Rob Scheer started Comfort Cases in 2013; it has given 300,000+ backpacks to foster kids

A simple effort around a dining table, started in 2013 to protect the dignity of children entering foster care, has grown into an international charity that has provided essential items to hundreds of thousands of young people. Rob Scheer began packing backpacks at home after seeing his newly adopted foster children arrive carrying their belongings in black plastic rubbish bags. Scheer remembered his own childhood in the foster care system and decided to end the practice by starting Comfort Cases. According to official impact figures from Comfort Cases, the nonprofit has distributed more than 300,000 Comfort Cases and Comfort XL duffel bags to children in foster care across all 50 US states, Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom. Comfort Cases says its first Packing Party took place in December 2013.Childhood memories trigger community actionScheer grew up in the American foster care system during the 1970s. When he aged out at 18, he was given a black trash bag containing his few belongings and had to begin adult life on his own. Comfort Cases says he had also carried a trash bag when he first entered foster care. Years later, after marrying his husband Reece and ch...