Walgreens Teams Up with Local Org for Back-to-School Donations

Operation: Kid Equip (OKE) is teaming up with Walgreens for the first time to collect school supplies for children in Oakland, Wayne and Macomb counties.

Donations like pencils, notebooks, backpacks and hygiene items can be dropped off at any Walgreens in the tri-county area and other drop-off locations until Aug. 18.

The program collects school supplies for children during the back-to-school drive and all year at its distribution center in Troy for those going to high poverty schools.

“The school has to have 70 percent or more of the students receiving free or reduced priced lunch,” said Menachem Kniespeck, founder of OKE. “We work throughout Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties with just over 100 schools.”

He said they have the potential of helping more than 75,000 students with the donations.

Menachem said he started OKE about seven years ago and always collected the donations through community drives. Then OKE merged with Michigan Friends of Education to also provide students with books. However, this drive is not for books.

Five Below stores in Troy, Shelby Township and Woodhaven are also working with OKE. Five Below will donate 10 percent of customers’ total purchases to OKE when customers present the fundraiser coupon.

Customers can also buy supplies at the participating Five Below stores to donate to OKE, while OKE also receives 10 percent of the purchase with the fundraiser coupon.

“This is our prime season to collect for the entire year,” Menachem said. He said OKE relies on this back-to-school drive to fill most of the demand for supplies.

Donations for OKE can be dropped off in the tri-county area and other drop-off locations until Aug. 18. For a list of suggested items to donate, check out: http://operationkidequip.org/supply-drive/donate-supplies/.