The Coastside Community School Backpack Program

About the Program 

The Coastside Community Backpack Drivele, led by Holy Family Episcopal Church continues to help Coastside children prepare for school every year. This year we helped 483 students with new backpacks and a large shopping tote filled with school supplies.  

The Need

The Cabrillo School District that serves the mid coast of San Mateo County including Half Moon Bay, El Granada, Moss Beach and Montara has a diverse student population.  Students come from families working in high paying jobs in Silicon Valley to farm workers and laborers with very limited income.  As a point of reference over 800 childern qualify for subdized lunches, representing almost a third of the studen body.  The children we help are identified by Coastside Hope, a key partner in this effort.  

What We Do

Each child receives a new quality backpack, a tote filled to the brim with school supplies requested by teachers and as many children’s books as they want, thanks to the Library, the Friends of the Library and the Coastside Mothers Club. It costs over $60 a child to do this, so we need to raise at least $30,000 each year to run this program. We buy in bulk, to maximize what each child can receive. A parent trying to duplicate what we do would easily spend two to three times that amount.

A Community Effort

This is truly a community effort. Local groups involved include Coastside Hope, Abundant Grace Coastside Worker, the National Charity League Coastside Chapter, the Half Moon Bay Library, the Friends of the Library, Community Methodist Church, Coastside Lutheran Church, Coastside Jewish Community, the Coastside Women’s Club, the Coastside Mothers Club, the Rotary Club, the Lions Club, the Coastside Farmers Markets, the Odd Fellows and other community groups These groups all contributed funds and people power to help in raising funds, purchasing school supplies and backpacks, helping fill totes with school supplies and helping distribute the backpacks and supplies.

This program receives significant grants from the Friends of the Library, The Episcopal Impact Fund, and Episcopal Churches on the peninsula.  This is our first year raising funds via Coastside Gives!