Local organizations in Long Beach and Los Angeles are teaming up to host a school supply giveaway in Long Beach on May 15.
The event will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. Park on a first come, first serve basis. The organizers will distribute over 50 backpacks full of school supplies, including notebooks, binders, calculators, pens, and more.
The organizers of the event are Pueblita Tortillas, Long Beach City Resources, and Urban Reset.
Some sponsors of the event include Level Up Barber Studio, Urban Remedy, Long Beach Transit, and Hydrate LA.
Amazon Fire tablets will also be distributed to select students who previously sent in an application request to the organizations. Applicants were asked to write about how the tablet would be beneficial to them or their child.
Along with school supplies, other items provided by community donors and sponsors will be given away, such as organic food, childrens masks, and books.
Pueblita Tortillas founder Sandy Wall said the giveaway is open to students of all grade levels.
“Originally, our goal was to get enough money to purchase 10 tablets. Eventually, it ended up becoming a whole school drive,” said Wall.
The organizers launched the campaign in an effort to help students and parents struggling with online learning and to provide supplies for those in need.
“I understand how difficult COVID has been, not only on the students, but on parents as well. I know that Long Beach School District and LA Unified as a whole have a lack of resources. We wanted to give an opportunity for students and parents to let them know that we have their back,” said Wall.
Long Beach Resources founder Chelsie Nicholson said, “Schools, in the beginning, were just not prepared to take on the amount of technological barriers that students were going to have, from not having Wi-Fi at home…to not having a computer accessible. Now with it transitioning back to in person, there’s other supplies they are gonna need as well, on top of technology.”
Pueblita Tortillas has raised funds for the campaign by selling fresh, handmade packs of tortillas to members of the community.
Urban Reset and Long Beach City Resources raised funds through selling merchandise, including sweatshirts and T-shirts.
Many community members have supported the campaign in other ways, such as purchasing supplies on Mission Possible’s Amazon wish list or donating money directly to the organizers.
For her birthday, Nicholson requested her followers make donations to support Mission Possible. “I turned 30 in April, so I posted, ‘Hey, I wanna get 30 people to donate in any amount.’ “We raised about $300 through that,” said Nicholson.
Wall said that the three organizations alone raised about $2,000 for Mission Possible. This excludes the additional donations that have been provided by the community.
The organizers also exceeded their initial goal of purchasing 10 tablets, and will be distributing around 23 during the giveaway event.
Wall said she appreciates the love and support the community has shown to Mission Possible.
“This turned into something way bigger than I could have ever imagined…it gives me faith in humanity to know that people want to help. It takes a village to run this,” said Wall.
To view the school supply giveaway flyer or for additional information, click here.