Northern Kentucky students from low-income families received more than 900 backpacks filled with school supplies at a weekend drive-thru event in Covington.
This year’s Backpacks & Breakfast, Northern Kentucky’s largest school readiness event, took place on Saturday and Sunday in the parking lot of Be Concerned.
Backpacks (File photo)
Backpacks filled with grade-appropriate school supplies were given away to kindergarten through 12th-grade students from low-income families in Boone, Campbell, and Kenton counties.
Families who registered for the free backpacks received emails directing them when to arrive at the COVID-safe, drive-thru event. At the event, families drove in and remained in their cars as volunteers took their information and gave it to runners who filled backpack orders.
The annual Backpacks & Breakfast, the largest school readiness event in Northern Kentucky, began in 2001 and since then has distributed about 14,000 backpacks.
NKY Harvest President Paul Gottbrath has organized the event since 2001 to help ease the financial burden families face in getting their kids ready for school, more urgent this year in face of the burden of COVID and inflation.
The event was presented by Northern Kentucky Harvest in collaboration with Be Concerned and the Brighton Center.
Sponsors included the R.C. Durr Foundation, the Butler Foundation, the Scripps Howard Foundation, the Summertime Kids Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, the Western & Southern Financial Fund, Humana Healthy Horizons Medicaid Kentucky, the Sofagives Charitable Fund, St. Pius X Church, and T.J. Johnson State Farm Insurance.
