Operation Homefront needs help to provide children of New Jersey’s military families with backpacks and school supplies for the upcoming school year.
The 17th annual Back to School Brigade, a national campaign driven by Operation Homefront to collect and distribute backpacks and school supplies to eligible children of military service members is looking for help from New Jersey businesses and organizations in the coming weeks.
The program, which collects school supplies (pencils, paper and other essential items) and presents them to the children in a high-quality backpack, is targeted to military families facing financial challenges.
“The new school year should be a time of excitement; however, the unique financial challenges many military families face — paying for school supplies, buying new clothes, adapting to new communities and schools — can easily turn this time of year into an extremely stressful period,” said retired Brig. Gen. Robert Thomas, who serves as president and chief operating officer of Operation Homefront.
“Operation Homefront’s Back-to-School Brigade offers much-needed financial assistance during this particularly expensive time of year, helping military families in the communities they have worked so hard to protect,” he said.
Business or organizations interested in supporting this initiative can do so in one of several ways:
- Place collection bins for school supplies in your office, store, church, or school — Operation Homefront will provide the signage;
- Collect supplies and gift cards for use next year;
- Help distribute supplies in your area;
- Help pick up donated school supplies from a location near you.
You can make a tax-deductible donation to support the “Back-to-School Brigade” here.
Companies and organizations that wish to help Operation Homefront in any of these ways can connect with the project here.
The supplies will be distributed from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 15 at the VFW Hall in Cookstown.
Supplies are limited and will be distributed on a first-come, first-served registration process.
To be eligible, a military child must be enrolled in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System, DEERS, and be in K-12 for the coming school year.
The Back-to-School Brigade program has been a tremendous success since its inception, with Operation Homefront distributing over 550,000 backpacks to military children, saving military families nearly $55 million in school expenses.
