Office Depot gives aid to tornado-affected families and businesses

BOCA RATON, Fla. — Office Depot's charitable arm, The Office Depot Foundation, announced donations to help families and small businesses affected by the recent tornadoes in Alabama and the Southeastern United States.



To assist children in the hard-hit Tuscaloosa area, the Office Depot Foundation is donating 5,000 new sackpacks and two pallets of school supplies to be distributed to schools and non-profit organizations. Another 5,000 sackpacks along with an assortment of clothing, pet supplies, personal care items and other products are being donated to Feed The Children, which is helping with relief and recovery in approximately 70 communities across five Southern states.

Additional measures include:

An Office Depot Foundation donation of $21,000 to Feed The Children to sponsor the delivery of three semi tractor-trailers of food, essentials and water – enough to assist 1,200 families – for Tuscaloosa, Birmingham and other affected areas. Recipients of the supplies include Office Depot associates whose homes were damaged or destroyed, along with hundreds of other residents served by local non-profit organizations in partnership with Feed The Children. Approximately two dozen Office Depot associates volunteered to help unload the trucks at Office Depot stores in the two Alabama cities this week.

A donation of $3,000 to the Ryan Newman Foundation for relief and recovery efforts to help care for pets in the affected areas along with GPS units for relief workers to use. Newman is the Stewart-Haas Racing teammate of Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Office Depot stores in Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Huntsville and Decatur, Ala., are offering free in-store fax services (up to 25 pages local and long-distance) and free mobile phone charging to customers through the end of May to assist them with the relief efforts.