NORFOLK, Va. — Several military families in Norfolk, are right on track with preparing their children for the back-to-school season.
Operation Homefront announced that 600 backpacks were handed out Saturday, Aug. 7 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Norfolk Premium Outlets mall.
It was the annual Back-to-School Brigade®, where bags filled with school supplies were given to children with parents in the military.
The items were handed out in a drive-thru style, with consideration of CDC COVID-19 guidelines, according to officials.
This is a program that aims to assist families with school supply cost. For many military families, summer can be stressful -- as they are often relocating to different duty stations.
Operation Homefront, the national nonprofit campaign has been distributing backpacks since 2008. As of Saturday, it gave out its 450,000th backpack which has saved families millions of dollars in back-to-school supplies.
Multiple partners including Dollar Tree, SAIC and Lockheed Martin sponsored the event.