August 22, 2022 - Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, aided by a strong team of community partners, provided free school supplies to dozens of families at their pop-up backpack and school supply shop last Friday afternoon.
At the shop, every student got to choose a backpack and fill it with markers, crayons, glue sticks, pencils and other school supplies. The supplies offered were determined based on requests from each school and what tools they were lacking. The hope is that every student in every school will be able to focus on learning from day one of classes without having to worry about not having the right supplies.
“It’s not just random stuff,” said Director of Donor Relations Brittany Wissick. “We looked closely at the schools’ lists and spoke with teachers to make sure that we have what they need the most.”
Community partners like Women United, Truist, Pepsi and more turned out big for the shop by donating over $3,000 worth of school supplies so that children could have them without any cost to families. Partners also volunteered to help run the shop, such as the Wake Forest School of Law leading students in a crafting project after they got their supplies.
“We’re very fortunate to have partners who are so willing to provide our families with resources that they might not otherwise have,” said Executive Director of Community Engagement Mark Batten.
The shop was stationed at the Latino Community Services building from 1 pm to 3 pm. Latino Community Services clients were the central beneficiaries of the distribution, and the WS/FCS multilingual learner program had a presence at the shop so that they could speak with families ahead of the new school year. WS/FCS is committed to engaging learners 
of all different lingual backgrounds, and the pop-up shop was a new opportunity to make sure that ESL students get the supplies that they need while also helping their families prepare for obstacles they may face throughout the year.
“It’s a level of outreach that we haven’t had in the past,” said ML Family Literacy Coordinator Annette Galeas. “This is a great chance for us to help families navigate.”
