So I'm currently spearheading this back-to-school donation drive for a local Title 1 district here in rural Ohio and I'm honestly hitting a wall with the sourcing. We have a modest budget of $600 and we're trying to put together at least 50 complete kits, maybe more if we can stretch the dollar. I’ve been looking around online for a couple days now and it's kind of overwhelming.

I checked out Amazon Business because everyone says it's the gold standard but honestly their bulk prices for basic yellow pencils and spiral notebooks arent that much better than just going to a physical Walmart during a sale. Then I looked at the Dollar Tree bulk site which seemed perfect at first glance since everything is basically $1.25, but I've been reading some horror stories on Reddit about their shipping. Apparently people order like 200 boxes of crayons and half of them show up crushed or they just cancel the order because they dont actually have the stock in the warehouse.

Here is what I am looking for specifically:

• 50-75 wide-ruled spiral notebooks (pref solid colors)
• Bulk packs of #2 pencils (not the plastic ones that ruin sharpeners)
• 2-pocket folders (needs to be durable enough to last at least a semester)
• 24-count crayon boxes (Crayola is too expensive, but I dont want the ones that feel like plastic and dont color)
• Glue sticks (the big packs)

The timeline is really tight because the drive is happening in about three weeks and I need time to actually assemble everything into the backpacks we already have. I dont really want to pay for a corporate membership like Costco or Sam's Club just for this one-off project because that just eats into the budget.

Does anyone know of a wholesale site that's actually reliable and doesn't charge a fortune for shipping? I heard about places like BulkOfficeSupply or Bags in Bulk but I dont know if they're legit or just drop-shippers with massive markups. Is there some kind of secret site that teachers use that I am missing? Really hope I can find something soon so I can get these ordered by Friday...