Effort Underway to Provide School Supplies to Low-Income Students

Community leaders kicked off an effort Tuesday to provide school supplies to all low-income students in Oakland’s school district by the start of the 2017-18 school year, Oakland Unified School District officials said. Nonprofit K to College is leading the effort by giving $65 in school supplies to all of the 370 students at Allendale Elementary School at 3670 Penniman Ave. The plan is to reach 10,000 Oakland students at the beginning of the 2016-17 school year and to go district-wide in 2017-18.

“If we hope to reach the goals we’ve set for our students, we must build strategic partnerships to improve their quality of life,” Oakland Unified School District Superintendent Antwan Wilson said in a statement. “By donating critical school supplies to Oakland students, K to College, Kaiser Permanente and all other contributors to this effort exemplify the kind of community partnership needed to realize our OUSD mission as a full-service community school district and our vision where every student thrives.”

Ninety percent of Allendale’s students qualify for a free or reduced-price meal program, an indicator of economic need. In the school district, 73 percent of students qualify for a free or reduced meal program. Students qualify for a reduced price meal program when their family’s income is between about $32,000 and $45,000 a year. The cutoff to qualify for a free lunch program is an annual income of about $31,000. K to College is modeled after a food bank.

“It’s really the same exact concept,” K to College Executive Director and Founder Benito Delgado-Olson said. K to College’s school supply bank is able to buy items cheaper by purchasing in bulk and amassing donations from charitable manufacturers. The bank is also a central point where the supplies can come together.

The effort by K to College, which was started by University of California at Berkeley students and alumni, and other partners, is aimed at eliminating the crunch at the beginning of the school year to identify the students in need, Delgado-Olson said. Other partners include Give Something Back Office Supplies, the Lend A Hand Foundation and the Oakland Public Education Fund and the Oakland Unified School District.

By Bay City News

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