June 14 through 30 – Donate to Operation Backpack® at Walgreens and Duane Reade Stores
UPDATE (07/15): Over 75,000 Walgreens and Duane Reade customers donated to Operation Backpack® at check-out, raising a total of $112,000. That's enough to purchase all the supplies for nearly 3,000 high school backpacks!
From Sunday, June 14 through Tuesday, June 30 customers shopping at Walgreens and Duane Reade stores in the metro New York area (including Long Island, Albany and Hudson Valley) and select New
Jersey locations will be able to donate to the 2020 Operation Backpack® campaign at check-out. This is the sixth year that our partners at Walgreens and Duane Reade are supporting Operation Backpack® by giving their customers a way to contribute. This year fundraising is more important than ever, as we pivot our usual delivery model to adapt to the disruptions caused by COVID-19.
Last year, thanks to the generosity of shoppers, the in-store campaign raised $53,700 in two weeks, and was instrumental in allowing us to purchase all the supplies needed for the 19,000 backpacks given to children living in homeless and domestic violence shelters across the city.
We’re excited to partner with Walgreens and Duane Reade again this year, and are grateful for their support, as well as the support of thousands of New Yorkers (and beyond!) who open their hearts to us each year by donating. Make a donation now.
Operation Backpack®, organized by Volunteers of America-Greater New York (VOA-Greater New York) began over a decade ago as a small grassroots effort that asked the public to donate gently used backpacks and school supplies for the children living in VOA-Greater New York’s homeless and domestic violence shelters. Now in its 17th year, Operation Backpack® has become NYC’s largest back-to-school drive. In 2019, with the support of corporate partners, hundreds of companies, and thousands of people in the community, we distributed 19,000 new backpacks, filled with grade-specific school supplies to all of the children living in homeless and domestic violence shelters citywide who needed one. We anticipate the same number of backpacks will be needed again this year. We urgently call on the community to support Operation Backpack® 2020, as we seek to raise $500,000 to cover the unprecedented costs of this year's campaign due to the pandemic.