Companies to Classrooms

Companies to Classrooms links schools and communities by recycling business surplus into supplies for local classrooms.

Currently we support public, private or parochial schools in Bloomington, Richfield, Shakopee, Robbinsdale, Brooklyn Center, St. Louis Park, Eden Prairie, Edina, and Hopkins, Minnesota with plans to expand to other districts as funding allows. We run our operation through financial donations from businesses and individuals and grants from corporate and private foundations.

Free-and-reduced-lunch students struggle to acquire even the basic supplies that are necessary for learning. Typically, the concentration of these students is thought to be in the inner city but suburban poverty is an increasing reality that often gets overlooked. As school budgets are becoming tighter, teachers in our schools try to fill in the gaps out of their own pockets. On average, teachers spend $700-1000 of their own money to help students with supplies and to supplement their own classrooms needs. On the other hand, companies constantly need to dispose of excess supplies and inventories due to changes in an ever-increasing competitive business environment. These materials, although usable, are no longer of use to them and it is simply not cost efficient to locate a secondary user. Therefore, thousands of tons of reusable items end up in landfills year after year. When given a viable option, businesses are very willing to support education by recycling excess product through Companies to Classrooms.