Did you know Bissell Centre helps families with children entering school? Bissell Centre receives supplies each year to give to families with children about to enter grade one through our Family Support Services team (find the contact information below).
This is just one of the low or no cost supports available to families facing barriers to affording the growing costs associated with sending children to school. Navigating all these services can be complicated — Bissell Centre’s Family Support Services team can help you uncover the supports that will work best for you and your family.
If you want to meet with our Family Supports team, you can find them at the Bissell Centre Service Hub at 10527, 96 Street. You can contact our Family Supports team directly:
If you’re reaching out to any of the services on this list, please visit their websites for their criteria. For a full list of additional services, call 211.
School and Education Technology
Bissell Centre Family Support Services — supplies are limited. Please reach out directly to learn more about what’s currently available.
Income Support for School Expenses
You could be entitled to receive support from the Government of Alberta to help pay for school expenses. Qualified families can receive annual financial assistance for school expenses:
- $63.00 per year per child aged 4 or 5 or in kindergarten
- $121.00 per year per child aged 6 to 11 or in elementary school
- $208.00 per year per child aged 12 or older or in junior high or high school
Click to learn more about how to qualify and how to apply for this benefit.
School Supplies – Pencils, Paper, Binders, etc.
Many schools offer programs to supply children from qualifying families in need with school supplies for the year. Contacting your school if your first best step to ensuring your children have everything they need for the school year. If this option isn’t available to you, here are some community-based resources that can help.
Can Man Dan — the 14th annual We’re Here For Ya Day will be on Sunday, August 23, 2026, at Shadified Salon & Spa (12222 137 Ave NW Edmonton, Alberta). This is an annual event where the Can Man Dan organization provides free backpacks full of school supplies for families who qualify. Registration is required to receive a backpack full of school supplies for the year and closes on August 16, 2026. Click to be taken directly to the registration page, which includes further information about this program.
Reuse Centre
FIND
Free or low-cost clothing for Back to School
KARA Family Resource Centre – The annual Kicks of Kids event is coming up on Saturday, August 22, 2026, at Trinity Reformed Church (13427 57 Street, Edmonton). Families can receive footwear for all children going back to school in the fall.
Mill Woods United Church
Saint Vincent de Paul
Building Hope
Amity House
Care Closet
Bissell Thrift Shop
Mustard Seed Thrift
Free Food or Meals for Lunches
Building Hope
C5 Hub Food Pantry
Candora Society
Hope Mission
Freedom Centre Church
Edmonton Food Bank
Food Not Bombs
Wecan Food Baskets
Native Healing Centre
Native Friendship Centre
Pantry N More’
Bethel Church
Tegler Youth Centre – School Lunch Program
Diapers and formula are essential for raising a happy and healthy family. High costs are making it harder for families experiencing poverty to find stability — often struggling to afford these necessities and there are few programs than can help.
People in Alberta with infant children spend between $900 and $1,200 each year on diapers. On average, infants use eight to 10 diapers each day and without regular changes babies are at risk of diaper rash and other illnesses
For people with limited resources, providing necessities for an infant can seem insurmountable. That’s why on May 1, we launched Tushies and Tummies as a 10-day Mother’s Day Sprint to collect diapers and formula for families with young children. Our Family Services program provides diapers and formula to families in need and is one piece that can help a family break the generational cycles of poverty.
To continue this important program we need support from our community, including you!
Why Donate Diapers?
Donating disposable diapers can be crucial for families facing multiple barriers. Providing free diapers means families in need don’t worry about running out, and instead can focus on keeping their children clean, healthy, and happy.
Families without regular access to disposable diapers might try:
- Changing them less often.
- Leaving wet/soiled diapers on their children for full days.
- Using other materials like newspapers or tea towels as diapers.
To attend most child care centres, caregivers also need to provide their own disposable diapers, creating another barrier for people accessing programs like Bissell Child Care’s free respite care. The added stress can increase anxiety and be detrimental to mental health for both caregivers and children and even compromise the bond between child and caregiver.
Family at Bissell Child Care.
Reasons to Donate Formula
Ensuring children receive all the vitamins and nutrients they need is critical to their development. While mother’s milk is the ideal, it isn’t always an option.
Donating formula becomes a lifeline for hundreds of families across the city accessing our Family Supports program. In 2025, this program helped 291 families with essentials like diapers and formula. We also provided referrals and navigation to other supports that help keep families healthy and strong.
It takes a community to keep children healthy and strong. Your donation of diapers and formula today keeps tushies clean and tummies full, relieves stress on families as they navigate their pathway out of poverty, and helps strengthen the community for future generations.
For this Mother’s Day, help ensure families have what they need to raise healthy and happy little ones. We have drop-off locations for diapers and formula across Edmonton and in Sherwood Park — and they’re accepting donations right up until Mother’s Day on May 10, 2026!
Even after Mother’s Day, we’re always accepting diapers for all ages and sizes and formula donations. They can be dropped off at our Bissell Thrift Shop at 8818 118 Avenue every Monday to Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Every year, Tim Horton’s holds its Smile Cookie fundraiser, where each local franchise owner can pick a charity in their community that the proceeds from cookie sales will support. It’s a great way to help raise money for great causes directly in our communities!
This year, a group of Edmonton franchise owners decided to try something different. The group agreed to pool their efforts to make a larger collective impact – ultimately choosing Bissell Centre as their charity of choice.
And just like that, this quickly became one of the largest fundraising campaigns we’ve held – raising more than $400,000 in a single week.
Bissell’s Child and Family Supports
Funds from this spring’s Smile Cookie campaign all went to support our Child and Family Supports Program. Last year, we helped more than 1,600 families find their way out of poverty and emergency situations. These programs make a massive impact that people in Edmonton don’t often see.
“It’s things like connections to free pre-natal care, parental supports, or free access to emergency essentials like diapers and formula,” says Jonathan Mackereth, Development Officer with Bissell Centre.
Mackereth explains that Bissell has run a childcare for more than 50 years, serving families in the downtown core. The centre is fully staffed by Early Childhood Education professionals, providing Early Childhood Development for short- and long-term – serving childcare from newborns to six years old.
“There’s are enough challenges finding quality childcare – finances shouldn’t be one of them,” says Mackereth “Lots of parents even drop-off their kids to access other programs like our Employment Services or Financial Empowerment workshops, making it an essential part of our approach to ending poverty.”
Supporting and Celebrating Together
Learning that 147 Tim’s locations all came together to support Bissell Centre, “caught us a little off guard,” Jonathan jokes. “We knew right away opportunities like this don’t come often. We pooled resources into making sure folks knew that buying a cookie would help a child.”
Team members from Bissell Centre could be found at a few different locations around the city during this campaign. Whether it was celebrating with giant cookie cut-outs by the drive-thru, or putting on hair nets and decorating cookies, the teams stepped up to make the week unforgettable.
By the end of the campaign, more than 300,000 cookies were sold – raising more than $464,000! People didn’t hesitate to add a smile cookie to their regular double-double orders – with some businesses and schools pre-ordering up to 1,500 cookies at a time.
“On the first day, we had a manager come out to see us,” Jonathan recalls. “She said in the first two hours of the morning rush, they sold more than a quarter of the cookies they sold for the entire campaign last year.”
We can’t thank the Edmonton Tim’s franchisees enough for all the support they’ve given us. This will directly impact families and children experiencing houselessness and poverty in Edmonton. Thank you for helping us make Edmonton a little bit more of an equitable place to call home.
