GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — The Howe Community Resource Center is sending Brown County students back to school in style.
The center is holding a clothing "hand-up" event to give away clothing to Brown County children in Grades K through 5, just in time for back to school.
"We all know and we all remember that first day of school when you had your new outfit and you walked in," said Amanda Johnson, the executive director of the center. "We want to make sure kids have that confidence."
Each child who registers will receive one new personalized outfit. When registering, parents fill out a form specifying their childrens' size, gender identity, and clothing preference.
The clothing drive was made possible thanks to a $10,000 COVID relief grant from the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation. Many of the clothes were donated by Service League of Green Bay and the rest were purchased by volunteers.
Johnson says the center has noticed an increase in demand for clothing ever since the start of the pandemic. She says many at-risk families are in need of clothing because it often falls low on families' list of priorities, especially when money is tight.
"It's kind of one of the needs that we identified last year. We had a lot of parents that were calling and saying 'where can I get some new clothes?' because it's often not on the list," Johnson said. "You have your basic needs and things like that but clothing seems to fall."
"Food, shelter, electricity, those are all the necessities," said Marissa Niemyjski, one of the clothing drive volunteers. "Clothing you're like you can stretch another year."
Johnson says almost 600 children have been registered so far and registration is still open through August 31st.
"We have 599 kids that we're serving right now. We really have the funds to be able to serve a thousand kids so we're hoping to have a lot more registrations," Johnson said.
Any Brown County child entering grades K-5 is eligible for the clothing hand-up. You can register through the Howe Community Resource Center Facebook page. No proof of income is required.
"We recognize that even if your income states one thing that doesn't necessarily mean that you are able to get these needs met," Johnson said. "We're not asking for income requirements, we're really just asking for people who really need that hand-up during this really difficult time."
