WORCESTER — Hundreds of elementary students in underserved areas of Worcester lit up when they received backpacks jam packed with supplies on the second day of school.

On Aug. 31, UMass Medical School’s North Quadrant Support Services team handed out nearly 600 backpacks to elementary students (grades 1-3) at Rice Square, Grafton Street and Union Square elementary schools. These schools are in Worcester’s “North Quadrant,” which, according to a release from UMass Medical School, includes some of the city’s most economically challenged neighborhoods.

“They are so excited because these supplies are going to help them have a successful year,” said Jennifer Brunelle, a second-grade teacher at Rice Square Elementary School. “After the past year-and-a-half, getting them back in school and making sure they have what they need means a lot to all of us.”

UMass Medical School’s North Quadrant Support Services program started in 2017 as a partnership with the Worcester Public Schools. It resumed this year after it was put on hold by the coronavirus pandemic. The program was funded by a grant from the Remillard Family Community Service Fund. According to a release from UMass Medical School, the program began as a means to address “the socioeconomic barrier to academic success faced by many of the area’s K-12 students.”

“We try to have as much equity in the school as we can,” said Rice Square’s Principal Susan Donahue. “Having backpacks and supplies for every student doesn’t single out students who don’t have access to what they need.”

Staff in UMass Medical School’s Office of Community and Government Relations assisted student volunteers from all three North Quadrant schools in packing the backpacks with supplies. The backpacks were given out at Rice Square Elementary School.

Supplies in the backpacks included notebooks, pencils, pens, rulers, colored pencils and a coronavirus-inspired coloring book called “Emma RNA Saves the Day.” The coloring book was designed to give children a better understanding of what the coronavirus is and the underlying science behind mRNA vaccines.

“This year we actually have a coloring book which was designed by our ‘ScienceLIVE’ program,” said John Erwin, vice chancellor of government relations at UMass Medical School. “It’s mRNA versus spike protein, so it’s a COVID related coloring book that gives kids insights into their little science call outs that this is what a spike protein is and things like that.”

Not only has the pandemic created a public health crisis that kept many elementary aged students out of the brick-and-mortar educational system for at least a year, but according to Ché Anderson, UMass Medical School’s assistant vice chancellor for city and community relations, it has exacerbated societal inequities which this backpack giveaway is trying to adjust.

“If we’ve learned anything over the last year plus, it is that there are a lot of societal inequities that have only been amplified and magnified by COVID,” said Anderson. “Having the ability and the opportunity to provide young people necessities to start the school year on the right foot is the sort of true partnership that we value.”