×
×
homepage logo

Tales From Utah Valley: Helping kids get ready for school

By Laura Giles - Special to the Daily Herald | Jul 27, 2025

Courtesy RK Creative

Backpacks and supplies are given away each year to local children in need through Tabitha's Way Local Food Pantry.

A yearly tradition in Utah County is happening again. The annual backpack and school supplies giveaway from Tabitha’s Way food pantries will help hundreds of local children in need as they go back to school in a few weeks.

“We are still accepting backpacks and school supplies! We still need 200 to hit our goal. Help ensure every child starts the school year prepared,” states a recent post from Tabitha’s Way Local Food Pantry North County’s Facebook page.

Every year, community members and organizations donate school supplies and backpacks for children in need to use for school. Each backpack contains supplies such as crayons, colored pencils, markers, notebooks, glue sticks, paper, folders, rulers and erasers. The backpacks and items are all new.

“We are donating 1,000 backpacks to Alpine School District and are giving 1,000 to our clients in the north,” said Mike Carter, founder of Tabitha’s Way in Pleasant Grove. “We see so many teachers providing school supplies and backpacks to their students. We want to donate as many as we can so the teachers don’t have to pay out of their own pockets.”

The backpacks will be distributed to schools in Alpine School District. From there, they will be given to children in need.

Courtesy Jeremy Hall

Laura Giles

From Spanish Fork’s Tabitha’s Way location, over 1,200 backpacks will be given away. This will happen at the Gear Up For School event to be held on July 26 from 9 to 11 a.m. at Riverview Elementary, 628 S. West Park Drive, Spanish Fork. Each school-aged child who attends will receive a backpack with supplies.

In addition to the backpack giveaway on Saturday, over 20 different local agencies will be in attendance for a community resource fair. “Families can come and connect and learn about these resources,” said Wendy Osborne, founder of Tabitha’s Way in Spanish Fork.

Children in attendance can also get a free sack lunch and pick out two free books to take home. “It’s really a fun event,” Osborne said.

Many generous people helped to make the backpack and school supplies giveaway possible. According to Carter, much of the funding for the items came from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Light the World Giving Machines. Each December, the machines are set up in various locations and people can make donations to local causes.

Donations of school supplies can still be dropped off at the Tabitha’s Way Pleasant Grove location, 675 W. Garden Drive, Suite 100. With the donations for backpacks and school supplies, hundreds of kids will be more prepared and feel more confident beginning school this year.

Starting at $4.32/week.

Subscribe Today