(KNSI) – With the start of the school year just around the corner, a St. Cloud company is teaming up with the United Way of Central Minnesota to get school supplies to students in need.
The Pack It Forward: 2021 Central MN School Supply Drive is happening through the end of August. How it works: People can donate $7.50, $15 or $30 online to fund quarter, half or full school supply packs that will be put together by Impacks and distributed to area students in need via the United Way.
Clare Richards, cofounder of Impacks, a company that offers school supply packs that are purchasable for students in some St. Cloud area schools, says the drive addresses an issue she says is sometimes overlooked: kids not having the school supplies they need at the start of the academic year.
“It’s often overlooked, but how traumatic it can be for a kid to not have that on the first day of school,” Richards said. “Not only is it embarrassing for the child, but it’s actually a real challenge because either they proceed throughout the year without those critical supplies or the teachers are having to buy supplies for the kids.”
Richards says she and her husband Brandon were inspired to start Impacks after several years of volunteering with St. Cloud Rotaract, particularly its school supply drives.
“That annual back-to-school supply drive inspired us to start a business that could help with that social change,” Richards said. “Impacks — it is a for-profit business, but it falls under this realm of social entrepreneurship because our ultimate goal is to help schools raise money.”
The couple launched the business in early 2020, before COVID-19 hit the U.S. When the back-to-school season approached that fall, Richards says organizations like the United Way were struggling to gather their usual donations because of perceptions around virtual learning and other issues posed by the pandemic.
“Just because kids are learning from home doesn’t mean they don’t need supplies,” Richards said.
So, in 2020, Impacks debuted its back-to-school supply donation drive in partnership with the United Way, letting people donate money instead of physical items.
“It removed the need for people to actually drop physical items off; it was more sanitary, it was much more convenient,” Richards said, “and, ultimately, it led to about $6,000 worth in school supplies being donated.”
Richards says last year, and this year, Impacks donates one school supply pack for every five donated. Those school supply packs are distributed to schools in the region based on need.
“The reason we partner with United Way is because they are local experts on need in the community,” she said. “While Impacks is ordering the supplies … it’s United Way that will be distributing the packs based on need.”
The online drive lasts until August 31st. Richards says she hopes this years’ drive will pick up more traction with K-12 students returning to another school year that coincides with a pandemic.
“I think it’s because people perhaps don’t have the same level of urgency, like they saw the challenge in 2020 really clearly,” Richards said. “But it’s the same situation as 2020. Kids still need supplies, and there’s still an extreme lack of school supply drives in the community, so it’s just as important as it was in 2020.”
The link to donate can be found here.
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