12,000 low-income students in Tarrant County will receive free school supplies, health checkup among other services from the Back to School Roundup organization on August 18, 2016. Twenty different entities across the country, along with Back to School Roundup, will come together to work and help provide for economically disadvantaged students. This includes: local school districts, government agencies, social services agencies and nonprofit.
The family-friendly event will host live shows, games, and a vendor expo where participants can learn about literacy, health, finances and parenting.
The nonprofit organization mission is to provide low-income schoolchildren with supplies and essential services that contribute to their success.
The event requires pre-registration. This includes providing documentation of residency, income and picture ID.
Understanding the difficulties of many parents in finding transportation to the event, Back to School Roundup
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At the time, individual back-to-school events were providing supplies for students every year but the lack of resources and planning were creating difficulties for the organizers. Noticing this fact, a catholic charity worker came up with the idea to pull together all the resources each individual organizers had and buy supplies in bulk to increase efficiency. With the belief that education is the key solution to ending the poverty cycle, the organizers eventually opened their first event to the public in 2005. The event is privately funded by sponsorship, grants from foundations and private donations. It is also entirely run by volunteers and has served 100,000 students since the first event. According to United States Census Bureau, 15.2 percent of Tarrant County residents live under the poverty line. This 15.2 percent means that approximately 80,000 out of 500,000 people who are under 18 years old in Tarrant County could use the services Back to School Roundup