Rising cost of school supplies prompts multiple community-based backpack programs

Back to school supplies in a shop in Toronto, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston)

As she shopped in Dartmouth for school supplies for her son going into the second grade, Sara Nahas left the store with an observation about the prices.

“It was definitely more expensive than last year,” said Nahas.

The escalating cost of school supplies heading into a new school year is why the Parker Street Food and Furniture Bank is operating a community backpack drive.

“We have had a lot of great organizations who have run fundraisers for us and pooled together resources to purchase the back-to-school supplies,” said the director of client services Sonah Leahey.

Individuals have also dropped off donated school supplies. Each one of the 1,200 backpacks stuffed with back-to-school items, will soon be handed out to students in the community.

“Unfortunately, we had so many more people apply than we were expecting this year,” said Leahey. “We have quite a bit of a waitlist because we do not have enough supplies for everyone.”

The number of families struggling to be able to afford school supplies has reached a critical stage in the Glace Bay area.

Patti McDonald, from the Townhouse Glace Bay Citizens Service League, said inflation is causing financial hardships for many families right now.

“I don’t know how they are going to be able to send their kids back to school with all of the things they need,” said McDonald. “Including school supplies and lunches on top of that.”

McDonald said the service league is also distributing backpacks later this summer. She also said many families can’t afford to buy their children back-to-school new clothing at this time.