3 Easy Ways to Give School Supplies to Kids in Need
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If you are like me, then you think summer is flying by! The days are long, but they move so quickly. As I write this post we are halfway through summer in my area and preparing for back to school. 3 of my 4 children have graduated from high school, and my final baby will soon be starting school as a High School Senior! My, how time flies quickly! I have always enjoyed shopping for school supplies. It has changed so drastically from my childhood to present day, and this has made me think about the vast differences in school supplies, then and now.
3 Easy Ways to Donate School Supplies to Kids in Need
When I was a kid, I remember that there were two items that every kid needed. First, a really cool lunch box, and second a pencil box. I would love to tell a story about now of how I had to walk both ways to school uphill in the snow, but that is not quite how it was. Really, we simply took our pencil box to school and left it for the year. All of the school supplies were there when we arrived. We would walk in to find freshly sharpened pencils, making the classroom smell of newly cut lumber.
We didn’t need school supplies when I was a kids…
Back then we would share scissors and paste or glue at the art tables, and all paper and notebooks were available from the paper room. My favorite paper was always the light cream colored paper that was rougher than the lined white paper. I loved the version that had space to draw a picture on top, and then write a story on the bottom. So cool for a kid who enjoyed telling stories like me.
Everyone would bring lunch boxes for the first few weeks. It was really a sign of status to have the coolest new cartoon character or superhero on your lunch box. I honestly can’t remember the lunch boxes that I had, however I remember that I never had a thermos. I thought having a thermos would be the coolest thing. You could have cold milk or hot soup. Funny, but thinking of it today, I would still like a thermos!
For the First Few Weeks…
For the first few weeks I would take my lunch in my lunch box, but eventually, it would be left on the playground, or lost somewhere on the way home, and my mom would revert to using brown paper lunch bags for the rest of the year. My mom was big on the use of foil. She could wrap anything in large mounds of foil. I think that it would have been virtually impossible for anyone other than a well-trained foil “unwrapper” to get into my school lunch.
We would typically have a sandwich or some salami and crackers wrapped in foil. Sometimes for an extra snack, there would be a large ball of foil filled with Cheerios. If my siblings and I start talking about it, we can’t stop cracking up at the amount of foil that went into our lunches over the years. Probably not good for the environment, but a great memory still the same.
3 Easy Ways to Donate
It is good to reminisce, but at the same time, there are those who are truly in need of school supplies, and they are often not supplied by schools anymore. With reduced budgets, schools often push the responsibility of supplies on to families, and some cannot bear the weight of school clothes for growing children, new shoes, and a large amount of school supplies.
How to Get Started Shopping For School Supplies?
With that in mind, I am sharing a few ideas for how to help out those in need as summer flies by, and school supplies will be needed in only a few short weeks. First, you can shop at Amazon. “We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites”. I love to shop Amazon, and have ordered items, via prime, for the last few years for both my kids and students in need. It makes it so simple to make a purchase, have it shipped in two days, and order an extra set to donate to kids in need.
Often you can donate the extra set to a local church, or food bank for distribution to kids in need. Some schools also have programs where you can sponsor a kid in need and donate the age-appropriate school supplies that will be handed out by the student’s teacher. Often if you check out the community section of your newspaper or online newspaper you can find a list of organizations that will be accepting donations for school supplies.
Where to Take the Supplies…
In some cases, you can drop the backpack off directly at the school and they will give the filled backpack to teachers to distribute discreetly to a child that they know is in need of these items. If you have school aged children or high schoolers, you might ask them if they know of any kids who will be needed a set of school supplies. My children are often well aware of families who need food, clothing, and school supplies. We have helped this way in the past. It is less anonymous but still takes care of a very real need.
Below are a few Amazon kits that take all the guesswork out of shopping.
And speaking of lunch boxes, here are a few of my favorites available for this year.
Backpacks are also a huge need for children. When I went to school, I don’t believe we did homework until at least the 5th grade…or maybe I didn’t. Today, kids do about 10 minutes of homework per year of school. Because of this, kids need backpacks. Below are a few of my favorites.
Finally, if you don’t need to purchase any supplies, but want to make a difference for those in need, below is a link to a charity that gives school supplies to those in need.
Or, tips to start your own school supply drive.
Looking for Recipes to Make Back to School Easy?
If you are looking for a few ideas to cook for the first few weeks of school, or to give to a Mom who is in the rush of getting the kids back to school, check out my two posts on Meals to Share.
So, what was your favorite school supply as a child? Did you have a thermos? Share in the comments below.
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