Tools for School seeing increased demand for backpacks
Tools for School in Red Deer saw a little over 2000 backpacks given out last year, and that need hasn’t decreased this year.
Darcy Ouellet, fund development officer with Women’s Outreach, said the increase in number of backpacks given out last year was an almost 18% increase over the year prior.
“I associate Tools for School almost the same as Christmas; there’s a lot of families that are paycheck to paycheck and at back to school time with three kids it’s three, four, or five hundred dollars. Something’s got to fall behind whether that’s food, rent, utilities, whatever the case may be. Or the kids just don’t get it at all,” said Ouellet.
The program started just under two weeks ago and they’ve already given out 600 backpacks for the upcoming school year.