San Francisco schoolchildren will be given a back-to-school treat Saturday with the giveaway of thousands of new backpacks filled with school supplies at locations in the Bayview and Western Addition neighborhoods.
The giveaway is sponsored by the MAGIC program and was started by the Public Defender’s Office in 2004 to help support education, job training and health programs in underserved communities.
On Saturday, 5,000 backpacks filled with notebooks, pencils, crayons, rulers and other items will be distributed at the Bayview Opera House on Third Street and at the Ella Hill Hutch Community Center on McAllister Street, to K-12 students.
The event will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Funding for the supplies was provided by the 49ers Foundation, the Wells Fargo Foundation, the Tides Foundation, California Pacific Medical Center, the San Francisco Department of Children, Youth and Families, and others, according to the Public Defender’s Office.
Future backpack donations are planned in the Tenderloin, Sunset and Mission districts.
