Organizations and volunteers fear that children do not have a backpack or lack school supplies at the start of the next school year, the demand having doubled compared to last year.
“It was a monumental shock. It’s overwhelming,” exclaims Francine Laplante, a 55-year-old philanthropist who usually collects money to buy backpacks full of school items for underprivileged children.
“School principals don’t have time to run after backpacks,” explains this “professional fundraiser” who supplies various organizations, schools and youth centers in Greater Montreal thanks to her philanthropy.
- Francine Laplante was interviewed by Alexandre Moranville-Ouellet via QUB-radio :
Last year, she bought 625 backpacks. But to meet the demand for next August, she would need more than 1,000 bags.
“And I could easily go over 1500.”
She therefore launched a cry from the heart to her contacts by email and on her Facebook page “Starry Godmother” on June 26th.
She has so far collected more than 420 backpacks. Even if she manages to collect enough money to exceed 1,500 bags in the coming weeks, she is convinced that children will run out of supplies all over Quebec.
Everything is organized so that Francine Laplante can fill each backpack with school supplies herself.
Photo Pierre-Paul Poulin
This alarming observation is shared by several organisations. The demand for the Regroupement Partage’s Opération Sac à dos has doubled due to the “skyrocketing rise in the cost of living,” says general manager Audrey Renaud.
Middle-class households, with parents who have been in the labor market for a long time, have appeared among their clientele this year. Among them are homeowners whose mortgages have exploded.
Even before the end of classes
At Saint-Vincent-de-Paul in Montreal, we began to receive calls from parents and workers even before the end of classes, while registrations to receive vouchers redeemable in the name of the child did not officially begin. only in July, notes Geneviève Dubois, head of the school perseverance program.
“Everyone [les organismes] overflows. People do it in advance because they are afraid of missing their chances”, supposes Mme Dubois.
In Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, the Foundation for Children and Youth also expects an increase. Between 2021 and 2022, the number of requests increased from 325 to 500, indicates the director general Karine Brassard.
“Appalling”
“Honestly, it’s appalling what is happening,” says Audrey Renaud. The demand is so high that local organizations don’t even have the resources to handle the volume that would be needed to meet it, she worries.
“It’s in all the neighborhoods of Montreal. Before, there were less targeted neighborhoods. […] But there, it stretches there too.
The group had been working for 26 years exclusively on the island of Montreal. Its partners will offer backpacks this year in Longueuil and Saint-Jérôme, as the problem is spreading.
In addition, organizations are also affected by the rise in prices. For the same budget, they can buy fewer school supplies, the costs of which have increased by 18%, estimates Mme Renaud.
Francine Laplante proudly displays in her office the check from her biggest donor, the Tim Hortons Smile Cookie campaign.
Photo Pierre-Paul Poulin
6000 duo-tangs
Francine Laplante has until now only offered quality new items so that the items last as long as possible.
But for the first time, she decided to open up to donations of “almost new” used backpacks, she points out. “What I wouldn’t give to my own children, I don’t give.”
The volunteer has worked for a long time in the field of fruits and vegetables. By dint of exercising her philanthropy, she has become an ace in the art of chasing bargains.
“Just duo-tangs, it takes me 6000.” The challenge is above all to pay for them individually and then to load them into the truck, illustrates the one who does everything by herself.
Once everything is distributed at least August, the work will not be finished. “I expect it to be the same [que la demande explose] with winter coats,” admits Francine Laplante.