LCPS Superintendent Brent Williams and Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, frame a display of some of the school supplies donated by department employees to LCPS and delivered to Caswell Center by Secretary Cohen on Tuesday. With them is Caswell employee Bena Dudley, who created the artwork for the School Supply Drive display.

The employees of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services in Raleigh collected a truckload of school supplies for Lenoir County Public Schools and the department’s leader, Dr. Mandy Cohen, delivered them to Kinston herself on Tuesday.

Cohen was joined by Caswell Developmental Center Director Marsha Meadows and Caswell staffers in presenting the boxes of notebook paper, pencils, pens, crayons, tissue, highlighters, markers and other necessities for students and classrooms to LCPS Superintendent Brent Williams. Also on hand from the school district were Associate Superintendent Frances Herring and Assistant Superintendent Nicholas Harvey II.

The delivery is part of Gov. Roy Cooper’s third annual School Supply Drive to benefit students and reduce the burden on teachers to pay for supplies out of their own pocket.

“We are very thankful to Secretary Cohen, to her department and to the entire team at Caswell Center for investing in our school system and our students,” Williams said. “These school supplies will help to support the processes of teaching and learning in our schools.”

LCPS will distribute the school supplies to students who need them through their schools.

After the Caswell Center event, Secretary Cohen traveled to the Lenoir-Greene Partnership for Children and the Lenoir County Department of Social Services to drop off donated school supplies at each of those locations.