Reelfoot Rural Ministries in need of school supplies

OBION COUNTY, Tenn. — School starts in just a few weeks, and one local nonprofit is working to make sure all the kids in their community are ready, one backpack at a time.

Reelfoot Rural Ministries started their annual school supply drive Tuesday with the goal of helping more than 600 children with the basic necessities for school.

“There’s a great need in Northwest Tennessee and Southwest Kentucky, and we are glad we are able to meet that need,” RRM Executive Director Rev. Robert Craig said. “Those lists get quite expensive, especially for families that are already on really set budgets and that live in what we would call the working poor class of our society.”

The ministry gives supplies away for kids Pre-K through their senior year of high school, filling their supply lists.

Organizers said this ministry has been helping with back-to-school needs for more than 50 years and that they couldn’t have done it without the community’s help.

“It gives them hope. It lets the parents be able to provide for the children in a way they wouldn’t be able to if we weren’t here,” RRM secretary Laura Hunt said.

To keep the ministry going, organizers say they rely on donations from the community, including the donation of time.

“Volunteers — we love to have volunteers come and sort and give out, and you get more spiritually giving out and helping people,” Hunt said.

Organizers said some of their biggest needs are three-ring binders, flash drives and dry-erase markers.

If you would like to donate, you can take items to the main RRM office located at 6923 Minnick-Elbridge Road in Obion. For more information on school supply collections, call 731-538-9970. You can contact their office if you would like to volunteer.

You can also send monetary donations to the office if you are unable to take supplies.