PEABODY — As families begin preparing for the new school year, Citizens Inn and No Child Goes Hungry in Peabody are once again asking the community to help ensure local students have the supplies they need to start the year with confidence.

The annual school supply drive collects classroom essentials for children served by Citizens Inn, with additional supplies distributed through No Child Goes Hungry in Peabody to reach even more families. The organizations have partnered on the effort for nearly a decade, building on a longstanding collaboration that also includes food distribution.

“Citizens Inn, we’re focused on housing and food security, but we know that when people are experiencing food insecurity or housing insecurity, that’s not going to be their only need, right?” Citizens Inn Executive Director Melissa González said. “People’s needs are complex. … We know that, for example, the families that come to our pantry for food have many other needs, and we want to set kids up for success, and that means that they’re not going hungry, but that also means that we want to make sure that they can start the school year with the supplies that they need.”

Jarrod Hochman, vice president and chief operating officer of No Child Goes Hungry in Peabody, said the goal is to remove one more barrier to learning.

“What we hope to get out of it is healthy, well-rounded kids that don’t feel less than, that don’t feel that they don’t have the proper tools to access all that school offers. … There’s too many roadblocks or impediments in the way for life and school, and kids shouldn’t need to realize those roadblocks because they don’t have the ability, or the family doesn’t have the ability, to provide them with notebooks or pencils or crayons,” Hochman said.

He added that he wants students “to thrive and succeed to the best of their ability.”

Both organizations emphasized that new backpacks are the greatest need, as they are the most expensive item to provide. Other items that can be donated include: glue sticks, markers and crayons, blue and black pens, erasers, No. 2 pencils, colored pencils, pencil sharpeners, pencil cases, highlighters, notebooks, calculators, hand sanitizer, tissues, rulers, folders, loose leaf paper, 3-ring binders, notebooks, and index cards.

Any remaining school supplies are donated to Peabody Public Schools for classroom supply closets.

Donations can be dropped off at dozens of locations through Aug. 5.

In Peabody, donations can be brought to: Brooksby Village, Brother’s Deli, Citizens Inn, Community Covenant Church, Gaetas Towing, GraVoc, No Child Goes Hungry in Peabody, North Shore Children’s Museum, North Suburban Jewish Community Center, Peabody Fire Department, Peabody Police Department, all three branches of the Peabody Library, Sandmagination, Temple Ner Tamid, Temple Tiferet Shalom, Treadwell’s Ice Cream, and more.