More than 250 children received all the right stuff to prepare them for this year’s school year.
Included back packs, pencils, erasers, pens, notebooks, shoe gift cards to Payless Shoe Store and more.
The event included crafts, food, a mobile food pantry, which provided a weeks worth of food, and family pictures taken by Bake Me Home.
Sarah Cadle, Program Coordinator at Inter Parish Ministry said “Every year the program grows, offering more services because of our many partners and a growing community that is committed to serving those in need.”
This year’s program was a collaboration with many of Inter Parish Ministry’s partners and volunteers.
This included IPM’s supporting churches and community supporters who donated the school supplies and funds for the shoe gift cards, Bake Me Home’s Take Me Home program provided the family pictures and Mt. Carmel Christian Church hosted the event and provided food, crafts and hospitality.
More than 105 volunteers were on hand to help at the event.
Diane Kleinfelter, who coordinated the event for Mt. Carmel Christian Church, was pleased to see how well the event flowed and helped the families who came to the Back to School Event. She said, “This is a great opportunity to partner with Inter Parish Ministry to meet the school readiness needs of families. Loving God, Loving people is the mission of our church and this is all part of it.”
Getting a child ready to return to school can be costly. According to the National Retail Federation, spending this year is approximated at about $634.78.
Katherine Williamson, a working mother of five knows this too well. She said, “She deeply appreciates the help to get her children ready because she wasn’t sure if they would have been able to manage it.
The event also included a mobile food pantry manned by IPM staff and volunteers. Families were able to shop and take home foods ranging from mac and cheese, to tuna, fresh potatoes and green beans as well as meat. Kathryn Oakes of Amelia truly appreciated this extra touch. She said, “The event was so well organized, it was easy to get in and out, the week’s worth of food is wonderful and my daughter truly loves the back pack and all the other cool stuff she picked out.”