Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Napanee’s Salvation Army has teamed with the United Way of KFLA to ensure all students across the region have the supplies they need this school year.
They’re once again stuffing backpacks full of school essentials, which will be distributed to families who need a little assistance at the start of the school year next month.
Though the Salvation Army has long hosted a backpack program, this year they decided to partner with the local United Way in an effort to get the most out of their donations. In previous years each agency held its own program, which sometimes led to duplicate registration.
“What we did this year is we just said to United Way we’re happy to work and partner with you, but only one of us should do the registration,” said Abby Mills, director of community ministries for the Napanee Salvation Army. “So we handed the registration off to the United Way, but we will still be packing and providing and delivering backpacks to the schools to distribute to the families when school starts in September.”
Information on how to register can be found at www.unitedwaykfla.ca/backpackprogram/.
Backpacks, lunch bags, pens, pencils, rulers, math sets, markers, crayons, scientific calculators, pencil cases and water bottles– these supplies are always needed and can be dropped off to the Napanee Salvation Army at 81 Dairy Ave.
As inflation continues to rise, more families than ever are feeling the crunch.
“Now where so many families are struggling to provide food, things like backpack and school supplies are more out of reach than ever,” said Mills. “It’s going to take awhile I think before we see things stabilize.”
Last year over 300 students were helped by the Salvation Army, and those numbers are only expected to rise after another year of tough financial times felt across the country.
Providing students with school supplies is important in that it not only helps them today, but sets them up for success in the future as well.
“Education is such a key factor in helping kids move out of poverty,” said Mills. “If we can help kids to get a good education, to finish school, to get that high school diploma, it offers them so many more options than if they don’t do well in school or if they even quit because they don’t have the supplies that they need. Education is so key.”
Along with the backpack program, Mills also took some time to reflect on the fact the Salvation Army has now been in their new location on Dairy Avenue for over a year now.
“This location is just going to enable us to do so much more for the community because we now have a building that works for us,” said Mills. “It provides us with space we didn’t have before, particularly outside space and it’s the beginning of some great things ahead for us.”