Coastside Community School Backpack Drive

Holy Family Children's Center teachers are proud supporters of Holy Family Church by volunteering at the Backpack drive that takes yearly!

Over the years the Coastside Mothers’ Club (Coastside Families Club)  has been a key partner of the Coastside Community School Backpack drive, collecting gently used children’s books to give to the children benefiting from the drive along with financial support.   Last year we helped 521 students in the Cabrillo School District with new backpacks and totes filled with school supplies.  We expect to help a similar number of children this year. 

As you know Holy Family has been leading a School Backpack program for the Coastside for over 20 years, but this is truly a community effort.  Coastside Hope has been a key partner identifying the children and providing logistical support among other things, while community groups like the Coastside Mothers’ Club have provided key support to the program.

 The number of students we serve has grown dramatically; we expect to serve around 550 students this year.   Like everything, inflation is also impacting the program as the cost of paper supplies in particular, has risen.  We currently spend about $60 per child for a good quality school backpack and a tote filled with grade appropriate school supplies.  With the number of children, we expect to serve this year, it means we need to raise over $30,000 to run the program each year. We purchase supplies in bulk and take advantage of end of school year sales which result is our being able to purchase these supplies at a much lower cost than if individuals went out and tried to replicate what we provide.  We estimate that a parent trying to duplicate what we provide would easily spend twice as much.

 What we need from the Coastside community is:

 •              Monetary contributions to help purchase school supplies and backpacks. 

•              Volunteers to help us shop for supplies, stuff totes with school supplies, fundraise at the farmers market, and distribute the backpacks and school supplies on August 7th and 8th at the Coastside Hope parking lot. 

 Please note that 100% of any donation is spent on purchasing backpacks and school supplies.  All administrative costs are covered by Holy Family.

 In addition to the above, the Mothers’ Club together with the friends of the library and the Half Moon Bay Library, have collected gently used children’s books to be given to the children benefiting from this program.  This is a key element of the program, as we try to establish a life-long love of reading with this population.  Can you let me know who I should coordinate with regarding the children’s book collection effort from the Mothers’ Club? 

 Details on this year’s program can be found at the following URL:  http://www.holyfamilyhmb.org and click on Backpacks.  Volunteers can sign up by filling out this form:  https://form.jotform.com/HolyFamilyhmb/backpack

 If you have any questions, would like me to speak to your group about the program, etc. Please don’t hesitate to ask. 

Best regards,

Ken Myers

Sr Warden and lead of the backpack program

Holy Family Episcopal Church.