With the first day of class approaching, families across Queens are gathering supplies and checking off lists. This year, neighbors in Flushing and parts of western Queens have had extra help thanks to back-to-school backpack giveaways organized by local elected officials and community partners. These efforts aim to make the back-to-school season a little easier for our families.
Two related efforts took place this week. On August 6, Assemblymember Ron Kim partnered with the NYPD’s 109th Precinct to distribute bags from a precinct parking area in Flushing. At the same time, Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas organized a series of multi-site distributions across neighborhoods including Jackson Heights, Corona and Woodside. Both drives focused on getting backpacks and basic supplies to students ahead of the start of school.
Backpack Giveaways Underway in Flushing and Western Queens
Both events were driven by the same practical goal: prepare children for the school year regardless of a family’s budget. In Flushing, parents and students were lining up well before the event’s official start. By midday, hundreds of students had received backpacks filled with notebooks, pencils and other essentials. Volunteers moved through boxes and over tables, handing out supplies and making sure each child left with what they needed.
Across western Queens, González-Rojas’s team used a pop-up model to meet people where they are. The distributions were staged at several community spots over multiple days to reach households that might have difficulty traveling. With more than 1,000 backpacks slated for distribution across the area, these events aimed to reach a broad cross-section of K-12 students while creating small, supportive moments for families preparing for the new year.
Scale, Beneficiaries, and Neighborhood Collaboration
What stood out at both efforts was the scale and the number of local partners involved. In Flushing, the 109th Precinct’s back lot became a practical staging area where police officers, staff and community volunteers worked together to hand out supplies. For the western Queens pop-ups, González-Rojas’s team coordinated with groups such as the Hispanic Federation and Laborers Local to move materials into busy neighborhood corridors and community spaces where families live and shop.
The immediate beneficiaries were the students who left with a backpack and the confidence of arriving at school prepared. The broader impact came from how these distributions pooled resources from elected offices, non-profit groups and volunteers to reduce one familiar pre-school stressor for our neighbors.
Meeting Families Where They Are
A common thread in both efforts was accessibility. Anchoring an event at a known civic site like a precinct can make it easier for some families to plan a visit. Bringing pop-up sites into neighborhoods offers an alternative for those with less time or transportation. In each model, turnout was high and people arrived early, which speaks to how valued this help is as families organize their back-to-school purchases and schedules.
These events also created brief, everyday moments of community: a volunteer checking a child’s list, a parent trading tips with another about schedules, a school supply handed over with a few encouraging words. Those small exchanges are part of how we look out for one another as summer winds down and we all shift back toward the school year.
A Quiet, Practical Start to the School Year
As September nears, these backpack distributions are a practical reminder of what cooperation can accomplish. They are not a solution to all the challenges families face, but they do remove a specific burden and send a message that our neighborhoods are paying attention. We can see how steady, local efforts—from precinct parking lots to neighborhood pop-ups—help students start the year with what they need and with a little less worry for the adults who care for them.
Introduce Yourself Again
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