Did you know that each year teachers spend an average of $356 out-of-pocket on quality school supplies? Many teachers spend up to $1500 out of their own pocket just to provide basic classroom necessities. In my home, we experience this personally. My husband is an elementary school teacher and we do personally spend a lot of money on his students and for items needed in his classroom. That amount seems to increase every year with the cuts to school district funding. The amount of families that need help with the basic neccessities for school supplies has increased in the recent years and we love helping when we can.
I was thrilled to take part in Elmer’s Bag It Forward – Champions for Kids campaign this year. The Bag It Forward campaign is a simple service project that we can all get involved in. All you have to do is gather your family, friends, neighbors or co-workers and ask each person to bring new, quality school supplies in order to assemble basic school supply kits that can be given to students in need. Once you’ve assembled the kits, simply give them to a teacher, school or local children’s shelter for use this school year. Become a #Champion4Kids and donate supplies in the Bag It Forward Campaign!
The school my husband works at is collecting school supplies and handing them out on the first day of school to those who need them. We decided what better way to #bagitforward than to help the kids he works with every day! We are donating the supplies we bought to the kids in need at the school he teaches at. We went shopping over the weekend with these school supplies in mind. We had a budget of $25 to help as many students as we could. Here’s part of our trip:
Daddy and LA making sure the supplies will fit in the boxes before we bought them.
We learned that Elmer’s even has an app for the 1st day of school!
Our cart just before check out full of school supplies!
Putting the items together and our final result! We were able to purchase enough supplies for EIGHT students!
You can check out the rest of our shopping trip on our Google+ album!
We went over budget just a bit. Our bill for just the school supplies was about $29. I think we did great for the amount we were able to get and I am so happy that we can help eight students have supplies they need to be successful in the classroom! I know you want to get involved too! As you are putting your #bagitforward plans together, follow Champions for Kids on Twitter and Facebook to learn more and read inspirational stories of others participating. Elmer’s is also the big part of this program, let’s show them some love on Twitter (@elmers) and Facebook, too! 
What are your Bag it Forward plans?
Disclosure: I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Champions for Kids #CBias #SocialFabric
This is FABULOUS! I know school supplies are a hardship on some families and this is a blessing! I know most of my older son’s teachers rely on parents to help with supplies, this is a great idea to help out the classroom supply area! Kids are always needing something and running out of things
What a great idea! While my kids are too young to be in school just yet I know the Pre-school I used to work for was always in need of more supplies. I may have to send some Elmers Glue their way soon. Thanks for the idea.
I’ve seen a few bloggers I follow get involved in this program and it sounds wonderful. i love that you can involve your kids by letting them shop and pick items out with you. My sister works in a school and is always buying stuff for the kids out-of-pocket because their school budgets are so tight.
I think it’s great, too, to get the little ones involved in giving! We had fun on our shopping trip! We completely understand what your sister goes through and we supply a lot of things to my husband’s classroom. It’s really sad that so many cuts have been made.
Thanks for stopping by! 
This is such an amazing project. There are so many families out there that struggle to get their kids what they need. I always look for the super-cheap and free deals this time of year and Walgreens and other stores and then stock up and donate them since we don’t need them
I do that with toiletries throughout the year and donate them to a local shelter…that’s such a great idea to do at school time, too! Thanks!!
That is so great that you did that! As one of the kids who didn’t have all the supplies I needed growing up, I like to donate to kids too.
AWESOME job!!! I love that you can help your husband’s school! What a nice donation!!! Can’t wait to see the kids’ faces!!!