Back to School Giveaway: Alabama Church Donates Backpacks, Supplies

An Alabama church gave away 1,000 bookbags stuffed with school supplies as sticky inflation continues to plague American families. 

Pathway Church in Mobile welcomed a large crowd for its annual backpack giveaway, WKRG reported. Pastor Travis Johnson said this donation drive is all about following in the footsteps of Jesus by loving one’s neighbor.

“And this is an opportunity for us to share, especially at school time,” Johnson said, adding:

Kids are going back. Parents are having to buy uniforms and more clothes. I’m telling you, I’ve got three teenagers and they don’t even get a chance to wear out their shoes or wear out their clothes. And, you know, prices are a little bit higher. So it’s an opportunity for us to come in alongside parents and say, thank you all.

In the past two years, prices for school supplies have jumped nearly 24 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, NPR reported. Deloitte Firm predicted 2023 will be the first decline in school supplies sales since 2014. 

Many are grateful for the church community’s donations, such as Kara Holifield.

“If you go to any local store to buy groceries or your kids’ uniforms, school supplies, you realize that the cost of everything is kind of going up a lot,” Holifield said. “So I feel like the church tries to offset that for our community as much as we can.” 

The Biden administration touted in early July that inflation has fallen and is down to three percent.

However, the month of July saw the slowest business growth in the past five months, as inflation on products and services increased, Breitbart News reported. 

“July is seeing an unwelcome combination of slower economic growth, weaker job creation, gloomier business confidence, and sticky inflation,” according to Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.