With the start of the school year just around the corner, Operation Homefront brought its Back to School Brigade to Groton Thursday to help military families.
The nonprofit handed out free backpacks filled with school supplies to more than 300 military children.
“Our mission is to build strong, stable and secure military families so they can thrive - not just struggle to get by in - but thrive in the communities they work so hard to protect,” Joe O’Hara with Operation Homefront said.
“A lot of these military families have a lot of financial burdens, and we want to try to relieve some of their stresses by providing backpacks with school supplies and some other gifts as well," he continued.
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Monica Snelling's husband serves in the military. They have six children, five of whom are school-aged.
“Anything like this is a huge, huge blessing for our family," Snelling said.
According to the National Retail Federation, families with children elementary through high school-aged are expected to spend a record-breaking $890 on back-to-school this year.
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“Costs keep going up and their income does not keep going up,” O’Hara said.
Operation Homefront is a national nonprofit. This year, the nonprofit aims to distribute its 550,000th backpack since the program began in 2008.
