Back to School Supply Drive 2026
Help Us Ensure Our Achievers Have What they Need for a Successful School Year!
This year, Friends of the Children-Boston is partnering with organizations, companies, and community members across Greater Boston to fill 150 backpacks for our Achievers, helping ensure every child from kindergarten through high school starts the school year prepared, confident, and ready to thrive.
We invite businesses, teams, schools, faith communities, families, and friend groups to host backpack or school supply drives, sponsor fully stocked backpacks, or support the drive through our curated Amazon Wish Lists.
Hosting a backpack drive and donating completed backpacks is one of the most impactful ways to participate and helps ensure students receive everything they need for the start of the school year.
If you’re looking for a simple and convenient option, we’ve created Amazon Wish Lists with all the supplies needed to complete backpacks for both Elementary and Adolescent students. The only caveat is that all items must first be shipped to your home, assembled into completed backpacks, and then delivered or shipped to the Friends Boston office. Since Amazon ships items separately rather than as completed bags, this helps us properly track donations, acknowledge supporters, and ensure every student receives a fully prepared backpack.
Amazon Wish Lists
Elementary Amazon Wish List: https://a.co/02aRLhAS
Adolescent Amazon Wish List: https://a.co/0jfAurkM
Completed backpacks can be dropped off or shipped to:
Friends of the Children-Boston
Attn: Adrielle Lecane
184 Dudley Street, Suite 100
Roxbury, MA 02119
If you’d prefer not to shop or assemble backpacks yourself, we’re also happy to provide a direct giving link so our team can purchase supplies and assemble backpacks on your behalf.
Elementary Youth (Ages 6-12)
- High quality backpacks
- Folders
- Notebooks
- Pencils
- Erasers
- Markers
- Crayons
- Glue Sticks
- Pencil Case
- Lunch Box
- Water Bottle
- Child Scissors
- Coloring Books
- Colored Pencils
Adolescent Youth (Ages 13-18)
School Supplies
- High-quality Large Backpacks for High Schoolers
- 5 Subject notebooks
- Graphing Calculators
- Calculators
- USB flash drives (2GB+)
- Noise-canceling headphones
- Thermal water bottle
- Single subject notebooks
- Three-ring binder with dividers
- College-ruled paper
- Folders with pockets
- Box of pens (blue or black, 50-count)
- Package of #2 pencils (100 total)
- Mechanical Pencils
- Highlighters
- Combination locks for lockers
- Index cards (100 count)
- Rulers
- Graph Paper
- Sticky flags and Sticky Notes
- Tape (clear)
- Glue Sticks
Toiletries
- Feminine hygiene products for young girls
- Personal hygiene products for young men
- Kleenex tissues (pocket size)
- Disinfecting wipes
- Hand sanitizer
Partner With Us to Make a Bigger Impact!
To help us accurately plan for distribution and track incoming donations throughout the drive, we also ask that all supporters complete our Google sign-up form to let us know:https://forms.gle/8AistEQKy8x4...
-How many backpacks you plan to donate
-Whether the backpacks are Elementary or Adolescent
-Your expected drop-off or delivery timeline
If you have any questions about participating in the drive, hosting a collection, or coordinating a drop-off, please contact Adrielle at adrielle@friendsboston.org
Thank you for helping us set our Achievers up for a strong start to the school year!