In the Bay Area alone, around 800,000 people live in poverty. Students born to low-income families consistently struggle to attend school every day. After attending a middle school in a low-income area in Santa Clara, I noticed how many students would regularly show up to school with torn backpacks and lacked school supplies. To end this cycle, I hope to provide 100 foster children and low income children with backpacks for the coming school year.. Each backpack will have a pencil pouch with 3 pencils, 3 pens, 1 eraser and 2 glue sticks, as well as 2 storybooks, and a box of crayons. By providing these children with school supplies and a new backpack, I hope to give them the materials and confidence to succeed in this coming school year.
To distribute these backpacks, I hope to work with organizations such as Stand up for Kids - Silicon Valley, GiveLight Foundation, as well as Title I schools in the area, to make sure that these kids get the materials that they need. I have already assembled a team of 6 friends to help make the backpacks, and held a book drive to collect over 200 books for the backpacks.
These backpacks will be mainly for students in grades K-3. I hope that, using the materials in the backpack, that the children are able to create a strong educational foundation that will help them later on in life.