Story by Suzette Hackney and Nicole Carroll, USA TODAY

In a recent USA Today interview linked above, Vice President Kamala Harris talked about how women are essential to the workforce. The following excerpt comes from the news story, in which Harris highlights Blessings First Coast partner Duval County School District, and our work at Blessings in a Backpack:

During the pandemic, we’ve seen who is essential, the jobs needed to keep our lives and communities going. The grocery store workers, social workers, pharmacy technicians, child care providers, health care workers. The teachers.

All majority women.

During our interview, Harris mentioned how just this week, she met with the superintendent of the Duval County School District in Florida.

“She was describing how teachers and educators have been going to the bus stops where the school bus normally went to make sure they were there to bring food to the kids who are hungry, who are really facing so many challenges,” Harris said.

“She described how they have what they call Blessings in a Backpack and how educators, in schools that are open, have been filling the kids’ backpacks on Friday afternoon, knowing that they’re going to go home and probably over the weekend not have any food.

“Teachers, just the heroes among us.”