For Wellesley High alumna Grace Rodrigue and her two sisters, Olivia and Simone, volunteering and being able to give back to their community is deeply personal and fundamental to supporting children who are economically disadvantaged. In an interview with Swellesley, Grace shared that her father understood first-hand what it was like to grow up as a child in poverty and on food stamps, which is partly why he became involved and was named President and Director of Kids Backing Kids.

Grace Rodrigue with her two sisters, Olivia and Simone

Kids Backing Kids is a non-profit, independent organization that was co-founded by the Rodrigue sisters during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 when it became clear how much COVID-19 was impacting children and families. According to the KBK website, the original concept was to help children who could not afford school supplies, receive them, and it quickly grew to become more: educating other kids in Wellesley about important problems children are experiencing such as food insecurity and homelessness.

KBK does more than its annual Back to School Supply Drive, which gives kids a new backpack with supplies, snacks and other school-material resources, by holding a holiday gift drive during the Winter and a diaper drive, where people can donate items for infants and new mothers. According to Grace, the organization has now branched out to helping students in Needham, Newton and Dorchester.

KBK also has many volunteer opportunities that engage people of all ages and backgrounds. For kids in grades 5 to 8, they can be a ‘Backpack Stuffer’ which is a more casual commitment, and for high schoolers, they can become “Community Speakers”—a higher level of commitment that allows them to learn about and then speak on topics (childhood poverty, food insecurity, homelessness, or trauma) in front of large groups.

KBK also has a selective mentorship program for kids in grades 10 to 12, in which they select four students to be paired with a mentor on the executive team for one year, to learn about how a non-profit organization operates and to be a part of something they care about.

“We like to include our community and surrounding communities as much as possible because we want other kids to get the experience of helping kids their age,” Grace said. “We want to raise awareness of these social issues and hopefully inspire change in the future with future generations. So we always have an interactive part in our drives where kids and families and anyone can volunteer to help in any sort of way.”

More: Wellesley’s charitable and community action groups