Story by Blaine McCarty,
NFCC's Senior Manager of Brand Strategy
Last year, I wrote about what I learned after my first Back to School event.
At the time, I had only been with NFCC for four months. It was my first seasonal program on my first development team, and my first experience working for a nonprofit. Everything felt new.
Now, sixteen months later, I’ve experienced a full year of what NFCC does, not just Back to School, but the Food Pantry, the Thrift Shop, other Seasonal Programs, financial assistance, and so much more.
Over the past year, I’ve met people whose resilience has humbled me. I’ve watched families navigate impossible decisions with extraordinary courage. Every day, I’m reminded how much strength it takes to ask for help while still believing in yourself and your future.
But if there’s one thing my second Back to School event reminded me, it’s this:
Our community has an incredible capacity to show up for one another.
Back to School isn’t just about backpacks and school supplies. It’s about neighbors deciding that another family’s success matters to them.
It’s hundreds of volunteers spending long, hot days carrying boxes, organizing supplies, and greeting families with smiles that never seem to fade. It’s businesses rallying their employees year after year because generosity isn’t a one-time campaign. It’s part of their culture. It’s seeing partners like Credigy once again arrive with 100 middle school backpacks because supporting students has become a tradition, not a transaction.
It’s watching children light up as they choose a backpack that’s entirely their own. You can see it in their faces. Pride. Excitement. Confidence. They’re walking into a new school year knowing someone they’ve never met believed they deserved to start it well. And so they do.
One conversation stayed with me.
I spoke with a donor from Beon who shared that NFCC had once been part of her own story. As a child, her family relied on our Food Pantry, our Thrift Shop, and seasonal programs like this one. Standing there as a donor instead of a recipient, she smiled and said how meaningful it was to give back to the organization that had helped raise her.
Moments like that are difficult to put into words.
Back to School isn’t simply a distribution event. It’s a full-circle story that repeats itself over and over again. Families become volunteers. Recipients become donors. Children who were once cared for grow into adults who care for others.
That’s community.
In a world that often asks us to focus on what’s broken, Back to School quietly reminds me of everything that’s working.
It reminds me that kindness is contagious.
That generosity multiplies.
That hope has a way of finding people.
Every volunteer who gives their time. Every donor who fills a backpack. Every business that organizes a supply drive. Every staff member who plans for months behind the scenes. Every family who trusts us enough to walk through our doors. Together, they’re writing the same story:
We take care of each other.
I find myself moved to tears every year, not because of the backpacks, but because of the people behind them.
There will never be enough words to express how grateful I am to witness this community in action.
Thank you to every person who makes Back to School possible.
Thank you for reminding me that service is one of the purest expressions of hope.
And thank you for reminding me, once again, just how much good still exists in the world.