Local Kaiser Permanente Employees Buy, Give Away School Backpacks to Local Children

Employees of Kaiser Permanente prepared to give away 600 new backpacks with school supplies for children of low-income families on Tuesday, July 24, at the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Permanente Medical Group offices at 393 E. Walnut Street in Pasadena.

Sandra Hernandez-Millett, spokesperson at Kaiser Permanente, said the new school supplies will help families, who spend an average of $500 per child on school supplies every year, cope with the challenge of sending their child back to school.

Hernandez-Millet said Kaiser Permanente purchased the school supplies with their own money to fill up the backpacks.

Between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m., they filled up the hundreds of backpacks with paper, pens and pencils, sharpeners, notebooks, and other school items.

These will be given free to children at an El Nido event in Pacoima on Thursday, to insure that low-income families have a good start to their school year.

“It’s such a blessing to see these children’s faces when they get their backpacks. That’s when see the impact Kaiser Permanente is making and they know that someone truly cares about them,” said Trina Robinson, Project Manager at Kaiser Permanente Southern California.

Kaiser Permanente’s partner in this project, El Nido, is a safe haven for at-risk populations in Los Angeles, providing critical services to over 10,000 children.