Office Depot leveling BTS playing field

Retailers tend to be at their charitable best during key seasonal periods and that’s been the case with Office Depot and back-to-school season for the past 15 years.

This year the Office Depot Foundation will donate 200,000 sackpacks filled with a limited assortment of essential school supplies to nonprofit organizations, schools and agencies across the U.S. and internationally. It is the 15th year the foundation, the charitable giving arm of Office Depot, has executed its National Backpack Program. By the end of 2015, Office Depot and the Office Depot Foundation will have given away more than 3.7 million backpacks and sackpacks since the National Backpack Program began in 2001.

"For most children, the first day of school is an exciting time complete with new clothes and back-to-school gear," says Office Depot Foundation President Mary Wong. "But for kids in families where money is tight, the experience can be just the opposite. We believe that every child should have the opportunity to go to school with dignity and hope. The sackpacks and school supplies we donate help to level the playing field and give these wonderful children a reason to stand just a little bit taller."

To distribute sackpacks directly to children, the Foundation is hosting back-to-school celebrations in 20 cities across the U.S. in July and August. This week, more than 18,000 new sackpacks are being donated through events in Atlanta, San Francisco, New Orleans and Indianapolis. In New Orleans alone, the Office Depot Foundation has donated more than 50,000 backpacks and sackpacks to children in the decade since Hurricane Katrina.

Thousands more sackpacks are being given to kids through the Office Depot Foundation's continuing partnerships with nine nonprofit organizations serving children nationally and globally. The Foundation is collaborating with the AARP Experience Corps, Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), the National Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Association, Feed the Children, Food For The Poor, the Kids In Need Foundation, the National Foundation for Women Legislators, Operation Homefront and Samaritan's Feet International. For the seventh consecutive year, children of the Navajo Nation in Arizona will receive sackpacks.

The specially designed, drawstring-style sackpacks come in seven bright and colorful designs that are new for 2015. Each one includes a zippered pouch containing a pen, pencil, pencil sharpener, eraser, six-inch ruler and four crayons.