People's Resource Center providing school supplies to families in need

Tonya Latson wasn't sure what to expect.

For the past 10 years, she's helped a Wheaton nonprofit group provide school supplies for hundreds of children from families in need across DuPage County.

But the upheavals caused by the coronavirus pandemic posed new challenges for organizers from the People's Resource Center.

"A lot of families are in a much more precarious situation than they were five months ago," said Latson, the nonprofit's social services director.

The effort relies solely on donations, but Latson wondered if organizers would be able to collect enough items to help a rising number of families left struggling to afford school supply lists just as the $600-a-week enhanced unemployment benefit expired at the end of July.

Latson now finds herself almost at a loss for words as she prepares to pull off a retooled distribution event Wednesday at the DuPage County Fairgrounds in Wheaton.

"The response from the community has been absolutely tremendous," Latson said.

With support from churches, businesses, libraries and other hosts of donation drives, the People's Resource Center will provide backpacks filled with supplies for at least 1,000 students preparing for an uncertain school year during the COVID-19 crisis.

Volunteers usually serve families over the course of several days, setting up a store-like operation at the fairgrounds so parents and kids could pick out what they need and want.

"Some of the little ones in particular just have a special place in my heart," Latson said.

Last year, People's Resource Center delivered backpacks to roughly 800 students, including children whose families receive groceries through the center's food pantry.

Forced to adapt to the social distancing age, organizers created online registries at Amazon, Walmart and Target so people could donate with a click of the keyboard rather than shop in stores.

"We've been getting deliveries just every single day besides individuals coming to bring stuff or the organizations or businesses making arrangements to drop-off the things that have been collected through drives," Latson said.

Anyone still interested in supporting the back-to-school program can contact the People's Resource Center at (630) 682-5402.

Classrooms at the nonprofit's Wheaton location have doubled as storage rooms as organizers have sorted and packed supplies, tailoring age-appropriate backpacks for students in kindergarten through fifth grades while checking off a separate list of supplies for sixth- through 12th graders.

Volunteers on Wednesday will only have a span of 10½ hours to run a contactless, drive-through version of the back-to-school program from 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the fairgrounds at 2015 Manchester Road. Families had to register online in advance.

Some of the materials students will receive include pencils, an assortment of pens, highlighters, erasers, glue sticks, Crayons, scissors, spiral notebooks, loose-leaf paper, folders, calculators, markers, colored pencils and pencil sharpeners.