HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The simple things can mean a lot to a child living in the foster care system. "We call it More Than a Backpack because oftentimes our children move home to home in a garbage bag," Tasha Jones, Operations Director for Kids to Love explained. "It's really important to us to have these oversize backpacks so they can pack their clothing, some of their toys, so they can move with dignity."
Volunteers from Suburban Propane’s Huntsville branches collaborated with Kids to Love to stuff 200 backpacks for local kids in foster care. "We're out here with Suburban Propane because Suburban looks to get interactive with the community," Amanda McCarley with Suburban Propane said. "You know, as a company, we enjoy helping people with more than just propane."
Kids to Love is a nonprofit 501(c)3 state-licensed organization serving hundreds of thousands of Alabama children living in foster care by providing clothing, holiday gifts, scholarships and essential supplies.
A donation from Suburban Propane helped to fund Kids to Love’s “More than a Backpack” program, which provides backpacks filled with essential supplies to kids in foster care across Alabama. "It's very important to give back to children because that's the future for the world," McCarley shares. "I mean, if you set a good foundation for them, then we can have higher hopes for the world, the community, the state, the government, in the future. Otherwise, if you just let things keep recycling and keep going in bad patterns the way that they're used to you, then you're not showing the world it's going to get better."
Jones shares that not all cycles are bad. "So, all of our backpacks, we tie a color-coded string to the top of it so that our social workers know what grade that is, because we pack the bags based on what they're going to need," Jones shares. "A child in care moved and when she turned around, we saw one of the backpacks with a yellow string and it just brought us to tears because it was a full circle moment for us, knowing that it is more than a backpack."
Kids to Love also operates Davidson Farms, a foster home for girls, the Whitaker Cottage Community for girls aging out of foster care, and our own licensed Child Placing Agency. It is also home to KTECH, a private school that offers job training in manufacturing, robotics, and more to young adults and people looking to make a career change. For more information, please visit: https://kidstolove.org/.