Fill A Backpack – A Precious Child

It's More Than Just A Backpack

The Fill A Backpack program provides children in need with a sense of normalcy. No child should have to go to class feeling embarrassed to have to ask their teacher to borrow a pencil or piece of paper. With more than 40% of Colorado students qualified for Free and Reduced Lunch in 2019 and 65% coming to the first day of school unprepared, it is no surprise that many struggling families simply cannot afford the growing annual expense of school supplies for their children.

That is where our incredible team of Fill A Backpack supporters step in! Each year, we provide tens of thousands of Colorado kids with backpacks filled with grade-appropriate school supplies, giving them hope and excitement so they can start the school year feeling confident and prepared.

How It Works

Our Community Comes Together to Collect School Supplies

We collect new backpacks, school supplies and monetary donations through drives hosted by individuals, organizations and businesses as well as through the Fill A Backpack Corporate and Community Challenges.

Volunteers Take Over our Donation Center to Sort and Pack

We get the backpacks into the Hands of Children and Families
in Need

We make sure kids receive the grade-appropriate supplies they need, either at our Resource Center or through one of our agency partners, which include schools, human services organizations, at-risk youth centers, homeless shelters and foster care organizations. The Fill A Backpack program ensures underprivileged children get to start the first day of school feeling confident and prepared to succeed academically.

The Fill A Backpack Challenge

In 2016, we began inviting corporations, chambers and local community groups to meet the challenge of filling the backpacks of Colorado kids. Each year since, this challenge has rallied the community around the common goal of ensuring the underserved children and youths in our community begin each school year with the tools they need to excel academically.