School supplies and resource help come to local families

As the marketing constantly reminds us these days, it’s “back to school” preparation time. A list of online jokes by parents making the rounds includes one submitted by Instagrammer “NotMyThirdRodeo.”

“School emails be like: Welcome X Elementary! Your supply lists include everything you’ve already bought but in a different color. Our drop-off time is 8:24 a.m. Students arriving at 8:26 will be late. The PTA will need a donation equal to your mortgage. Welcome back!”

While a little levity is always a welcome thing (and the PTA greed certainly exaggerated) it should be stressed that the cost of back- to-school for many families is no laughing matter.

As the website Feed the Children notes, “Back to school supply lists are exciting to students but they might bring on anxiety for some parents … right before school starts, in the heat of the summer, family budgets are stretched to the max. Between electric bills and buying more food, there’s not much room left to prepare for going back to school.” The organization estimates that the average family is on the hook for nearly $900 in back-to-school costs.

We hold up a new example of an effort to help families deal with this kind financial burden: Beyond Backpacks, a nonprofit program that has been helping Yamhill County students for more than 20 years, with 900 or so kids getting some help this year.

Businesses and individuals donate the supplies, including backpacks and anything students will need for the start of school. Children get to choose their own packs and other items — a nice touch in that it gives kids ownership.

Removing any stigma is critical. Children are under enough social pressure, something exacerbated by the start of a new school year and all that is involved, such as a new building, new teachers, new classmates or new expectations.

Post-Covid, many students are still adapting, if not struggling, with the return to structured learning environments. Considering the economic realities for many families, August is, as an old song says, “a heavy month.”

Programs such as Beyond Backpack fill a critical need for many families. The nonprofit makes donation boxes available through early September in an effort to collect additional items for school resource rooms around the county. Boxes can be found at First Federal and Citizens Bank locations, the McMinnville Aquatic Center and several other places. All the sites are listed on the nonprofit organization’s website, beyondbackpacks.org.

The program does something else important, as its name states: extending beyond the materials themselves by connecting families to resources.

Avenues for that already exist. In the McMinnville School District, year-round assistance is available at the McMinnville High School resource room, and there is also a family resource center for all grades in the former district office on Northeast Baker Street, equipped with a food pantry, showers and laundry. Anyone may donate directly to the school of choice, as well as to the high school and the district.

Another opportunity presents itself next month with the Banks for the Bank drive — as in diaper bank, supporting A Family Place, the only source of free emergency diapers for Yamhill County families. A Family Place is a child care and family resource program of Lutheran Community Services Northwest Yamhill County. Look for details soon about the Sept. 3-27 drive at numerous local banks. Supporting families with diaper costs intersects with support for school supplies, for both are critical needs – and financial burdens — for families with young children.

A group of local realtors held a similar diaper drive earlier this month. Coat drives, supply donations and canned goods and peanut butter and jelly drives occur throughout the year.

Anyone may contact district offices or local schools to ask what would be best to donate. Chemeketa Community College/Yamhill Valley Campus and Linfield University also provide food, clothing, hygiene items and more, through self-service programs at both schools.

Ultimately, the challenge is connecting people to resources. Another such opportunity will happen Aug. 22 with the third Family Picnic hosted by Yamhill Community Care (YCCO) from 4 to 7 p.m. at Discovery Meadows Park in McMinnville. Antojitos La Gordita will provide food and there will be prizes and activities for children, in addition to the chance for families to find out about local resources. YCCO is a Coordinated Care Organization that serves Oregon Health Plan (OHP) members in Yamhill County and parts of Washington and Polk counties.

The concept of year-round donation drives and opportunities to provide assistance has gradually expanded outside the November/December holiday season. The late-summer efforts are well-timed examples of that extension, for the needs never go away.