COLUMBUS, Ga. (WRBL) — Amerigroup Georgia teamed up with Comfort Cases for National Adoption Month this November for a packing party to provide backpacks for foster children.

Comfort Cases is a nonprofit that started in 2012 to provide children in foster care with personal care items and a duffel bag. In its 11 years of service, they have provided 220,000 backpacks for children in foster care.

Rob Scheer, the founder of Comfort Cases, says Georgia is the first state to collaborate with the group in an effort to end the practice of foster children having to use garbage bags to move their belongings. 50 volunteers worked together to pack over 250 backpacks full of personal items, hygiene products, and a duffle bag.

Scheer spoke with WRBL on the impact these comfort cases are making.

“Amerigroup and Comfort Cases decided a year ago that we were going to come to Georgia and we were going to make sure that every single child who enters foster care gets a comfort case, that they get a comfort Excel, which is a 32-inch duffel bag in the state of Georgia. We have anywhere between 500 to 700 kids who are actually arriving every single month. And the sad part is, is they’re handed a trash bag”

The backpacks will be distributed today through social services, group homes, and child-placing agencies. More information on Comfort Cases and how to donate can be found on their website.

Learn more here.