Gang violence study
Aug. 10—Feed the Children, a national nonprofit, made a stop in Boulder on Thursday to give out about 400 backpacks with school supplies, a box of pantry staples and a box of hygiene supplies before the start of the school year.
"The price hikes with groceries have really affected families and made food even more inaccessible," said Wendy Henderson, Feed the Children's senior director of corporate partnerships. "Families are having to choose between buying school supplies and buying food and paying for rent and utilities."
Boulder Voices for Children, which provides volunteer court-appointed special advocates in child abuse and neglect cases, offered a parking lot for the giveaway and coordinated with other local organizations to invite families.
Harvest of Hope, a local food pantry, was another partner in the distribution. Several natural product businesses also participated by donating products and sending volunteers, including Justin's, Rudi's Rocky Mountain Bakery, The Good Crisp Company and The a2 Milk Company.
"We don't want kids to start the day off hungry or to go to bed hungry," said Penny Andino, Justin's spokesperson. "We want to make the world a well-fed place."
Those picking up the backpacks included a dad who is a graduate student at the University of Colorado Boulder, a single mom of two young children, and Cindy Gomez, whose husband was diagnosed with cancer and has 3-year-old daughter with autism.
"The last couple of years have been hard for our family," Gomez said. "The school supplies and backpack really help."
Nearly one in four of households in Boulder County did not make enough money to make ends meet in 2019, according to a recent self-sufficiency report.
Last school year, the Boulder Valley School District also saw a record number of students qualify as homeless under the federal McKinney-Vento Act. McKinney-Vento creates a safety net for students without adequate housing, including students living in a shelter or motel, who are unhoused or who are "doubled up" with family or friends.
Ema Lyman, Boulder Valley's McKinney-Vento specialist, said the district already has qualified 200 students for McKinney-Vento services — and the start of the school year is still about a week away. Students must qualify yearly to receive services, which include waiving school fees and providing transportation if needed.
The district qualified 797 students last school year, though the official number will be lower because about 100 of those students moved out of the district, Lyman said. In previous years, the district averaged about 400 McKinney-Vento students.
As to what's driving the increased need, she said, families who struggled during the pandemic now are losing pandemic-era benefits. There's also inflation bumping up the cost of groceries, while the cost of housing in Boulder County remains high.
Along with Thursday's Feed the Children backpack and food distribution, Crayons to Calculators is raising money to provide school supplies to Boulder Valley students through Impact on Education and to St. Vrain Valley students through the St. Vrain Valley Schools Education Foundation.
The goal is to provide about 5,000 backpacks and school supplies to each school district. Individual schools distribute the backpacks to students and families.
For more information on the Crayons to Calculators fundraising efforts, go to crayonstocalculators.org.
