On the stage in the cafeteria of Payne Elementary School, students beamed as they passed members of the Edmundite Missions team and received a backpack stuffed with a variety of school supplies – the students threw their arms around the staff members and thanked them heartily as they bounced away with their bags, packed with pencils, glue sticks, notepads and more.

“It’s a good way for our folks to get out and encounter the community,” said Edmundite Missions President and CEO Chad McEachern. “To me, that’s incredibly important. We can never lose sight of who we’re serving.”

The school supply giveaway, which kicked off two years ago, provides supplies to every student at Payne, Clark and Sophia P. Kingston Elementary schools – approximately 1,000 students – and takes place at the beginning of the second semester of school.

“Being in this area, a lot of times our children are missing supplies,” said Payne Elementary School Principal Taurus Smith. “Parents think about the toys and things like that but forget about the supplies for schools.”

According to McEachern, the Edmundite Missions originally planned on handing out the supplies in August but noticed that a lot of groups were already doing the same thing.

After talking with the schools receiving breakfast each weekend from the local mission, the same that are now receiving bags full of supplies, McEachern and company decided to begin providing their supplies after the Christmas holiday.

“We started with one school and the kids were so excited,” McEachern said. “We realized every classroom was basically depleted. It just made more sense.”

“We truly appreciate it,” Smith said. “It’s very helpful.”

The Edmundite Missions team dropped off supplies at Payne Elementary on Tuesday morning and dropped off another load at Sophia P. Kingston Elementary that afternoon.

In just over a week, the team will drop off supplies at Clark Elementary.

“It’s really an ongoing commitment to these kids and their success,” McEachern said.