to provide 1,000 of them.
Children receiving the backpacks range from kindergarten to Grade 12.
Hoeft said applications were to be open for two and a half weeks, but they hit the goal of 1,000 within the first week.
The Salvation Army Saskatoon Temple is packed with all kinds of school supplies, from pencil crayons and pencil sharpeners to notebooks, binders, and loose-leaf paper. When filling the bags, each volunteer follows a school supply list, depending on the grade of the child receiving the bag.
“We try to get as close to the school supply list as we can,” he said.
Hoeft said it takes about 15 minutes to fill one. After that, a tag is placed on the bag, dictating the number of the specific applicant it will be going to.
Some families will get more than one, depending on their needs.
By the end of the day on Monday, volunteers had filled 368 backpacks.
The Salvation Army expects about 50 volunteers will be filling backpacks for the rest of the week, hopefully finishing up on Friday morning. Applicants will be able to pick them up on Monday and Tuesday.