Each school year, families spend an average of $864 on school supplies and clothing, which is $167 more than in pre-pandemic times, according to the National Retail Federation. As inflation continues to rise, many families live paycheck to paycheck and the annual cost of school supplies is an added expense and stressor.

To relieve this burden and bridge the school supply gap, the annual Northern Virginia Family Service (NVFS) Back2School Drive provides new school supplies to over 1,200 NVFS clients in kindergarten through 12th grade living in Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties, as well as the cities of Alexandria, Falls Church, Manassas, and Manassas Park. Eighty-four percent of the students NVFS works with live at or below the federal poverty level.

An estimated 135 volunteers from two nonprofits, nine corporate partners and individual volunteers, will stuff backpacks and unload and organize backpacks, to support this effort over a two-week period in August.

The community can continue to support this effort by donating to NVFS online at https://www.nvfs.org/donate-online/.