SAN ANTONIO — Volunteers filled the Medio Creek Elementary School gym Saturday morning to assemble supply kits for thousands of teachers in Southwest San Antonio. The United Way Write Start Project is an annual back to school initiative aimed at supporting educators.
"We know that every year teachers are spending their personal money for supplies for their students, supplies for their classrooms," said Brandyn Rodriguez, Vice President of Community Engagement for the organization.
According to a recent analysis, teachers spend an average of $459 on school supplies every year. Each of the kits assembled at Saturday’s event are valued at $468.
“This was just a small token of appreciation that we can give back to our teachers and community,” said Rodriguez.
Through the help of donors and sponsors, Brandyn said they collected nearly $80,000 worth of school supplies to give to teachers.
“We all know that teachers do amazing work for us and we also know they’re not paid what they should be paid,” she said.
United Way and other volunteers will be distributing 2,200 school supply kits to Edgewood ISD and Southwest ISD teachers Monday morning. Volunteer opportunities can be found here.