Much like our community involvement, we are mindful of our environmental impact. For more than forty years, we’ve worked to reduce our waste through innovative methods of reuse and recycling. One of our most notable recycling programs is called Green for Green, where our accumulated used items such as buckets, boxes, pallets and scrap metal are sold to the public and local businesses at reduced prices. This money is then given to our hourly employees at the beginning of the school year to use for educational expenses for themselves or their children. Also, our employees are offered to have half of their annual bus pass paid for by eegee’s to provide them with transportation, as well as to encourage decreasing their carbon footprint through the use of public transportation. The goal of the Green for Green program is to find people who are in need of these items and prevent them from immediately going into landfills. Around town, painters can be seen using our buckets that once held our frozen eegees. In addition to the program, our IT Department recycles the company’s electronics. At eegee’s, we believe it’s not enough to simply be in the community, we love being an active part of it. We partner with and donate to shelters, schools, hospitals and more. So far, we’ve gifted more than $3 million to some incredibly worthy causes. In addition, every quarter a charity is selected to receive the proceeds from our coin canisters (found by the registers at all of our stores)- totaling more than $100,000 since the program began 10+ years ago. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we brought food to grocery workers, frontline workers and vaccination volunteers. We also started the eegee’s Holiday 10 Days of Giveaways in 2020 where community members nominated friends and family for a special eegee’s prize. With over 700 nominations in one week, it was bigger than we ever imagined. We quickly worked with our local partners to include even more prizes because celebrating only ten people was not enough. After seeing the impact of the campaign, we have decided the 10 Days of Giveaways is here to stay.