With the new school year just around the corner, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz is urging borough residents to contribute backpacks and other school supplies as part of her sixth annual Project: Back to School initiative organized by the Coalition for the Homeless. The drive provides homeless children with the items they need to succeed in the classroom.
“According to the Coalition for the Homeless, nearly 115,000 New York City schoolchildren experienced homelessness at some point last year,” Katz said. “Let’s make sure all kids have a chance to get the school year off to a good start with the supplies they need.”
Borough Hall is accepting donations of new backpacks and other school supplies now through Wednesday, Aug. 28. Donations will be accepted on the first floor at 120-55 Queens Boulevard in Kew Gardens, in a box just inside the front entrance in the main lobby.
In addition to the backpacks, the Coalition for the Homeless says supplies that can be donated include No. 2 pencils, hard and soft pencil cases, pencil sharpeners, crayons, colored pencils, washable markers, Elmer’s glue, glue sticks, composition notebooks, binders, ruled paper, safety scissors, pocket folders and scientific calculators.
The Coalition for the Homeless provides food and clothing, eviction prevention, crisis services, permanent housing, job training and youth programs to thousands of homeless New Yorkers each day. The Coalition also advocates for proven, housing-based solutions to end homelessness.
“The Coalition for the Homeless has been thrilled to partner with Queens Borough President Melinda Katz in Project: Back to School for the past six years,” Coalition for the Homeless Executive Director Dave Giffen said. “The backpacks and school supplies so generously donated by the people of Queens help level the playing field for homeless girls and boys, allowing them to walk into that first day of school fully equipped and ready for class. More than 21,000 children will sleep in NYC homeless shelters tonight, and so we are truly grateful to BP Katz for her dedication to helping so many of them start the new school year off right.”
Donations dropped off at Borough Hall are anonymous and are not tax-deductible and all donated items will be distributed to homeless children throughout the city. Borough Hall can be easily reached by mass transit by taking the E or F subway lines to the Kew Gardens-Union Turnpike station.
