This summer, parents of school-age children are not imagining it: “School supplies really do cost more this year,” reported PBS News on July 30.
“Pencils are more expensive,” it reported. “So are notebooks, scissors, glue sticks – just about every back-to-school item that families will load into their literal or virtual carts this summer has gone up in price at a time when American families already feel crushed by rising costs.”
According to the report, prices for notebooks and notebook paper are up about 20 percent, while pencils, binders and crayons are up between 5 and 7 percent.
“About half of parents expect to take on debt to cover back-to-school shopping this year, up from 34 percent in 2024,” the report states.
In distressed, poverty-stricken Appalachian communities, the burden on parents struggling to provide these essential items for their children is even more challenging.
Dyanne Spriggs, executive director of our partner, Big Creek People in Action (BCPIA) in McDowell County, West Virginia, told us in her request for 300 backpacks filled with school supplies that “There are very few jobs available in our area, so most of our people are on public assistance, Social Security or unemployment.
“When families struggle to pay their normal monthly bills, they usually don’t have money left to buy their children a new bookbag,” she said, adding, “all children deserve to have school supplies.”
At the beginning of the new school year in 2025, Dyanne told us BCPIA set up two elementary schools to distribute the backpacks to a total of 508 students.
“Kids loved getting to pick their own bookbag out, and were excited that they were filled with school supplies.”
In Jefferson City, Tennessee, Jean-Ann Washam, executive director of our partner, Appalachian Ministries of the Smokies (AMOS), requested 250 backpacks filled with school supplies to be able “to provide school supplies to children in the community that would not be able to purchase them.
“This allows them to start school in a positive manner that will help them be set up for a successful academic year.”
Following the distribution of backpacks in the summer of 2025, Jean-Ann reported that the hundreds of children receiving them “were all so excited to get their new backpacks.
“One little girl was so excited to receive her own backpack,” she told us of the student who was entering the third grade.
“It broke my heart that this was the first new backpack she had ever gotten.”
Another little girl was so excited to be able to pick out a backpack in her favorite color.
While the children are happy and excited to receive everything they need to start off a successful new school year, it is the parents and grandparents caring for their grandchildren who experience the most relief “and they are always so appreciative of the help.
“These grandparents are on a fixed income and struggle at times to provide extra items such as school supplies to their grandchildren.”
She also told us of a single dad “in panic mode” because he did not know how he was going to provide school supplies for his kids and was very appreciative of what we provided his family.
Families with multiple children are always especially grateful for the help.
Last year, thanks to the supporters of Americans Helping Americans®, we were able to provide a total of 7,925 backpacks filled with school supplies and school kits to children in low-income families in Georgia, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, West Virginia and elsewhere.
“Low-income students often come to school unprepared and ill-equipped to learn,” notes Americans Helping Americans® executive director Cameron Krizek.
“Our school kits and school supply deliveries to schools to ensure the financial barrier for academic success is removed and the families can focus on their child performing well in school.”
