NKY’s longest running school backpack giveaway returns Aug. 10 for 24th year with new name, format

Northern Kentucky’s largest and longest-running school readiness event is back for a 24th straight year, with key changes in store.

The Backpacks Bonanza, formerly Backpacks and Breakfast, is set for Saturday, Aug. 10, from 9 a.m. to noon at a new site, St. Elizabeth Covington Hospital located at 1500 James Simpson Jr Way in Covington.

Besides the new name and venue, the project will also have a new format: backpacks will be given away on a first-come, first-served basis. That replaces the model used since COVID, which employed on-line registration and a lottery to determine recipients.

Northern Kentucky Harvest, which sponsors the event, will have at least 1,100 backpacks filled with new, grade-appropriate school supplies to give away to Northern Kentucky students from low-income families. About 800 backpacks will be given out at the Aug. 10 event to students from pre-school to 12th grade. The remainder will be shared with community partners, including the Esperanza Latino Center, the ION Center and Welcome House, all in Covington, and Catholic Charities in Elsmere, for those organizations to distribute to students from low-income families.

“We know the need for this project remains great because of the number of families that have sought our help in the past several years,” said Paul Gottbrath, president of Northern Kentucky Harvest. “We’re responding with what could be our biggest give-away ever.”

The school readiness event set a record in 2021 when it distributed 1,137 backpacks.

The backpacks giveaway started modestly in 2001 with 150 backpacks distributed and grew steadily through the years. Through last year a cumulative total of more than 17,000 backpacks had been given to Northern Kentucky students.

Financial support for Backpacks comes from, among others, the Butler Foundation, the R.C. Durr Foundation, the Covington Rotary Foundation, the Scripps Howard Fund, the Western & Southern Financial Fund, the SofaGives Charitable Fund and St. Pius X Church in Edgewood. Additionally, St. Timothy Church in Union and St. Joseph Church in Cold Spring are again doing school supply drives, and TJ Johnson State Farm Insurance is also providing in-kind support.

The project is meant to help families already struggling to provide food, shelter and other basics to better accommodate back-to-school costs.

But it also revs up students’ anticipation for the restart of classes.

“You give a kid a new backpack, it’s amazing how that increases her or his excitement about the new school year,” Gottbrath said.

Northern Kentucky Harvest

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