Caleres has donated $1 million to Soles4Souls to help provide shoes for homeless children through the 4EveryKid program.
The donation will be paid from the Caleres Cares Charitable Trust over two years, including a $500,000 monetary donation and $500,000 in-kind product donation.
According to Caleres, the in-kind donation will include athletic shoes for homeless children just in time for back-to-school this fall. Additionally, Caleres brands including Famous Footwear, Allen Edmonds, Naturalizer, and Sam Edelman will support the 4EveryKid campaign through a round up at checkout option online during the month of September.
The first product donation to the 4EveryKid program will happen this summer, and will benefit children in St. Louis, where Caleres is based.
“There are more than 17,000 kids experiencing homelessness in the greater St. Louis region of 15 counties and 854 public schools,” Buddy Teaster, president and CEO of Soles4Souls, said in a statement. “This donation will help us reach every single one of them to make sure they have a new pair of shoes to start school this fall. When we approached Caleres with our vision around this program, they didn’t hesitate. Their donation will help us work directly with St. Louis area public schools to give them the support they need to help kids prepare for their first day of school.”
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Diane Sullivan, chairman and CEO of Caleres, added, “Buddy and the Soles4Souls team do incredible work and we are thankful for the opportunity to join them in supporting an extraordinary program right here in our own back yard.”
This donation comes just weeks after Caleres released an update on its progress towards the company’s ambitious 2025 environmental, social, governance (ESG) targets it unveiled last year. In its 2021 Impact Report, released earlier this month, Caleres said it will also continue to support the Two Ten Footwear Foundation, having donated $150,000 to Two Ten in 2021 through its Caleres Cares Charitable Trust. The company added that its associates gave an additional $12,500 to the organization through an employee giving campaign.
These donations are on top of the 141,000 items Caleres gave in 2021. The company said it gave away 102,559 pairs of shoes, backpacks, and masks to the Ticket to Dream Foundation to support foster youth; 34,908 pairs to Soles4Souls; and 4,243 pairs to other causes including the Fashion Footwear Association of New York (FFANY) Shoes on Sale event benefiting breast cancer research.
