Back to school event serves family financial needs

Published 7:15 am Thursday, July 31, 2025

While going back to school can be an exciting time for children, for parents, it’s often one of the most stressful times of the year. Between gathering school supplies and buying new clothes after a summer growth spurt, parents are making sure their kids are putting their best foot forward to start off the new school year.

“The kids are just happy getting their supplies, but you can see the relief on their caretakers’ faces,” Rose Santos, Community Outreach Manager for Driscoll Health Plan, said. “You know, $50 to $60 in school supplies per kid enables parents to rearrange their finances and put the money they saved towards more life choices like rent or groceries.”

Each summer, there is a seemingly endless amount of back-to-school events in the Crossroads area, and each one offers something a little bit different. They attempt to fill a gap in resources for local families.

At the Driscoll Health Plan Back to School Resource Fair at Victoria College Wednesday, students were set up for success by gathering school supplies and getting connected to vital resources.

“We want to make sure families know what resources are available and to get their needs met,” Brittani Cervantez, Support Services Coordinator at Victoria College, said. “We have a lot of college students who are also parents, and we want to make they are utilizing their time in the best way possible.”

More than 350 people visited the resource fair, lining up outside the door hours before the event started. As a community college, it was the desire of VC’s pirate family to open its doors to serve as a resource for local families and introduce families to what VC has to offer.

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“We’re reaching students and introducing school-aged children to higher education,” Cervantez said.

The college reached out to middle schoolers and high schoolers, offering supplies for older students such as composition books and binders instead of just crayons for elementary school kids.

Throughout South Texas, Driscoll Health Plan has been apart of over 30 back-to-school events this year, giving away 300,000 backpacks and touching the lives of 50,000 families. The organization has staged back-to-school events for the last 13 years, working together with 500 community partners throughout the region.

“We can’t do this alone,” Santos said. “We are looking to connect underserved families with what they need. We want the best for them, so we are trying to promote long, sustaining success for them.”

Driscoll Health Plan identifies communities that need support and finds community sponsors to help connect families with resources, especially health services such as insurance and regular health screenings.

Vision screenings were available at the resources fair as well as nutrition information, including for diabetes and obesity awareness.

“Its simple really—when healthy kids are in schools, they’re in the classroom and they are learning,” Santos said.

Driscoll Health Plan will also participate in VISD Connections’ 3rd annual Back to School Fair on Friday, Aug. 1, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the VISD Success Academy (3002 E North St).

Madison O’Hara is a news reporter for the Victoria Advocate. She can be reached at madison.ohara@vicad.com.