St. Anthony's employees tell ABC7 News that times are so tough, that for every family they give clothes to, they have to turn another family away.
On Thursday they made a very big exception by opening up their donation center to 60 families they pre-approved just in time for the new school year.
Jacqueline Walker is an unemployed single mother of five kids. Three of which are going back to school, "Very expensive, and one of them is in uniforms, so it's very expensive," Walker said.
The employees at St. Anthony's kept hearing from people like Jacqueline this year and decided they needed to do something, "A lot of our folks in the dining room were just asking and asking, saying they really need back to school clothing for their kids," St. Anthony' Director of Programs Cissie Bonini said.
So the church called Old Navy and asked for a clothing donation. They also called Walgreens, asking for school supplies. They were able to promise help to 60 families with a total of 150 kids.
"It's getting harder and harder to be on low-income," Walker said. "So any help I can get is appreciated."
Bonini added, "It's just, it's tight. We're feeling it, and especially if you have children going back to school, you really want to have some nice clothing. You know, there's a huge dignity issue about feeling good about going back to school. Here at St. Anthony's, that's a huge part of what we do. It's just about trying to make people feel better."
This was the first event of its kind for St. Anthony's. Since it was so successful, they're hoping to make it an annual event.
