For the past month, customers at Staples in Maple Ridge have been donating money to the Back to School Supply drive - raising $5,000.

The money is being used to fill backpacks for low-income children going back to school.

Connie McGonigal, family and community advocate with the Caring Place Ministries in Maple Ridge, was busy filling the backpacks for about 100 children just as school began.

In total, about 160 school children received the backpacks, which included notebooks, paper, pencils, pencil sharpeners, markers, scissors, erasers, pencil boxes, and scientific calculators for older students.

In the past, backpacks with school supplies were given to children who attended the Salvation Army summer camp.

This time, children are also being referred through various local agencies and the Ministry of Children and Family Development.

"It means we're reaching people we haven't reached in the past," McGonigal said.

This is the second year the Caring Place is partnering with Staples and Wok Box - which donated a free kids meal worth $5 with each $5 donation - to give out the backpacks.

There have also been other individual and business donations.

Staples also gave a discount when McGonigal bought the school supplies, which "helped tremendously," she said.

mrantanen@mrtimes.com