Catholic Charities: The Backpack That Lets a Kid Walk In Like Everybody Else

Ask a mother what she’s worried about in the last two weeks of August, and she probably won’t say “school supplies.” She’ll say the rent, or the hours that got cut, or the car that’s making a noise. The backpack is somewhere down the list — until it’s the first morning of school and her kid is standing at the bus stop with nothing to carry. That’s the moment Catholic Charities is trying to get out ahead of.

Every summer, the organization’s Burlington County offices run a back-to-school drive that fills backpacks with the ordinary, unglamorous stuff that turns out to matter enormously to a child: the folders, the pencils, the glue sticks, the notebook with the clean first page. Last summer they handed out more than 500 of them to Burlington County children. This year they’re hoping to do more, to get even more students ready for the first day of the 2026-27 school year.

The thing the number can’t hold

Five hundred backpacks is a number. Here’s the thing the number can’t hold. Picture a seven-year-old on the first day of second grade. The teacher asks everyone to take out their supplies. Around the room, backpacks unzip. Some kids have the good markers. And one kid has nothing to unzip — sitting there while the ritual happens around him, already learning a lesson that has nothing to do with the curriculum. Kids notice. Kids always notice. That small, silent gap is where a child starts to feel like he doesn’t belong, and it can settle in early and stay a long time. A backpack closes that gap — not because a pencil case changes a family’s finances, but because for one crucial morning, a kid gets to walk in like everybody else.

A need you can actually touch

The organization has been part of the fabric of Burlington County for decades, and the back-to-school drive is only one thread of it — the same offices provide food assistance, holiday help, and support for families navigating hard seasons all year long. But there’s something clarifying about the August work. The need is concrete. The deadline is real and unmovable: school starts when it starts. And the fix is something an ordinary neighbor can actually do something about, this week, with a trip to a store and a full backpack dropped off.

So many needs feel too big to touch. This one doesn’t. A working family two towns over is short a backpack for their kid, and you can be the reason they aren’t.Emma Brooks

The first day of school is a couple of weeks out. Somewhere in Burlington County there’s a kid who’s going to unzip a brand-new bag that morning and feel, for a second, like the luckiest one in the room — and never know a stranger made that happen. Residents who want to donate supplies or a filled backpack can reach the Food Bank of South Jersey at 856-662-4884 for regional drop-off information, or contact Catholic Charities, Diocese of Trenton, through catholiccharitiestrenton.org. Confirm current collection dates before dropping off.

Based on reporting from Catholic Charities Diocese of Trenton, the Food Bank of South Jersey, and Burlington County resources.