Stephanie Covey makes sure there are better things in some students’ backpacks than homework.
Every month, Covey, a public relations junior at UF, gives out backpacks full of games and healthy food to underprivileged students at Gainesville’s Littlewood Elementary.
In October, Covey’s Backpack Club Inc. gave 12 backpacks to students referred by teachers, staff members, community partners and neighbors.
Five of the students’ families didn’t have electricity for the summer.
In Fall 2008, Covey sat in her sociology class and heard about an organization in Texas that gave backpacks full of food and toys to young students in need. She was taught that food and nutrition are closely linked with the ability to learn.
The next weekend, Covey returned to her hometown, Bradenton, and spoke with a local school’s guidance counselor, who told Covey that such a program would fill a serious need at the school.
The next day, Covey applied for nonprofit status and began work on Backpack Club Inc.
Her program gave disadvantaged students a full backpack on the first Friday of every month and would continue to fill the students’ backpacks as long as the students returned the bags.
Covey fills the backpacks with donated dented Publix products and uses money donated by her church. The Mark Wandall Foundation also gave the organization a $1,000 grant.
The backpacks are filled with items like pasta, honey, Pop-Tarts, applesauce, Chewy Bars, raisins, toothbrushes, shampoo and books.
Toiletries are the most requested items, Covey said, and each backpack costs about $100 to fill for the school year.
The Backpack Club has given backpacks to 100 students at Freedom Elementary School in Bradenton, and hopes to match that number at Littlewood by the end of the school year. So far, 12 students have entered the program.
Sherri Brunner, guidance counselor for Freedom Elementary School, said the students who receive backpacks are monitored for attendance and achievement improvements in their classroom.
“Times are tough, and we all need to work together to create a brighter future,” Brunner said. “The program has brought the community closer.”
The most rewarding aspect for Covey is the faces on the children when they receive the backpacks.
“A fourth-grade student at Freedom Elementary School stood up in front of his class and told me the Backpack Club has really helped his family and that he is grateful for every backpack,” Covey said.
