A volunteer organization in north-central Arkansas distributed 51 backpacks filled with school supplies to public schools in Baxter, Boone, and Marion counties earlier this month. The effort, led by the grassroots group Ozarks Free the Future, aimed to support students from kindergarten through 12th grade.
The backpacks, which included items such as notebooks, pencils, and other classroom essentials, were delivered during the week of August 3-7. Jessica Clanton, founder of the group, said approximately $400 was raised to purchase the supplies. The fundraising and distribution effort reflected the organization’s focus on addressing both immediate student needs and broader issues in public education.
Clanton said the backpacks will be distributed by school staff to students who need them, with no recipients selected in advance. The initiative began with a simple question the group posed to families and neighbors: “What do you want in your backpack?”
“When we ask families and neighbors ‘What do you want in your backpack?,’ we opened a beautiful, shared conversation about the foundational tools our children need to thrive,” Clanton said. “We certainly mean the physical essentials like notebooks and pencils, but we also mean the broader structural resources that fill a student’s educational journey, as well as help fully resource classrooms.”
Ozarks Free the Future plans to use the feedback it gathered from the community to guide future efforts, though Clanton did not provide specific details on upcoming projects. The group, which works in partnership with the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools, describes its mission in part as keeping parents and educators engaged in school board decisions, advocating for increased public school funding, and protecting student services and special education programs.
Clanton, a former educator herself, said her personal experiences inspired her to start the organization. “A good education can change lives; a great education can transform generations of lives,” she said. “I’ve seen it in my own family and in those of my students. We can’t lose sight of the importance of public education to Arkansas’s future.”
According to Clanton, Arkansas lags behind the national average in per-student funding, including when compared to neighboring states. 2023 Census Bureau data indicates the state spends an average of $12,738 per student annually, below the national average. Clanton called on state leaders to increase classroom spending rather than maintain current funding levels.
For more details about Ozarks Free the Future or to contact Jessica Clanton, she can be reached via email at jessicajjn@gmail.com.