Backpacks Full of Hope, in Honor of MLK

The Backpack Project Durham aims to provide hope for residents experiencing homelessness

When Duke senior Ashley Talwar arrived on campus in 2022, she could not find a community service club that spoke to her passion for helping others.

So Talwar took action. Along with four of her classmates, she started a campus chapter of the national nonprofit The Backpack Project (TBP).

Today, the Duke University-based TBP Durham has about 250 trained student volunteers. To commemorate the Dr. Martin Luther King’s federal holiday dedicated to community service, TBP Durham aimed to provide a glimmer of hope for the city’s most vulnerable residents who are experiencing homelessness.

On Monday, January 19, TBP Durham members gathered for the Unity Rally and Backpack Project service event at Wilson Gymnasium, where, with volunteers, they filled around 400 backpacks with essential items: toiletries, clothing and non-perishable food, along with bracelets, letters and keychains.

“Last year, we anticipated 75 volunteers,” Talwar said in anticipation of the event. “Upwards of 125 showed up.” Their efforts expanded this year.

The Assembly Line

Student volunteers’ assembly line packing of the backpacks were in concert with other volunteers making bracelets, while another section wrote letters meant to inspire and encourage impoverished residents. A “moral section” lets volunteers talk about “what service means to them,” explained Talwar, and, “what Durham means to them.”

Big crowd of people assembling backpacks — Volunteers filled backpacks with essential items.

People sitting at a table writing letters — The event included a letter writing section.

A person holding up a bracelet that says 'you are loved' — Bracelets shared messages of support.

The backpacks will be placed in a storage unit and distributed weekly by partner groups across campus for the entire semester and throughout the summer months, Talwar said. TBP Durham’s partner groups include members of a community paramedics group and students with the Duke School of Nursing.

One community group that has benefitted from TBP Durham’s backpack hustle is Families Moving Forward, a nonprofit near the downtown district that provides emergency shelter for families enduring the crisis of homelessness.

“We’re really expanding our reach,” Talwar said, with TBP Durham volunteers even renovating shelter rooms across Durham with A Lotta Love.

Engaging With Durham

One of TBP Durham’s signature outings, “Meet Me at the Bridge” takes place underneath a bridge near the Durham Bulls Stadium on Blackwell Street, where volunteers — in addition to handing out backpacks — serve fresh, home-cooked meals.

“All our events are a way for students to break the Duke bubble and engage with Durham, and get to know our amazing neighbors,” Talwar said.

Talwar will earn an undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering in May. She is a 2024 recipient of the Lars Lyon Volunteer Service Award, named in honor of former Duke undergraduate student Lars Lyon. The annual award was established in 1989 to recognize a Duke undergraduate who has made a difference in a local school or nonprofit organization.

Talwar’s passion to help the less fortunate is not happenstance. Part of her family’s tradition is fighting on behalf of society’s most marginalized citizens.

“My last name means ‘sword,’ and my mother’s last name (Dhaal) means ‘shield,’” she explained.

Her family moved a lot when she was a child and she lived in what she describes as “very multicultural” settings, where interaction with her classmates made her aware of families enduring food insecurity or homelessness.

Those issues, she said, became “very near and dear” to her. So, in addition to taking an extra meal to school, she started volunteering at her high school service club and helping at Hindu temples.

Talwar says TBP Durham is just one organization that gets to commemorate Martin Luther King’s “amazing legacy,” but she thinks service to the communities where we live should be an essential part of our humanity.

“Make giving a way of life with small acts of service that opens doors for others,” she said.

“Making that extra meal makes the world around us such a better place,” Talwar said. “We should use that as a motivation and inspiration to make it a part of our lives on a weekly or monthly basis.”