Fort Wayne’s Tools for School Drive Hit a Familiar Shortfall

Allen County’s Salvation Army was 300 backpacks short of its Tools for School goal on July 23, 2026, with a week of collecting left. Seven days later, United Way of Allen County and Cummins handed over 450 backpacks already filled, and the corps gave supplies to families on Aug. 5.

The 2026 drive was the 23rd. The target was still about 1,000 students, the same mark used in 2025, and the late hole in the backpack count looked like 2023 all over again.

The Drive Was 300 Backpacks Short in Late July

Captain Dena Smith, corps officer at The Salvation Army of Allen County, opened the 23rd Tools for School campaign on June 11, 2026, while summer break was just starting. The corps asked for new bookbags, water bottles, pencils, colored pencils, crayons, markers, highlighters, pens, erasers, glue sticks, notebooks, loose-leaf paper, folders, and binders, and said the program would help about 1,000 kids walk into class with a full bag.

By July 23, with collections set to end July 29, the Army was still 300 backpacks short. Timothy Smith, the social services director, said backpacks were the item they needed most, and that supply prices were biting harder than they had.

They’re up again this year, so it’s more noticeable of a hit to your budget than it has been before.

Timothy Smith, social services director, The Salvation Army of Allen County

Organizers added two Stuff the Bus stops at the Walmart on Lima Road on July 25 and July 27, then kept taking gifts through Aug. 5 even after the official close on July 29.

THE 2026 COLLECTING CALENDAR

1. June 11, 2026: The corps kicks off the 23rd Tools for School drive and sets a target of about 1,000 students.
2. July 23, 2026: Leaders say the drive is 300 backpacks short and put backpacks at the top of the need list.
3. July 25 and 27, 2026: Stuff the Bus sits at the Walmart on Lima Road on Saturday and Monday.
4. July 29, 2026: The campaign’s posted close date arrives; donations are still taken through Aug. 5.
5. July 30, 2026: United Way of Allen County and Cummins deliver 450 filled backpacks.
6. Aug. 5, 2026: Families pick up supplies from 4 to 7 p.m.; cash gifts are held for a later shop.

That calendar is the whole mechanism. Bins sit out for weeks, the backpack count lags, a public ask goes out with a week left, and a large in-kind drop lands as the doors are closing.

$146.45 for Supplies Inside an $863.86 Bill

Timothy Smith’s point about price sits on a national bill that barely moved in dollars and still lands all at once. The National Retail Federation, in its survey with Prosper Insights & Analytics released July 14, 2026, said families with K-12 students plan to spend $146.45 on school supplies, inside an average of $863.86 once electronics, clothes, and shoes are added.

That $863.86 was up slightly from $858.07 in 2025. Total K-12 spending was forecast at a record $43.3 billion, up from $39.4 billion in 2025 and above the previous survey high of $41.5 billion in 2023. Mark Mathews, NRF chief economist and executive director of research, said affordability was a concern for families and a top priority for retailers. The survey covered 7,677 consumers from July 1 to 8, with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.1 percentage points.

NRF K-12 BACK-TO-SCHOOL AVERAGES, 2026

In 2025, the four buckets were $295.81 on electronics, $249.36 on clothing, $169.13 on shoes, and $143.77 on supplies. Shoppers tried to spread the hit: 62% had already started by early July, down from 67% at the same point in 2025 but above 55% in 2024, and 54% used June events such as Prime Day, Walmart Deals, and Target Circle Deal Days. About 47% said they would buy only what the first week required and restock later.

Why Colored Pencils Hurt a Four-Kid Budget

The $146.45 average is per family in the NRF survey, not per child, and it assumes a clean list. Krista Rase, a Fort Wayne mother of four, said the damage comes when schools want more than one set of the same thing, and that colored pencils, markers, and crayons are where the ticket jumps.

I would say when you get to colored pencils, markers, and crayons, it can get pretty costly.

Krista Rase, Fort Wayne parent of four

That is the household the 2025 drive was built around. Timothy Smith said then that a lot of families were living paycheck to paycheck, and that any added cost could break the budget, especially with more than one or two kids. The 2026 ask did not change the math. It just put a new year’s prices on the same multiples.

Cummins and United Way Delivered 450 Filled Backpacks

The bin network did not close the 300-backpack hole by itself. On July 30, 2026, United Way of Allen County and Cummins delivered 450 backpacks that employees had stuffed as part of a yearly national project in which Cummins volunteers with local United Ways. Staff chose the school drive this time, and the gift was larger than the backpack shortfall the Army had posted a week earlier.

This collaboration between United Way and Cummins is a tremendous boost to our Tools for School campaign.

Captain Dena Smith, Corps Officer, The Salvation Army of Allen County

One workplace packing day moved more bags than the public shortfall number. That does not prove the corps hit about 1,000 students, because the Army never published a final headcount after the Aug. 5 pickup. It does show how the drive actually finishes: a late in-kind drop, then a handoff window, then a second shop with cash.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The target: Captain Dena Smith said the 2026 program would help about 1,000 kids, matching the nearly 1,000-student goal used in 2025.
• The hole: On July 23, 2026, the Army said it was 300 backpacks short, with backpacks the top need.
• The drop: United Way of Allen County and Cummins delivered 450 filled backpacks on July 30.
• The handoff: Supplies went out from 4 to 7 p.m. on Aug. 5, 2026, with more buying planned from cash gifts.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• Students served: No public tally after Aug. 5 showed how many children actually received a bag.
• Goal met: Whether the drive reached about 1,000 students was not posted.
• Full value: The Army did not release a dollar total for 2026 gifts.

The 450 bags were a boost, in Dena Smith’s word. They were also a substitute for a last week of collecting that had not produced enough backpacks on its own.

The Same Summer Ritual Since 2004

Tools for School started in 2004. The 2026 edition was the 23rd, and the pitch has not aged out of Timothy Smith’s 2025 line that times were kind of hard and that the Army was there to take a little of the burden off. In July 2024 the Salvation Army of Allen County said it was in desperate need of school supplies. In July 2023, Tools for School organizers said they were short donations for 300 children.

The 2023 shortfall was counted in children. The 2026 shortfall was counted in backpacks. The number 300 is what kept coming back, late in July, with school a few weeks away. In 2025 the Fort Wayne TinCaps even parked a bus beyond center field at Parkview Field on June 24 and traded a reserved-seat voucher for supplies during a game against the Great Lakes Loons. The civic partners rotate. The summer calendar does not.

Dena Smith put the point in classroom terms when the 23rd drive opened. Going back to school, she said, can be a very anxious time for parents as well as for kids, and a backpack that is fully loaded can make quite a difference. The Army wanted children to walk in confident and ready to learn. That sentence could have been read at any of the 22 kickoffs before it.

Where the Bins Sat Across Allen County

Donation bins in 2026 sat at Citizens Square at 200 E. Berry St., the Walmart stores at 10105 Lima Rd. and 5311 Coldwater Rd., Sweetwater Sound at 5501 U.S. 30 West, Fort Financial Credit Union branches, and ProTailored Physical Therapy clinics, with more private sites promised. The Fort Wayne corps community center at 2901 N. Clinton St., phone 260-744-2311, remained the home base. Several of those stops are the same aisles where families buy the list if they can pay for it.

The 2025 bookbags as the greatest need sheet, still the clearest printed list the corps has posted, matches what leaders asked for again in 2026 and spells out the rest of the bag.

WHAT THE WISH LIST PUT IN THE BAG

• Carry gear: Bookbags first, then water bottles.
• Writing: Pencils, pens, colored pencils, crayons, markers, dry-erase markers, highlighters, and pink erasers.
• Paper: Spiral notebooks, composition notebooks, loose-leaf paper, folders, and three-ring binders.
• Glue: Glue sticks, the item that vanishes first in a shared classroom bin.

Cash was taken at SAFortWayne.org if people typed Tools for School in the memo, and the corps kept Amazon and Walmart registries up so donors could buy a listed item instead of guessing. That is how a drive that lives on leftover backpacks still converts a late gift card into pencils after the bins are hauled in.

Empty Hands on the First Day of School

The local hole is a backpack count. The classroom hole is wider. Kids In Need Foundation’s Spring 2026 Teacher Insight Survey, taken by more than 7,400 certified K-12 teachers in 44 states and Washington, D.C., found that more than half start without required supplies. Two out of three students, teachers said, lack enough supplies at home to finish the work, and 64% run out by the second semester and cannot easily replace what is gone.

WHAT TEACHERS TOLD KIDS IN NEED

• First day: More than half of students arrive without the full required list.
• At home: Two of three lack enough supplies to complete schoolwork.
• By spring: 64% run out by the second semester and cannot easily restock.
• The staff cost: More than 42% of teachers in the survey had considered leaving because they felt under-resourced and under-supported.

An elementary teacher in Ohio described the first-week workaround as slowing the class down, handing things out, making kids share, and figuring out who still needs what. It can also make some kids feel uncomfortable or singled out right away, the teacher said. Midyear, when the communal bin is empty, lessons get cut to match whatever is left. A Fort Wayne bag that never arrives does not stay a summer charity problem. It becomes a shared pencil, a skipped project, and a child who knows the difference.

On Aug. 5, 2026, from 4 to 7 p.m., families picked up what the bins and the Cummins bags had produced. The Army said it would shop again later with the money people had given instead of supplies. No later count was posted of how many of the about 1,000 students went home with a full list.