Hey, Barrisians.

I'm Jess Jennings, a local Barrie mom and graphic designer. I started Kempenfelt Supply Co. with one goal: to give back.

My daughter started JK in Barrie’s public school system, and I was immediately floored by how much schools and parent councils are expected to fund themselves.

"Underfunded." You hear it. You know it. But you don’t really feel it until you experience a teacher crowdsourcing kleenex from families.

This isn’t a criticism of the people inside the schools. Quite the opposite. Teachers, staff and volunteers are stretching what they have incredibly far.

My issue is that we’ve somehow normalized them having to.

At the first school performance I discovered they had a stage curtain that wouldn’t close. They clipped it together with a chip clip for every performance. Honestly, it was downright undignified watching eleven-year-olds try to proudly perform something they'd rehearsed for hours in front of a sad, broken curtain.

I joined parent council. Everyone agreed that it was a problem that needed fixing. Some back-of-the-napkin math told us that if we pooled all the popcorn-Friday-style fundraising money, we could probably have a new curtain sometime around 2030. Maybe.

My brain broke.

I work in design and advertising. The money in question was a rounding error. Some company’s weekend Instagram ad spend.

I spent the next year asking Barrie’s service clubs and local businesses for help, and we got the curtain fully funded. But that’s not a sustainable long-term model.

Parents are already tired of being squeezed for cash and being asked to buy overpriced chocolate and frozen food they don’t want. Volunteer parents put enormous effort into traditional fundraisers that often raise modest amounts against much larger needs. So the goal became figuring out a fundraiser that could remove pressure, and maybe... just maybe... could expand beyond one school and only parents.

That’s where Kempenfelt Supply Co. came from.

The idea is to make something local people genuinely want to buy: understated apparel based on Barrie’s neighbourhoods, landmarks and shared memories.

So where does the money go?

During this proof-of-concept phase, all net profits go directly to Johnson Street Public School in Barrie's East End. Every t-shirt sold makes around $5, which will go straight to the school on a quarterly basis. I’m covering the site, startup costs and my time and treating that as my own donation to the cause.

Longer term, I aim to release neighbourhood-specific collections and have the proceeds support schools in those same neighbourhoods.

A fundraiser people actually want to participate in.
That’s it. That's the whole idea.

Thanks for helping prove it's possible.