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.

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.

In 2021 Green Mountain United Way provided 434 backpacks to children transition into foster care. In 2016, that number was just 80. Sadly, we expect the number to continue to increase.

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.

In 2022, Green Mountain United Way worked with more than 15 corporate and individual donors, matching them up with children in foster care. Each sponsor received a wish list for that child, along with their age, gender, favorite color, and personal interests or style.

Together we provided holiday gifts for 120 children in foster care.

Download the Tatum’s Totes FAQ program brochure (PDF)

Service Area

Tatum’s Totes is available to all children transitioning into foster care in the Barre, Newport, and St. Johnsbury Department for Children and Families Districts, coordinated by Green Mountain United Way.

This program is available to all children entering foster care in the state of Vermont. To access this program, families work directly through contacts within the Department for Children and Families.

Supporting our Work

We have seen overwhelming support for this program since establishing it in our service areas. To support this program please click the Donate button above.

For in-kind donations of new and unused items to support Tatum’s Totes, to participate in our annual holiday gift drive, or to organize a larger or regular donation drive, please contact Tawnya Kristen at tkristen@gmunitedway.org to coordinate based on our current needs.

Please note, only NEW UNUSED items can be accepted.

History

Tatum’s Totes is an independent nonprofit organization started in Rutland by foster parents Liz and Alex Grimes in honor of their son Tatum who died at the age of 5 months old of SIDS. After becoming foster parents, they found that many children entered the foster care system with little more than a plastic bag and the clothes they were wearing. Liz and Alex started Tatum’s Totes to ensure that each child entering emergency foster care had a backpack of their own filled with comforting items that could stay with them throughout their transition into foster care. Green Mountain United Way employee Pam Bailey saw the program on Facebook and immediately recognized the value for the Central and Northern Vermont regions that Green Mountain United Way serves and offered to establish a Tatum’s Totes program for both Newport and Barre DCF Districts in February 2016. Green Mountain United Way has helped to establish programs that serve all of the towns in our five-county service area.