Operation Homefront brings nationwide Back-to-School Brigade to Tampa

Supporting Tampa families with school supplies

FOX 13's Kylie Jones shares what one military organization is doing to give back to Tampa families before the school year.

TAMPA - An organization is helping military families in Tampa Bay get their children ready to head back to school.

Operation Homefront brought its Back-to-School Brigade to Tampa on Saturday morning.

By the numbers:

Operation Homefront distributed backpacks, school supplies, clothes and other necessities to 160 pre-registered families across Tampa Bay.

This is part of the organization's 18th annual Back-to-School Brigade, serving military and veteran families around the country.

"Tampa is a huge military community," Beth McGregor, with Operation Homefront said. "It's also huge for veterans. They're moving to our state every day. So, we found that it's really a good melting pool of both active-duty families and veteran families."

McGregor says they chose families for the event who are in need of help the most.

"We prioritize lower enlisted families and wounded veteran families, so they tend to be a little more financially vulnerable," McGregor said.

According to Operation Homefront, the average military child changes schools six to nine times between kindergarten and high school graduation.

"We actually have another veteran service organization that found the average family spends $875 a year to get their family ready for back to school," McGregor said. "And for our lower enlisted families, that's 41% of their paycheck, on top of rent and mortgage, groceries, utilities."

Operation Homefront says it has provided almost 600,000 backpacks to military children around the country through this event.

Local perspective:

Families who attended the Back-to-School Brigade, hosted at the Tampa Police Athletic League in Tampa, were able to fill backpacks with school supplies and other items to send their children back to school with.

Some parents say the process of getting ready for a new school year is time-consuming and financially taxing.

"Back to waking up early," Sheila Polanco, a mother of three, said. "Went to open houses, so it's three different open houses I had to go to, three separate schools. Making sure I know where the buses are going to pick them up at."

Polanco says being able to check this shopping trip off the to-do list helps lift a big burden.

"It's just a great help for like, those of us that can't, just to bridge the gap," Polanco said.

Other families who have been participating in the event for years say that with the cost of school supplies and other items right now, events like this are a big help.

"The opportunities that they don't get normally anywhere else," Kevin Funk, a father in Tampa Bay said.

Families say the event also gives them a sense of security in knowing that other families share in the same experience.

"It's just such a good feeling to know that there's help out here, that they care, that you're not alone," Polanco.

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