Deadline approaches - July 26 - for sign-ups for NKY Harvest's 23rd annual Backpacks & Breakfast - NKyTribune

The deadline to register for the Northern Kentucky Harvest’s 23rd annual Backpacks & Breakfast is fast approaching.

The event is open to youngsters in preschool through 12th grade in Northern Kentucky.

(File photo from Northern Kentucky Harvest)

Online signups for the event close at 5 p.m. on July 26. To register,

• Go to beconcerned.org,
• click on the News & Events tab,
• then the Backpacks & Breakfast tab,
• fill out the form and
• hit “Submit.” 

Harvest has 1,058 backpacks stuffed with new school supplies to give away this year. If more students sign up for the project than backpacks are available, recipients will be determined by a lottery. Recipient families will be notified by text the week of Aug. 7 when to pick up their backpacks. 

Distribution is set for Aug. 12-13 and will again employ a drive-model on the parking lot at Be Concerned, 1100 Pike Street, Covington.

Frisch’s, Harvest’s original partner in the event, will again participate by providing gift certificates for each backpack. 

In the last 2 decades, Backpacks & Breakfast has grown into the largest school readiness event in Northern Kentucky.

Backpacks and Breakfast (file photo)

Harvest has given away nearly 16,000- backpacks in the project.

The project is meant to help families already struggling to provide food, shelter and other basics to better accommodate the cost of readying their kids for the start of the new school year.

“It eases stress on families at this time of year,” said Harvest President Paul Gottbrath. “But also, you give a kid a new backpack, it’s amazing how that increases the kid’s excitement about the new school year.”

Major support for the project comes from, among others, the Butler Foundation, the R.C. Durr Foundation, the Scripps Howard Foundation, the Western & Southern Financial Fund, the Summertime Kids Fund of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation, Humana Healthy Horizons Medicaid, and the SofaGives Charitable Fund .

For more information, contact Paul Gottbrath at (859) 750-2813 or paulgottbrath@gmail.com.