United Way volunteers ensure 10,000 students have what they need to start the new school year

Volunteers moved smoothly along the line of boxes filled with school supplies, packing them into plastic bags, chatting and smiling with their fellow employees while a music playlist selected by a United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania staffer ensured an upbeat mood.

They had their work cut out for them on Wednesday at the nonprofit’s annual Tools for Schools event at World Vision Pittsburgh headquarters in Aleppo: They needed to prepare 10,000 school supply kits for kindergarten through second grade students.

Since 2020, United Way has delivered school supply kits to more than 46,000 students through Tools for Schools, according to a news release. United Way partners First National Bank, Highmark Health and Sheetz made this year’s Tools for Schools project possible.

That help extended to volunteers, too. Senior Director of Regional Engagement Wendy Koch said First National employees made up 50% of the group. “Their employees love it,” she said. The bank has been a partner, she said, since the project began.

Other volunteers came Wednesday from UPMC, PNC and the Neighborhood Learning Alliance.

She said the cost of all the school supplies is $45,000. United Way can buy all the supplies in bulk, so each kit costs about $5. If parents bought the same supplies, she said, even with sales, it would cost them $15.

Thirty schools from Butler, Fayette, Westmoreland and Allegheny counties came to the World Vision location the next day to pick them up. Another set of volunteers helped load them into the trucks.

Neighborhood Learning Alliance Executive Director Kashif Henderson and five of his staff helped out on Wednesday, a nice break for them between winding down their summer programs and gearing up for the fall. Plus, they are finishing a move to a new building in Bloomfield.

“We tend to do this every year,” Henderson said. His organization is a United Way partner, the recipient of a United Way impact grant that contributes $80,000 each year to its work. It has programs for students from elementary to high school, including its after-school Little Warriors Program for kindergarten and fifth grade to career and college preparation that sets up older students for success in school and the workforce.

The World Vision building provided a comfortable, air-conditioned environment for the volunteers as they worked. Koch called the organization “a fantastic partner.” It lets the United Way store materials and provides the pallets and forklifts to make the packing and loading work much easier.

“We couldn’t do this without them,” she said. “Their help lets us put all our money into the supplies.”

United Way staff reaches out to targeted schools for the supply kits, the ones they know have the greatest need. “We try to partner with the schools that have been most affected by this [current] economy,” Koch said.

In addition, United Way provides ongoing funding and needs-based grants to local education-focused agencies. According to the release, in 2023 alone, United Way invested
$1.5 million in 30 agencies working to level the playing field for students from pre-K to high school and beyond, assisting 27,000 students and adults. 2024 statistics on the effort will be made available later, now that the nonprofit’s fiscal year has ended.

And they have added another initiative as the school year start looms: United Way’s new Beyond the Classroom rapid response grants will provide funding for out-of-school-time providers to address unexpected needs. Applications for the 2025-26 grant cycle opened on July 1, and the nonprofit received 14 grant requests and awarded six so far for a total of $53,200, according to an email from Media Relations and Storytelling Associate Emma Martin.

Applications are limited to organizations that have received a recent United Way grant. Martin explained that process enables staff to review them quickly on a rolling basis as funds are available.

United Way will distribute at least $325,000 through the rapid response grants. Participating funders right now are the McElhattan Foundation, Grable Foundation, Jefferson Regional Foundation and Arconic, Martin said.