Back-to-school season brings a long list of needs for families. From new clothes and school supplies to packing lunches day after day, the cost and responsibility of getting children ready to learn can quickly become overwhelming.
This year, because you joined One More Child through your generous support, thousands of bags, meals and back-to-school resources made their way into the hands of vulnerable children and families across the communities we serve. Together, we helped put practical resources within reach — lightening the load for parents and helping children begin the school year equipped and ready to learn.
Across the United States, thousands of back-to-school items were distributed this year. Behind each one was a family with one less need to carry — and another opportunity to sow seeds of compassion, stability and faith.
4,000 Bags. 28,000 Meals. One Community Coming Together.
For the seventh consecutive year, University of Mary Hardin-Baylor students joined One More Child and H-E-B to help meet the needs of local students.
400 UMHB students packed 4,000 bags with 28,000 meals donated by H-E-B.
Those meals will help feed students at more than 15 Belton Independent School District schools throughout the school year.
One bag or one meal may seem simple. But multiplied thousands of times, those individual acts of generosity become something much bigger: children entering classrooms with one less worry and families knowing their community is standing beside them.
Year after year, this partnership demonstrates the power of people working together to meet practical needs and plant seeds that can continue to grow long after the school year begins.
Before the Bus: Meeting Families in Tampa
At the Before the Bus event at Hope Street in Tampa, One More Child teams served alongside Sunshine Health to help families prepare for the year ahead.
Approximately 120 people were served, receiving snacks and cold drinks from One More Child while families also had access to backpacks, school supplies, wellness checkups, free snow cones, opportunities to expand their insurance coverage and a blood drive.
But preparing families for a new school year meant meeting needs beyond the first day of school.
Our Family Support, Anti-Trafficking and Foster Care teams came together at the event, connecting with families, sharing trafficking prevention and awareness resources and introducing potential foster parents to opportunities to provide safe, loving homes for children.
One event created many opportunities to meet families where they were and help provide the support they need to thrive.
A Harvest of Joy
Behind every number is one more child — and one family balancing the needs of each season with the desires of their children’s hearts.
For the Marshal* family, a foster family with young children, preparing everyone for a new school year meant meeting many needs at once. And that’s when God showed up. During a One More Child community outreach, the family received matching pajamas for their foster and biological children. What our team didn’t know was that just days earlier, one of the children had admired those exact pajamas at the store.
Lori Marshal called it a “God hug.”
This is why your support matters beyond a backpack or a meal. We’ve seen time and again how coming alongside families can sow seeds of faith that grow.
God promises to multiply what is given:
“Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.” — 2 Corinthians 9:10–11 (NIV)
One gift becomes thousands of meals. One partnership reaches schools across a community. And sometimes, one need met makes room for more joy.
As one season ends, another begins — and there will always be one more child, one more family and one more opportunity to come alongside them.
Together, we can give more, reach more and trust God to multiply the harvest.
How will you partner with One More Child to be the Church in the season ahead?
*Names changed for privacy.