Tatum’s Totes

Our mission is to ensure that all children entering foster care are provided with essential items and a sense of worth and love. We are also dedicated to providing support to foster families, the unsung heroes of our community.

Tatum’s Totes is a nonprofit organization that was started in 2015 by Alex and Elizabeth Grimes to honor their son Tatum who died of SIDS at five months old. Through their grief, the couple found foster care and learned that many children entering the system came into their new homes carrying very few items in a plastic bag. Tatum’s Totes was created to supply children entering foster care with a backpack filled with comforting items that they can keep and call their own.

Green Mountain United Way has adopted a Tatum’s Totes program to serve children entering foster care in the Barre, Newport, and St. Johnsbury Department for Children and Families districts. Since establishing Tatum’s Totes we have heard stories of children who arrived at DCF offices with plastic bags that included everything they owned – which was not much, and often did not include what these children and the family they were joining needed to support that transition.

Every day, Vermont children enter foster care, often in an emergent situation. These children are told to grab their things and go. Many times, there isn’t much to grab and a few random personal possessions are stuffed into a garbage bag and sent with them.

Tatum’s Totes was created to help make this transition easier.

We help to provide not only the basics like a sturdy backpack, books, socks, hygiene items (like soap, a toothbrush, paste and floss), and blanket, but something that a child can cherish, like a stuffed animal, toy, or game. "We hope that, along with the foster family they are going to live with, we are giving these children back a part of their childhood.

Since 2016, GMUW has worked in partnership with the Dept. of Children & Family Services to provide love and support to infants, children, and youth transitioning into emergency foster care. We provide backpacks filled with essential care and comfort items when children enter custody.

Each year Green Mountain United Way provides hundreds of backpacks to children who are transitioning into foster care. Sadly, the number of backpacks given each year has continued to rise.

Our holiday giving program offers community members the opportunity to be matched with children in state custody and to provide special gifts to help make the holidays a time of joy. Additional support is encouraged for the foster parents in recognition of all they do for children in need.

Each year, Green Mountain United Way works with corporate and individual donors, matching them up with children in foster care. Each sponsor receives a wish list for that child, along with their age, gender, favorite color, and personal interests or style.

Together we provide holiday gifts for nearly 200 children in foster care.