Karen Dye

Photo Courtesy Operation Christmas Child

As schools nationwide prepare to open their doors for another year of learning, most parents are shopping for back-to-school bargains using a school-issued supply list as their guide. But this year, U.S. kids are thinking beyond their own backpacks and buying supplies for kids they have never met.

Americans are stocking up on items for Operation Christmas Child—a massive year-round project of international Christian relief and evangelism organization Samaritan's Purse—where participants fill shoe boxes with school supplies, toys, necessity items and letters of encouragement for kids overseas.

Nearly 15 million children in the United States live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty. As their parents struggle to make ends meet, these children also struggle . . . to find hope. This spring, volunteers are using gift-filled paper bags to deliver that hope to kids in America’s most difficult neighborhoods.

Here's Life Inner City is partnering with hundreds of churches and community groups to provide "Easter Bags" to 25,400 children in 13 cities nationwide. The bags are filled with candy, crayons, a toy, a colorful beaded bracelet and a Bible story/activity book designed especially for children of the inner city.