A local organization is once again working to ensure students have the supplies they need as the first day of school looms near.
Hosea Helps will host its 13th annual Back-To-School Jamboree, an event designed to provide low income families with necessary items, this month. The nonprofit plans to give backpacks filled with school supplies to more than 3,000 children.
Children can also receive health screenings, clothes, fresh produce, tennis shoes and electric toothbrushes, a press release said. The free event is open to all families.
Parents must bring identification for each child, and children must be present to receive supplies. The event will take place at Georgia International Convention Center, 2000 Convention Center Concourse, on July 28 from noon to 6 p.m.
Hosea Helps President and CEO Elisabeth Williams-Omilami, who is also the daughter of the civil rights icon Hosea Williams, said the group is "committed to ensuring students do not feel ashamed or embarrassed ... because they do not have a new backpack with a pencil or everyday paper."
The group, formerly called Hosea Feed the Hungry and Homeless, also hopes to alleviate the burden of teachers buying their own classroom supplies.
“Children that are hungry and without school supplies cannot learn,” Williams-Omilami said in a statement. “If Hosea Helps can support the children by helping them feel a sense of confident self-esteem, they will be more eager to learn.”
The first day of school for APS students is Wednesday, Aug. 1.
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Hosea Helps seeks donations of schools supplies, such as:
- book bags
- glue sticks
- rulers
- calculators
- scissors
- notebook paper
- packages of graph paper
- spiral notebooks
- two-ringed binders and folders
- pocket folders
- pencils
- ink pens
- notebooks
- highlighters
- constructions paper
- colored pencils
- dictionaries
- pencil boxes
- crayons
- erasers
- scientific calculators
Donations can be delivered to 4215 Wendall Drive.
Those who wish to contribute money can click here or contact Miriam Ledesma at 770-900-1052 or at Mledesma@hoseafeedthehungry.com. For more details or to get involved, call Hosea Helps at 404-755-3353.
Corporate Sponsors for the event include Well Care Health Systems, Luther and Susie Harrison Foundation, Georgia Power Foundation, Walmart, Wayfield Foods, Metro PCS, IKEA and Delta Air Lines.
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