Back-to-school came about three weeks early to 50 children living in Simcoe County Community Housing on Thursday.
Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall, co-founder of PIE Education, helped deliver backpacks with school supplies to the Blake Street kids.
“It’s a wonderful thing for us,” said Kyla Giddings, 17, a student at St. Joseph’s High School in Barrie. “My mom can’t afford it, so it does help to get the backpacks.”
Giddings said she’s been receiving the backpacks for about five years. She spends $100-$200 annually for school, including shoes and clothes.
This 2024 initiative, led by Nuttall and PIE Wood Fire Pizza Joint, will donate 7,500 backpacks — each filled with essential school supplies for underprivileged children — such as pencil cases, paper, notebooks, rulers, crayons and pens.
Nuttall said the back-to-school bill can be an unpleasant surprise for families.
“When you’re adding this massive bill at the end of the summer, just to have your child go back to school, I can imagine that’s going to create some pain in some households,” he said, noting 1,200 school backpacks are being given out in this area.
Mina Fayez-Bahgat, the County of Simcoe’s general manager of social and community services, said it operates community housing, acting as the landlord for residents there.
“We just partner with the mayor,” he said of the backpack distribution. “Every year he offers us a set of bags (school backpacks) for all the kids living in community housing, but we put on the barbecue and organize the facilities.”
Founded by Nuttall and Craig Russell of PIE Wood Fire Pizza Joint, the program has grown significantly, expanding into new regions each year.
It supports students not only in Barrie, but in Rexdale, Sudbury, Christian Island and Ottawa.
PIE Education’s backpack program provides school resources to underprivileged children living in government and social housing, ensuring they are equipped for the upcoming school year.
Since its inception in 2010, Providing Instruments for Excellence (PIE) Education has distributed more than 25,000 backpacks to children in need.
Funds to support the initiative are raised through various fundraisers held throughout the year, including the Boots and Hearts Barn Burner in Barrie and the annual PIE Wood Fire Pizza Joint Bocce Ball Tournament.
