BACKPACKS

Many organizations, religious groups and businesses have similar programs.

Volunteers of America of Greater Ohio provided more than 3,100 backpacks to children across Ohio last year, including hundreds in Columbus, through its Operation Backpack program. Columbus TV station WCMH (Channel 4) teamed up with the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium and Columbus City Schools for a drive hoping to collect 52,000 backpacks before classes start Aug. 23.

Such donations are crucial because many struggling families can’t afford to equip their children for success, said Steve Majors, spokesman for Communities in Schools, a nonprofit organization that works in schools nationwide to help students overcome challenges inside and outside the classroom, including poverty. The group has a chapter in Columbus.

When their basic needs aren’t met, students from poorer families often fall behind their classmates, Majors said.

It’s not uncommon for families to be forced to choose between purchasing Dessaree Watters, right, coordinates an effort to fill backpacks with free school supplies for students. The average cost of required school supplies and fees in the United States is $637 for an elementary school student, studies show. essentials, such as food and clothing, and school supplies, he said.

This year, the average cost of required school supplies and fees in the United States is $637 for elementary school, $941 for middle school and $1,355 for high school, according to the Backpack Index, an annual study released by Columbus-based Huntington Bank and Communities in Schools. Those prices actually decreased slightly from 2017’s prices.

To help fill the gap, 94 percent of public-school teachers buy supplies, spending an average of $479 of their own money a year, according to a recent survey

from the National Center for Education Statistics.

In 2015, 44 percent of children in Ohio lived in low-income families, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty. Low-income was defined that year as living on less than twice the federal poverty level, or $48,072 annually for a family of four with two children.

“Kids are expected to come to school with a basic set of tools,” Majors said. “But there remains a very real gap between the cost of these supplies and what lowincome families can afford.”

As their demands increase, central Ohio’s backpackstuffing volunteers are finding ways to make their efforts more efficient and meaningful.

The Junior League of Columbus, a women’s volunteer organization, buys already-stuffed backpacks in bulk from a vendor after fundraising all year, Adopta-Backpack for Children coordinator Lauren Stazen said. Since its start in 1999, the effort has filled more than 50,000 backpacks for elementary-age children, including about 2,400 this past year.

The group now offers recipients a variety of backpack colors and customization options, such as iron-on patches and glitter, Stazen said. That helps reduce the stigma associated with children receiving free items, which is more noticeable if all the backpacks look the same, she said.

Teamwork among organizations also is becoming more common.

For example, the group donated several backpacks to Channel 4’s drive and also offers advice to other organizations looking to start programs, she said.

“We see it as opportunities for collaboration, not competition,” Stazen said. “At the end of the day, we’re really all trying to do the same thing: help children and help the community.”