With the increasing cost of school supplies, the start of a new school year can be a stressful — and expensive — time for families and teachers alike. With rising prices affecting every household, school supply donations can help bridge the gap and ensure that every student and teacher has what they need for academic success.
The average U.S. household will spend around $875 on school supplies during the 2024 back-to-school season, and more than 90 percent of teachers spend their own income on supplies for their classrooms.
This year, to assist students and educators in their communities, employees at Domtar’s North American locations engaged in local school supply drives and fundraising events. We also continued our partnerships with customers like ODP Corporation and organizations like Classroom Central to give back to our communities.
“Investing in education through these various site- and company-sponsored programs is something we’re very proud of,” says Steve Henry, president of the paper and packaging business unit. “It’s so important to ensure students and teachers are equipped for success from the start of the academic year to the end.”
Learn more about our volunteerism, food donations and school supply donations during the 2024 back-to-school season.
Addison, Illinois: Book Donations
Our Addison Converting Center employees donated four sets of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) books to the DuPage Board of Education STEM Department. The donation included a total of 200 books that were given to the DuPage County Back-to-School event.
Nicole Washington, an office coordinator at the Addison Converting Center was proud to be a part of the donation efforts.
“As the parent of a 15-year-old sophomore, I know how imperative it is to begin to think about which career path is best for you,” says Washington. “With the help of the 200 STEM books Domtar purchased, there will be at least one highschooler who will have an easier time figuring out which career path is best for them.”
Ashdown, Arkansas: Backpack Program
The Ashdown Mill partnered with Harvest Regional Food Bank to help 50 children from schools in Little River County benefit from the organization’s Backpack Program.
The Backpack Program provides kid-friendly, shelf-stable, self-serve foods weekly to children identified by their school as chronically hungry. These children qualify for federal free breakfast and lunch through the National School Lunch Program. Additionally, the school staff has reason to believe that these meals may be the only regular meals the program participants receive.
Mill employees donated $100 per backpack to cover food costs for one school year, and they spent time filling each backpack with kid-friendly food items.
Dubois, Pennsylvania: Gift Card Donations
Dubois Plant Manager Michael Arblaster presented Wasson Elementary School, located in DuBois, Pennsylvania, and C.G. Johnson Elementary School, located in Reynoldsville, Pennsylvania, with $4,000 in gift cards. The gift cards will assist parents who are struggling to buy groceries for their families.
Sixty percent of both schools’ student bodies are categorized as being economically disadvantaged, with 4.5 percent of Wasson students experiencing housing insecurity.
Nekoosa, Wisconsin: School Supply Drive
Nekoosa Mill participated in a Stuff the Bus drive for school supplies. They filled a school bus with supplies that were donated by the mill and its employees. The supplies were dropped off at United Way of South Wood and Adams Counties, where they will be distributed to families in need through a Stuff the Desk event.
Plymouth, North Carolina: School Supply Donations
The Plymouth Mill sponsored a school supply drive for local elementary, middle and high school students. The mill’s employees filled 58 backpacks with school supply donations for students in need at Jamesville Elementary School.
Rock Hill, South Carolina: Volunteering
Rock Hill Converting Center employees volunteered for Back the Pack by packaging food for children in the community. Back the Pack is a program that provides weekend meals for students experiencing food insecurity.
Rock Hill also donated paper, pencils and crayons to teachers during a school supply drive event that included a raffle that enabled five winners to receive prizes. These prizes included cases of paper, supply-stuffed backpacks, cases of glue and crayons and a $250 teacher grant.
Rothschild, Wisconsin: Backpack Program
Rothschild Mill employees collected school supplies for the Fill a Backpack, Fill a Need program hosted by the United Way of Marathon County. This program allows children in need to receive a new, free backpack and a set of school supplies.
Windsor, Quebec: School Supply Donations
Windsor Mill employees donated to Maison de la Famille Les Arbrisseaux, a local social services organization in Quebec. The school supply donations will help support underprivileged students.
In addition to making donations at the local level, Domtar is a proud corporate partner to two programs devoted to helping students get the supplies they need for a successful school year.
Partnership With the ODP Corporation’s StartProud!® Program
Domtar is a longtime vendor partner of the StartProud!® back to school program, which supports students and teachers at nearly 30 Title I elementary schools with school supply donations and much-needed equipment.
Each year, Domtar employees volunteer at StartProud! pep rallies, and since the beginning of our partnership with StartProud!, we have donated around $1 million to assist students and teachers through the program.
Annual Donations to Classroom Central
For more than a decade, we have donated office paper to Classroom Central and provided annual financial and volunteer support, valued at more than $1 million. Through this partnership, teachers can pick up an additional 1,000 sheets of paper every month for free at Classroom Central.
We also support Classroom Central’s Literacy Lending Library, a program allowing teachers to borrow lesson kits that help improve reading fluency among students. Finally, we sponsor the organization’s TeachPrep program, which handles administrative tasks like copying and laminating to give teachers more time to focus on instruction.
TAPPI
http://www.tappi.org/