What is Operation Backpack®?
Operation Backpack® is a Volunteers of America initiative to fill in the gap for children experiencing homelessness and poverty. Your donations will help us provide backpacks and school supplies to unhoused and underprivileged children served by VOA programs through Upstate New York.
Whether you’re looking to host a donation drive at your company or make a donation on your own, you can make a difference through Operation Backpack®! Together, we can help ensure the children in our communities achieve academic success despite their circumstances.
Thanks to the generosity of individual donors, local businesses, and additional foundation support, VOA collected and distributed more than 335 backpacks filled with school supplies to children staying at VOA’s emergency family shelters and housing programs in Monroe, Broome, and Tomkins counties and school-aged students enrolled in the VOA Children’s Center in Rochester. We look forward to bringing this program back in 2027.
FACTS & FIGURES
• On average, school supplies cost families about $146-$175 per child, depending on the grade level and specific school requirements.
• One in five school children in the U.S. live below the federally defined poverty line.
• Students from low-income families are less likely to come to school with the supplies they need, affecting participation, confidence, and academic performance.
• Well over 90% of public school teachers pay for school supplies out of pocket, without being reimbursed, according to the National Education Association.
