ESI saw the backpack drive as an opportunity to ensure that children do not go hungry over the holiday break when school is out of session (and Kid’s Café locations are closed) and students are not able to get free breakfast and lunch at school, or after-school meals at Kid’s Café locations.

In November, individual ESI employees pledged to fill a backpack for a child, and shopped for nutritious items that would fill the bag and brought those items in to work.  ESI donated the nylon backpacks, and groups of ESI employees sorted all of the donated food, and filled the bags at their offices.  The company then distributed the backpacks that were filled with healthy food, to at-risk children at community sites on the last day before holiday vacation.

Over 250 backpacks were distributed by the company’s regional offices.  The Virginia Beach office filled 133 backpacks for the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia, while the Hampton office filled 75 for the Foodbank of the Virginia Peninsula, and the Roanoke/Lynchburg team filled 50 for the Southwestern Virginia Food Bank.  In addition, volunteers delivered 248 pounds of additional donated food that could not fit in the backpacks, and over $1300 in cash from various fundraising activities that included a chili cook-off, and silent auction.

The backpack program is part of ESI’s yearlong program to support food banks, and includes fundraising activities throughout the year, such as bowl-a-thons, car washes, raffles, and silent auctions.  The company organizes a similar effort for the summer beach bag program, and delivers over 200 bags to at-risk children throughout the state on the last day of school before summer break.  ESI’s Community Involvement Committee is made up of employees across the state, and works all year to support local food banks in markets where the company has offices.