Halifax’s Parker Street Food and Furniture Bank says it is in “desperate need” of school supplies and is making a public plea for donations.
The organization, which helps low-income families, says it has enough school supplies and backpacks for about 200 students, but is hoping to help 800.
“We’re preparing for 800 students and right now we have only a little bit more than 200 school supplies, especially backpacks, so we are making an appeal to the community,” says client services co-ordinator Cynthia Louis.
Parker Street began handing out school supplies about nine years ago and the number of families in need of help has grown drastically over the years.
The organization says it costs a minimum of $50 for all the supplies and a backpack for each elementary school student. That number can jump to $150 for students in junior high or high school because they need more expensive items, such as scientific calculators and USB drives.
Louis says they are especially short on backpacks, calculators, composition notebooks, flash drives, geometry sets, pens and three-ring binders.
In Bedford, Feed Nova Scotia has been assembling back-to-school kits to send all over the province.
“Those have gone out to various food banks across the province to the tune of about 75 different food banks,” says Karen Theriault of Feed Nova Scotia. “We’ve got nine food banks that are still to receive their order this week.”
Despite the effort of some groups, like Bell Aliant Backpacks for Kids, Theriault says donations are down and the demand is up.
“We know that in the next couple of weeks they will be knocking on the doors of food banks, really, just asking for a bit of help,” she says.
The deadline for donations is Aug. 31, which will give Parker Street staff and volunteers enough time to sort and pack the backpacks before Sept. 6, when families are expected to pick them up.
