The Illinois Currency Exchange Charitable Foundation (ICECF) kicked off its ninth annual Back 2 School initiative last month. The largest program of its kind in Illinois, the ICECF education initiative will provide free school supplies to 25,000 students in economic need in Chicago and across Illinois. New initiatives to provide free school supplies to homeless families in Chicago and military families across Illinois were announced, with support from DFSS and Operation Homefront. Alisa Rodriguez, assistant director of Human Services at DFSS, spoke passionately about her work with Chicago’s homeless and how the new Back 2 School initiative will positively impact homeless families that can’t afford school supplies. ICECF invites members of the Chicago community to nominate an elementary school in need of school supplies by submitting information and a short essay to win 2,000 school supply kits for that school. Deadline is mid-July. Information can be found at www.icecf.org/programs.