Back-to-School Project
The Back-to-School Project continues to grow each year. In 2007, SSCS assisted 573 students with school supplies, a backpack, and one outfit to start school. Each year the number of students seeking assistance increases. The free and reduced lunch program is a good indicator of the potential need for assistance for low-income families who may need help with school supplies. Over 65.5% of the students in Sand Springs Schools qualify for free or reduced lunches. Well over 3,000 students qualify for free lunch. We believe the Back to School Project has tremendous potential for growth. Additional funding would be necessary to meet such an extensive need.
The funding for this program is made possible by Wal-Mart, community grants (currently from Cox Communications and Williams), in-kind donations, area churches, and contributions from the community. The program has been supplemented by our current funds because of the extensive needs.
The Back-to-School Project has been a very successful program and continues to grow each year. The program helped 420 students in 2005, 512 in 2006, and increased to 573 students in 2007.
SSCS works very closely with Sand Springs Public Schools, Wal-Mart, community organizations and civic clubs. This project pulls the people of the community together. There are many volunteers and civic leaders that participate as well as educators and administrators. It is a great program for the children of Sand Springs and serves a very worthy cause.
Because of the volume of people that need to be served, volunteers are vital to keep the project running smoothly. We work with Board volunteers, community volunteers, teachers, the superintendent of schools, and others, compiling over 150 volunteer hours to pull off this project.
Food-4-Kids Backpack Program
Sand Springs Public Schools has 65.5% of students that qualify for the free and reduced lunch program for low-income families. Many of these children depend on the school to provide breakfast and lunch during the school week but go without necessary nutrition they need on the weekend. This program is designed to provide food for the children who are in greatest need. A comprehensive study on hunger in the
Administrators and teachers are actively engaged in the process of identifying the children in their building who go chronically hungry on the weekend. Initially, we have determined there are 83 students at one school in Sand Springs that show signs of food insecurity, with a potential of 20 children at risk of chronic hunger. Every Friday at school, each identified child will receive pre-packaged food from the Food Bank in their backpack as provisions for the weekend.
Volunteers will help with food pick-up, packaging, and delivery to the schools.
We also seek financial participation to sponsor a child. Each child can be sponsored for $110. a year. The cost is $2.75 per child per week for forty weeks(one school year). An additional $6 can be designated for a backpack (discounted price). Donations of any size are greatly appreciated. This would be a great project for your church or Sunday School Class.
Santa for Sandites Christmas Program
There are many children that would not have presents for Christmas without the help of SSCS because their family suffers with chronic low income. SSCS was flooded by calls in 2007 for Christmas assistance. Many of the low-income families we serve in Sand Springs missed the deadline to The Salvation Army’s Angel Tree or claimed they didn’t know about the deadline. Other families could not get transportation to