OUR STORY

Hi everyone! We wanted to introduce ourselves.  We are Grace (younger sister), Madelyn (older sister), and Melissa (mom).  We are on a mission to ensure every student attends school with a full pencil case, through gently used school supply donations.  We established ourselves in October 2020.  Why and when did this journey begin?

This journey started with one single, broken pencil.  Our family spent the past several years living in Philadelphia. As such, I (mom) had to give up my teaching job to move.  Philadelphia taught us so much as a family, most importantly, how much we valued our Canadian passport.

Upon returning to Toronto in August 2020, "The Calling" came back with vengeance.  I thought my years of teaching were behind me only to discover how much I missed it.  On my very first day back at work, a student asked me for an eraser because his broken pencil didn't have one.

That night, I managed to fill an entire pencil case full of gently used school supplies; ones that had been shoved in various drawers around our home.  That single broken pencil set off the lightbulb - if I could fill an entire pencil case with gently used school supplies, how many other households could do the same? 

The school I work at in Toronto has been designated an EPAN school (Equality, Poverty, Action, Network).  Let's come together to support local EPAN schools.  Several schools across Toronto have this designation. Although we are only a small piece of a child's educational whole, Mosaic School Supplies wants to contribute by filling pencil cases for those in need.  We believe that through our program, we are teaching the importance of recycling, reusing and upcycling what is already available! 

We often say, "Our sets don't need to look perfect.  They just need to work!" 

Our name was born out of our love for Canada, and how much our country represents many different pieces to a beautiful whole - just like a mosaic.  Our own cupboards, filled with school supplies, can come together with our neighbors’ supplies to fill a 'mosaic pencil case'.