Responsible Retail

Last fall, Carlos Aldana, as associate in our Distribution Center received two pallets of backpacks to share with young students celebrating their return to school at Ministerio Nuevo Amanecer, located in Guatemala City, Guatemala. It’s wonderful to know that the children were excited to start school on the right foot, some with new shoes and all with a brand new backpack from their friends at Ocean State Job Lot.

On January 20, the Campus Police at the University of Rhode Island received 50 Buy-Give-Get coats and 50 OSJL Charitable Foundation buckets with lids to distribute to The Center for Military and Veteran Education, located on the URI campus. Paul Hanrahan (left) from URI Campus Police, shown here with Eric Cole, STL at Store 104 – Coventry, RI, visited the store over the weekend to shop for supplies, like hand-warmers, gloves, and more to go in each of the buckets along with the Buy-Give-Get coats. These cold-weather “kits,” will go a long way toward ensuring veterans in need can keep warm through these last frigid months.

Recently, Store Team 325 – Meriden, CT, made their first Close to Our Heart donation of the year to Best Buddies of Connecticut. Best Buddies, a nonprofit organization, serves as a support system for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Their programs help to break the perceptions of what individuals living with IDD can accomplish and achieve.

Store Team 259 – Weymouth, MA, made a Close to Our Heart donation to South Shore Stars, a nonprofit organization that provides comprehensive early education and youth development programs that enhance the optimal growth and development of children from economically and culturally diverse families, using a family support approach in collaboration with schools and other service providers.