Free haircuts, school supplies prepare Minnesota kids to return to class

Dalvin Jones brought his three kids, all eager students, to Conway Recreation Center in St. Paul on Tuesday to gear up for their return to class. They left carrying backpacks stuffed with notebooks, pencils, folders and other school supplies.

"Anything they want to do with school, we're going to do it," said Jones, a new St. Paul resident, while waiting in line for the Barbers and Backpacks event. "We appreciate [this]. I'm sure everybody else does, too."

"It's definitely a big help. It's just expensive right now in the world," said Jovan Gills who stood in line with Jones.

Teachers are often the ones making sure all students have the supplies they need. Educators can spend as many as one to two paychecks a year on items like notebooks, pencils, crayons and glue sticks, according to an annual survey by the nonprofit Kids in Need Foundation, based in Roseville.

On Tuesday, the group teamed with McDonald's restaurant owners to deliver supplies to teachers at Excell Academy for Higher Learning, a charter school in Brooklyn Park. There, four in five students qualifies for free or reduced price lunches.

Each teacher in 34 classrooms received about $540 in supplies as part of a "Fries for Supplies" promotion, said Gina Palmer of the Kids in Need Foundation, which relied on survey data to determine what went inside the boxes.

"We are not just guessing about what teachers need," she said.

Angelina Bochkarov, who is beginning her first year as a special education teacher at Excell Academy, said she had yet to shop but was prepared to buy items she knew some families could not afford. She was among many teachers elated to learn they were getting not one but two boxes each.

"The boxes were heavy, too," Bochkarov said.

McDonald's owners raised nearly $91,000 at restaurants in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan — enough to support more than 320 teachers and nearly 9,000 students, a spokesman said.

Nearly 200 backpacks were given away in the first hour of the Barbers and Backpacks event in St. Paul, hosted by the National Black Police Association's Minnesota chapter.

Brad Chin, the Minnesota chapter president, said events like this are pivotal to rebuilding trust in the community that was destroyed when former Minneapolis Police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd.

"If you don't have trust in the community, how are you able to protect that same community? How are you expected to be called to come help if they don't trust you?" Chin said. "Hopefully now these kids are seeing Black officers in uniform, they're able to say, 'Hey I can trust not only Black officers, but I can trust police officers.'"

Such distrust in police is nationwide, and it varies sharply by race. A survey performed by the American Public Media Research Lab found that one out of every five Black Minnesotans trust the police to do right . That's compared to 70% for white Minnesotans. And national data by the Pew Research Center found that almost half of Black adults they surveyed were unfairly stopped by police. Just 9% of white adults said the same.

Events like Barbers and Backpacks fight distrust, said Minnesota chapter Vice President Rae Brown, because police can interact with residents in a positive way. That builds healthy relationships, which can prevent threats to public safety.

"I just don't want to pass by your house every day," Brown said. "I'd love to know who lives there, what schools your kids go to, and have them look forward to coming to these events every year."

More than 500 backpacks were ready to donate at Tuesday's event. The National Black Police Association plans to donate any leftover supplies at separate Minneapolis events later this year.