Organizations help Greene Co. parents acquire school supplies

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) – The first day back to school is right around the corner, meaning parents are getting the school supplies needed for the upcoming school year. However, for some families, getting the essential supplies can be a challenge.

“Our community is suffering, I mean everything has gone up,” said Rhonda Castro, Executive Director of the C.A.R.E Center in Greeneville. “The cost of food, the costs of utilities, housing has really gotten ridiculous, so people are just struggling to make ends meet day to day.”

Castro told News Channel 11 that the C.A.R.E Center wants to bridge that gap and do its own backpack distribution to help students in need. By posting a list of supplies needed on Facebook, the Greeneville community came together to collect the donations needed.

“The community, like always, is showing up and dropping off supplies,” said Castro.

The backpacks will be filled with notebooks, binders, pens, pencils and more. Castro said her goal is to distribute at least 100 backpacks to area schools but would love to see closer to 200 backpacks filled.

“We are going to take those to the schools and distribute them evenly among all of our elementary and middle schools and high schools,” said Castro. “We are going to let the teachers who know the students better than we do, of course, distribute those as they see fit when they’re needed.”

Greene County Schools is also helping out those in need with a backpack distribution at its back-to-school bash on July 27.

“The parents signed up in April and May of this past school year to receive a backpack,” said Alisha Ricker, Director of the Family Resource Center for Greene County Schools. “We have a total of 409 that have signed up, and they will receive those on Saturday.”

Additionally, Ricker said if parents didn’t get a chance to sign up for a backpack, they can reach out to their child’s school and find the help they need to get school supplies.

“We will be sending backpacks, as well as school supplies, to each of the 15 schools,” said Ricker. “As well as the Glenwood Ed Center.”

The State of Tennessee is also doing its annual tax-free holiday on July 26-28, which should help parents save money on what they need to get their child prepared for the upcoming school year.

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