Backpacks for Homeless Students
Kent ISD Hosts Backpack Distribution;
Students from Tech Center and Kent Transition Center
Help Fill Bags for Homeless Students
When national organization Feed the Children learned how dramatically rates of homelessness was rising for students in Kent County, they decided to send a truckload of backpacks, school supplies and other items to our area. Our Homeless Coordinator, Casey Gordon, reached out to our students for help in packing the bags so schools could pick them up and get them to the students who needed them, along with local shelters. Rates of homelessness and poverty have been rising quickly in our county, according to data just released from Kids Count. All 20 of our public school districts have students who are homeless, making this a very widespread issue in our schools.
"I didn't know there was such a drastic number of homeless students in the area," one of the students said in an article in the Grand Rapids Press. Another student, after packing up hundreds of backpacks, added, "We definitely know now there are many homeless students."
Excerpt from the January 25 Grand Rapids Press article:
GRAND RAPIDS - Kent County's homeless students soared from 910 to 2,082 last school year, prompting Feed the Children to donate backpack and the hygiene kits, snacks, school supplies and books to go inside them.
"The need has just overwhelmed the system," said Casey Gordon, special population consultant for the Kent Intermediate School District. "We have families who never thought they'd be in this position. Half of our students are homeless because of parents losing their jobs, foreclosures and evictions."
Kent and Genesee counties had the largest increase in homeless students last year.
Service Learning
Students from Kent Career Technical Center, Kent Transition Center, and West Michigan Academy of Environmental Science spent time filling and organizing the backpacks.
