It’s the time of year for back to school supply shopping, which can often mean a financial dilemma for many local families. The Habersham County Sheriff’s Office’s annual supply drive hopes to be able to provide some relief.
Since school let out, officers with the Sheriff’s Office have sat outside the Wal-Mart in Cornelia collecting notebooks, pencils, crayons, and other school supplies, said Kayla Nell, crime scene technician.
Nell said the Sheriff’s Office really saw a need from local families for help with school supplies when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit.
“We deal with a lot of the public and we saw a lot of issues with people that were struggling,” Nell said. “We wanted to alleviate some of the financial burden.”
The drive has since grown. Now in its third year, they have been able to incorporate bookbags and have seen an increase in donations since their partnering with Habersham County Schools district earlier this year. This year, they were able to provide over 200 backpacks.
“This was the first year we incorporated them, just trying to get more support, a little more help,” Nell said. “It really seemed to get us more materials this year than it had in the two years previous. It was a group effort trying to get more to the schools.”
The need for donations is increasing due to the state of the economy.
Donna Barrett, executive director at Habersham County Family Connection, said it can be tough for families to be able to purchase all the supplies required, especially if a family has multiple children, adding that the cost can be in the hundreds of dollars.
To help, Family Connection used part of their grant funds to also purchase supplies as well as collected donations from area churches, said Barrett.
“We would like to, next year, get more community involvement through churches and businesses,” said Barret. “We just got the very basic supplies in the bookbags and next year we would like to have a better variety or more supplies as well.”
Nell said officers also collect cash donations, which are used towards the end of the drive to purchase items that they are low on to ensure they are able to provide a little bit of everything. By being able to offer more supplies to more families, Nell hopes it helps families be able to redistribute that money towards other needs.
“When everybody is struggling financially right now, if we are able to give them one less thing to worry about, if it is something as simple as making sure they have food on their table, if they aren’t spending that money on school supplies they can feed their kids,” Nell said. “To me, it’s important to take a little bit financially off of them so those kids can get it somewhere else, where they need it.”
With all the donations collected, volunteers from the Sheriff’s Office, school counselors, and other local volunteers packed up the supplies in backpacks to be given to school counselors for distribution.
Each school is getting 17 filled backpacks to be distributed by school counselors. Barrett said that any leftover supplies will be individually donated to schools so they are able to have it on hand.
Michelle Blackburn, Habersham County Schools social worker, said access to the needed supplies is crucial for student success.
“It’s a wonderful way to start off the school year,” Blackburn said. “To help our students and parents who might not be able to get these supplies on their own but we want the school year to start off in the most positive way possible.”
Blackburn said she has already directed some families to reach out to their school counselor to receive a backpack.
“When they are there in class, everybody is starting off on the same foot,” Blackburn said. “Nobody is having to sit back and look and think ‘I don’t have my pencil,’ and when you don’t have the necessary supplies you are already starting off your day in a negative way, and we want it to start in a positive way.”