The Back-to-School! Store is celebrating its 16^th birthday in a big way as it moves to more expansive quarters in West County.

Set for July 24, the National Council of Jewish Women-St. Louis Section program, which distributes clothing and school supplies to hundreds of area children in need, will make its 2016 debut at Creve Coeur’s Temple Israel. It has been housed at Central Reform Congregation for the past decade and a half since its introduction in 2001.

“It is just a bigger space and we will be able to serve not only the children but their parents and guardians better,” said Beth Feldman, program manager at NCJW.

Feldman said that CRC had proven to be a “fantastic host” for the initiative with a supportive staff and congregants but that a need for more space prompted a decision to relocate. 

She said that using the sanctuary at TI will allow organizers to combine its waiting area for parents with its “family resource center” into a single room, a place where parents and guardians can find items related to everything from children’s health and dental needs to information on the area’s charter schools.

The program will also introduce a mobile mammography van in the temple’s parking lot from the Siteman Cancer Center and the move will allow more time to set up and break down the Back to School! Store itself.

“Temple Israel has a chapel they can use for services in the week leading up to and following the store,” Feldman said. “Summer services are smaller so they can use that chapel area. Therefore, they’ve given us free reign of the temple building.”

Feldman said it costs about $180 to sponsor each child’s trip through the store where they can acquire items ranging from winter coats and tennis shoes to glue sticks and spiral notebooks. Funding comes from grants and proceeds from NCJW’s resale shop. Donations from companies and individuals also help foot the bill.

“We even have people from various knitting groups knit scarves for the kids,” Feldman said. “It is a real community effort.”

Participants will also be able to pick out a book or two thanks to a grant from First Book, a non-profit.

“They have a marketplace where we can buy children’s books at a very low rate,” she said. “We’ve really tried to focus this year on having a diverse selection of reading material because our kids are really diverse coming from many different countries and cities. We try to offer an array of books that the children can be reflected in.”

Melissa Baris, vice-president of NCJW community relations, said the fundamental aspects of the event haven’t changed even if the location has.

“When you see these kids come into the store and see the smiles on their faces, we know we’re getting them ready for school and getting them excited to learn,” she said.

Baris said that she’s been involved in the NCJW’s effort for more than a decade and believes that it has made a big difference in the lives of children.

“I have two kids and I know what it is like for them to go back-to-school shopping to get ready,” she said. “We’re providing for these kids who wouldn’t otherwise have brand new clothes and backpacks so we can get them excited for the first day of school.”

Feldman said about 1,200 students normally participate but this year that number will likely increase by another 100. That also has boosted hopes for an increase in volunteers from the 470 last year to as many as 600 this year.

Rabbi Amy Feder of Temple Israel thinks congregants are enthused by the move.

“Since we have remodeled our facility here, we have a perfect space for them to be able to hold the store,” she said. ‘The timing was really beshert.”

Feder noted that many TI congregants have longstanding ties to NCJW already.

“People are excited about it,” she said. “We have many members who are connected with NCJW so they are thrilled that two organizations so close to their hearts can be working together.”

Another aspect to the event that will remain is the Kids Community Closet, a year-round program which began in 2008 and uses carry-over items from the Back to School! Store to help students at 21 area schools in impoverished neighborhoods.

“We have to plan for more items than we have children,” said Feldman. “If we’re serving 1,300 children, we don’t know ahead of time what the genders are and what the sizes are that the children are going to pick so we have to have more than that available.”

Donations and volunteers are still sought for the Back to School! Store. For more information, visit www.ncjwbtss.org.