We're Donating $500 in Lunch Gear to Loughman Oaks Elementary & You Can Help!

Last week we were inspired by our own kids' back-to-school lists to make a donation of $500 worth of waste-free lunch gear to a school in need. We asked our blog readers and Facebook fans to nominate schools over the week end, and we were touched by all of the heartfelt messages we received.

One message in particular, from teacher Crystal Strock of Loughman Oaks Elementary in Polk County, Florida, really stood out. She wrote:

"Our school is roughly 800 students today (this number has ranged between 700 and over 1,100 in my time here). More than 70% of our students are enrolled in the free and reduced lunch program. We have a paraprofessional affectionately known as 'Momma Gail' who helps supply families in our community with food, clothes and books when they are in need. She even has board games that families can check out, so they can spend quality time together. Gail spends all of her weekends and summers hitting up thrift stores and businesses looking for donations to help our families."

With that, we decided to send $500 worth of waste-free lunch gear to the kids at Loughman Oaks. To help spread the word, we've asked our Facebook fans to share a message we posted yesterday about back-to-school. You can help by visiting us on Facebook and clicking the "share" button under the message that begins "Share this post & help a school in need!" We hope to receive 100 comments from people letting us know they shared the post by the end of the week. 

Given the number of nominations we received, there are still countless schools that could use help getting lunch supplies to their kids. We encourage our customers to consider adding an extra lunch bag, spork, or set of napkins to their back-to-school purchases this year. Our Summer Sale makes it easy to give. And even one lunch bag can make a difference. Crystal explains:

"These children are from low income families, some may not get shiny new things very often. This would mean so much to them and be a wonderful way to get them excited about reusing and reducing daily trash."

Giving back is part of what we do - to date, we've donated more than $200,000 to like-minded non-profits. Click here to check out just a handful of other organizations and schools we've donated to over the years. 

Help support our efforts - Please visit our store and help spread the word.

Comments

[Cooler Bags]

A great article. Nice idea with the luch box coolers. Keep up the generous donations.

Kyle Smith