Round Table Pizza Surprises Local Elementary School Students with New Backbacks Filled with School Supplies

December 17, 2014 /3BL Media/ - Students at Rancho Cordova Elementary School were surprised with new backpacks filled with essential school supplies today thanks to Round Table Pizza, an American pizza restaurant icon known for gourmet quality and fresh innovation. The free backpack giveaway was made possible by donations from Round Table’s Sacramento area restaurants in cooperation with CBS EcoMedia’s innovative EducationAd program.

EcoMedia’s national non-profit partner, the Kids In Need Foundation, provided the school supplies and backpacks through its School Ready Supplies Program. In the United States, more than 16 million children – 22 percent of all children – live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level. Many of these families can’t afford to buy school necessities for their children. Teachers routinely step in and spend money out of their own pockets, purchasing the supplies necessary for their students. Round Table Pizza’s support of Rancho Cordova Elementary School helps address this critical issue.

"Awareness that not all children go to school with a backpack full of school supplies is growing,” said Dave Smith, executive director of the Kids In Need Foundation. “Round Table Pizza is stepping up to break down this barrier that prevents many kids from keeping pace with their classmates. We appreciate CBS EcoMedia's leadership in this area. They understand students' need for supplies, as well as the fact that with supplies, students' classroom behavior improves, grades go up, absenteeism goes down, and kids feel they have a better chance of achieving in the classroom because of this support." 

Round Table Pizza representatives participated in a special assembly today where they personally distributed the backpacks to surprised students at Rancho Cordova Elementary School. Hosts of today’s event included Larry Mahoney, Principal, Rancho Cordova Elementary School; Kelly Foss, Community Relations Manager for local Round Table franchisee EJ’s Pizza; Mark S. Allen, Anchor, Good Day Sacramento. 

“Round Table Pizza is honored to support local communities, especially our schools,” said Foss. “These kids are our future and it’s important that we do everything we can to help them succeed.  Our Sacramento area franchisees are grateful that in partnering with EcoMedia’and the Kids In Need Foundation in partnering with EcoMedia and the Kids In Need Foundation we are able to give something back.”

“Round Table Pizza is providing every single student at Rancho Cordova Elementary School with educational necessities so they will not have to worry about how they will fully participate in classroom activities or how they will get their homework done,” said Paul Polizzotto, president and founder of CBS EcoMedia. “We’re proud to partner with Round Table Pizza to empower these students and help them achieve their academic goals.”

About Round Table Pizza
Round Table Pizza was founded by Bill Larson in 1959 in the San Francisco Bay Area to create a place where families could relax and share a superb pizza. More than fifty years later, Round Table Pizza remains true to its founder's vision with 450 restaurants across the western United States and the world. Round Table's signature tagline, "The Last Honest Pizza", describes its commitment to quality and authenticity.

About The Kids In Need Foundation
The Kids In Need Foundation is a national 501(c)(3) charitable organization founded in 1995. The Foundation’s mission is to prepare children to learn and succeed by providing free school supplies to students most in need. Its National Network of Resource Centers includes 34 facilities where teachers from low-income schools go to obtain free school supplies for their students. School supply giveaways in communities not served by Resource Centers are accommodated through the School Ready Supplies program, and students who have gone through natural disasters are helped to get back to their normal routines with new backpacks and supplies through the Second Responder program.  In addition, two Teacher Grant programs award preK-12 educators with funding to provide innovative learning experiences for students. The Kids In Need Foundation has distributed more than $650 million in school supplies since its founding, directly benefiting 4 million students and more than 120,000 teachers annually, and has awarded $1.5 million in grants to teachers.  Kids In Need has earned the Gold GuideStar Exchange Seal, demonstrating its commitment to transparency, and has consistently received high ratings from Charity Navigator, indicating that it operates in a fiscally responsible way and outperforms most other charities in America.  For more information, visit www.kinf.org.  Join Kids In Need Foundation on Twitter at twitter.com/kidsinneed and Facebook at facebook.com/kidsinneed.

About CBS EcoMedia Inc.
At EcoMedia, we’re propelled by the desire to create positive social change; that’s been our mission since we founded the company in 2002.  In 2010, after successfully partnering with CBS on a wide range of environmental projects, EcoMedia became the newest addition to the CBS Corporation portfolio, exponentially scaling our reach across television, radio, interactive, publishing and outdoor media. 

Through our patent-pending EcoAd, WellnessAd and EducationAd programs, an innovative twist on traditional advertising, advertisers are able to support much-needed local projects which in turn creates jobs, saves taxpayer money and improves the quality of life in communities nationwide.  In the process, we’re fundamentally altering the advertising landscape, elevating the ordinary, traditional commercial – and media, in general – into a catalyst for tangible, quantifiable social change.  Please visit ecomediacbs.com, like us at facebook.com/EcoMediaCBS or follow us at Twitter.com/EcoMediaCBS.

By participating in EcoMedia’s EcoAd, WellnessAd and EducationAd advertising programs, EcoMedia’s advertisers agree to provide funding for projects we believe will have a beneficial effect upon the environment, health and/or education within local communities.  EcoMedia’s advertising programs are not certification programs nor are the EcoAd, WellnessAd or EducationAd logos seals of approval. EcoMedia does not in any way certify, endorse or make any representations about EcoMedia program advertisers, their products or services.