CABOT — With the school year quickly approaching, the directors of Hope’s Closet and Pantry in Cabot have come up with an idea to get the community to donate school supplies for the district’s teachers.
Kimberly Buchberger is the director of Hope’s Closet and Pantry, a ministry that provides food and clothing to needy people in Cabot.
She said the ministry provides food and clothing to 350 to 400 people in the community each month, and the number has increased this year.
In addition to that service, the ministry will host Stuff the Bus in August to collect school supplies for teachers in the Cabot School District.
“Throughout the year, the supplies run out for teachers,” Buchberger said. “When those supplies do run out, they have to pay for them out of pocket.”
Dry-erase markers and erasers are examples of some of the supplies that need to be replaced before the school year ends, Buchberger said.
“Teachers have a very fixed income,” she said.
When supplies run out, she said sometimes teachers will send a note home with students to ask parents to provide additional supplies.
“Some of these parents don’t have the money to pay for [the supplies],” she said.
Because of the tight budgets of some teachers and parents, Buchberger said, she wanted to help.
She and Heather Moore, assistant director of Hope’s Closet and Pantry, brainstormed to find a way to assist both the teachers and students.
Moore mentioned the Stuff the Bus idea to Buchberger .
“We didn’t want to do what everyone else was doing,” Buchberger said.
Community members can come to the Walmart parking lot from 7 a.m. to noon Aug. 9 and 10 to pack a bus with supplies such as tissues, dry-erase markers and erasers, lined paper and rulers.
“We’ve got the Boy Scouts coming out to help load the bus,” Buchberger said. “We thought having the bus out there would draw attention to the event.”
All of the supplies donated at the Stuff the Bus event will be distributed equally to each school.
She said she is expecting a successful event after seeing what the community does through Hope’s Closet and Pantry.
“When it comes to our children, [the city of Cabot] always steps up,” Buchberger said.
Although the ministry doesn’t have a specific number of school supplies in mind to gather at the event, she said if they can collect enough to get Cabot teachers through half the school year, she will be happy.
“I think it’s important because it shows our teachers that we support them and care about them,” she said.
Staff writer Lisa Burnett can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or lburnett@arkansasonline.com.