Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan presented a $6,000 check to the Alameda Education Foundation at Maya Lin Elementary School to help provide 1,000 low-income students with a back pack and other essential supplies for the beginning of the school year.
“Equipped 4 Success” is organized by the Alameda Education Foundation and represents the largest school supply drive in the City of Alameda. Sponsor organizations include the Alameda Unified School District, Alameda Point Collaborative, Alameda Boys and Girls Club, Head Start, Girls Inc. of the Island City, and the Alameda Collaborative for Children, Youth, and Families, which Supervisor Chan serves as a founder and current co-chair.
“Every child regardless of their family’s income should have access to the tools and resources needed to succeed in school,” said Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan. “It is a sad state of affairs when our schools do not have the funding to afford the most basic supplies that are integral to learning. We must as community leaders and advocates for our most vulnerable residents work together to strengthen the educational foundation and future of our youth.”
The Alameda Education Foundation, which serves as the fiscal sponsor for the community-wide school supply drive, has led the effort since early summer to collect both in-kind and financial donations to outfit 1,000 low-income students from kindergarten through 12th grade with school supplies.
Supervisor Chan’s contribution closes the final funding gap needed to serve the estimated remaining 200 students with over thirty different basic school supplies for the upcoming academic year including back packs, paper, pencils, pens, notebooks and binders.
“Families on average face spending close to $100 per student on basic school supplies at the retail rate,” said Bill Sonneman, Board President of the Alameda Education Foundation. “The ‘Equipped 4 Success’ drive provides support for both students in need as well as our local partner organizations that assist low-income children, parents and families year round.”
In 2012, 3,770 or 35% of Alameda Unified School District students were enrolled in the Free and Reduced-Price Meals program and an estimated 300 students were identified as homeless. The “Equipped 4 Success” school supply drive works with sponsor organizations that serve many of
Alameda’s at-risk children to collect, coordinate and deliver school supplies. Approximately 100 staff and volunteers affiliated with sponsor organizations came together to assemble back packs with school supplies to distribute to local students heading back to school.
