*If you click the play button on the banner above, you will hear first hand from a teacher at one of the schools we are giving to this year, Telfair Elementary, about the struggle her students face. Also, the struggles she faces as a teacher trying to teach students who don't have basic supplies. This is only one teacher, but her struggles and the struggles of her students are not unique. They are the same as other students and teachers at all the schools we give to.*
2 in 5 students, in the United States, will start the first day of school without the supplies they need to succeed. These supplies are basic. They are things such as pencils, erasers, backpacks, crayons, and the list goes on. Although often times students have some supplies in their classroom, what they lack are these supplies at home. Now this is very important because without supplies at home, these kids are unable to complete their homework. because of this many students fall behind and lose interest in school.
Now if you are a student reading this you might be thinking “Sick! They can’t do their homework and they have a real excuse so they just get to not do homework!” But I would like you to imagine this: Imagine that you are in school on the first day, in your favorite subject. You are listening intently to the teacher and you are really getting this concept. You really can’t wait to show your new teacher everything know about this concept and start the school year off right. So when she assigns the homework you are actually kind of excited to do it. When you get home you, you get out your work, ready to begin, but you stop. You stop because you realize you don’t have a pencil to fill in the answers to the questions. You are so frustrated because you know the answers, you just can’t write them down. You go in the next day and the day after that and every day after not turning in your homework because you don’t have anything to complete it with, or carry it back and forth to school in. This is the reality for those 2 in 5 students on their first day, and every day after that.
This issue is especially prevalent in impoverish communities, where when back to school time rolls around the parents are faced with the decision to buy their kids the supplies they so desperately need and put food on the table.