COVINGTON, Ky. — When it comes to kids’ level of excitement for going back to school, the mileage may vary.
What You Need To Know
- Northern Kentucky Harvest is continuing its tradition of handing out backpacks to kids in need this year
- Families interested need to preregister by July 31
- The event will take place on Aug. 14 and 15 at Be Concerned in Covington
- Backpacks can help save struggling families more than $100
The same can be said for parents. For many families, getting everything their kid needs for school can be a time of great stress.
One Northern Kentucky organization has been trying to relieve that stress for 20 years.
“Washable. I like washable. Anything that can come off of walls,” Jeffrey Baker said, picking up some markers for one of his three young boys.
Providing his kids with the school supplies they need has not always been a given for Baker, who is a single father.
“For the past three years, it’s actually been a challenge, and I’ve had to pick up extra hours at my job, or I’d have to do odd jobs around the neighborhood to be able to get the extra finances to be able to get the kids what they deserve to have,” he said. “The year before last, we actually had to reuse backpacks, just because there were other finances that I had to focus on.”
Baker looked upon a table full of supplies and backpacks.
“I’d definitely never been able to look at a table like this and be like, ‘OK, I’ll take one of each.’ You know, it wasn’t a pick and choose as much as it was just gathering something and going,” he said.
This year is different.
Baker signed up for Backpacks and Breakfast, the biggest event of the year for Northern Kentucky Harvest. It started in 2001 and has since distributed nearly 14,000 backpacks full of supplies to kids who need them.
This year, Baker’s three sons, Jaden, Christopher and Jeffrey Jr. will get theirs.
“What can you say? You know, thank you. I couldn’t do it by myself, and raising one child is a challenge. It takes a village to raise a kid. I’ve got three, by myself. As much as it’s an uphill battle, they definitely took the weight of the world off me,” Baker said. “I told them that we might not have it, you know? And they were kind of bummed, but to be able to give it to them, I’m awaiting hugs, and kisses and love.”
Northern Kentucky Harvest is hoping to give out 1,000 backpacks on Aug. 14 and 15 in the parking lot of Be Concerned in Covington (1100 Pike St.) to K-12 kids in Kenton, Campbell and Boone counties whose parents have preregistered.
Until 2019, the event was held annually at Goebel Park in Covington, with backpacks distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. But the pandemic made that impossible last year, so Harvest went to the drive-through format, which will continue this year. More than 1,300 kids signed up for the lottery in 2020 that determined who received the 912 backpacks that were distributed.
President Paul Gottbrath said each backpack can save families $100 or more.
“A lot of these families that we serve are living pretty close to the bone here, and there’s not a lot of extra cash that they have left over after they pay for housing and food, and all the other necessities for their children. And we know when the start of the school year comes around, that puts an extra burden on those families,” he said. “[The backpacks] really gets the kids excited about going to school. Particularly the younger ones.”
Baker said he’s sure that will be the case for his kids this year, which he said makes him equally as excited.
“As long as they’re happy, that’s all I really care about. It’s about them. It ain’t about me,” he said.
Parents who want backpacks need to register by July 31.
Do so by emailing Backpacks@beconcerned.org, or texting 859-750-2813.
Support for the project comes from the Butler Foundation, the R.C. Durr Foundation, the Scripps Howard Foundation, the Western & Southern Financial Fund, the Summertime Kids fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, Humana Healthy Horizons Medicaid, the SofaGives Charitable Fund and St. Pius X Church. The vacation bible school at Immanuel United Methodist Church is doing a school supply drive.
Frisch’s, Harvest’s original partner in the event, will again be a partner by providing gift certificates for a free kid’s in each backpack.