NC Gov. Roy Cooper is hosting a school supply drive. Here’s how to donate.

Gov. Roy Cooper on Thursday kicked off an effort to collect school supplies to give to North Carolina teachers and students before the start of the new school year.

From July 30 to Aug. 17, the 2nd Annual Governor’s School Supply Drive is looking for items such as paper of all types, pens and pencils, USB flash drives, dry erase markers, spiral notebooks, sanitizing wipes and tissues.

At events Thursday in Charlotte and Henderson, Cooper said the donations are needed because teachers, on average, spend about $500 of their own money on supplies for their classrooms each year. Cooper, a Democrat, noted how the Republican-led state legislature hasn’t funded for the past two budgets his proposed $150 annual supply stipend for every public school teacher.

“Teachers shouldn’t have to dip into their own pockets to cover the cost of classroom supplies that their students need to learn,” Cooper said in a statement. “One day we’re going to convince the legislature to make a greater investment in public schools, but until then, we want to do everything we can to get students and teachers the supplies they need for a successful school year.”

Donation bins will be available in state government buildings in Raleigh, businesses that partner with the North Carolina Business Committee on Education and all State Employee Credit Union branch buildings across North Carolina.

In addition to those locations, Cooper said people can organize their own school supply drives at their workplaces. Information on how to organize drives is available at https://bit.ly/2mM3gkz.

North Carolina communities and schools, as well as AmeriCorps volunteers, will distribute the supplies to classrooms across the state.

This story was originally published July 26, 2018 at 5:13 PM.