A COMMUNITY OUTREACH UPDATE

November 18, 2020

Dear Topdrawer Community,

As we continue to reevaluate our company mission and approach in promoting racial justice and giving back to our communities, our team has been working hard to impact change, both within our company and within the communities, we operate.

Below are a few of the initiatives we have taken as of November 2020:

1. Philanthropy:

  • Food Drives: We have set up food drive drop-off locations in all of our cities where we have partnered with local organizations. Due to the pandemic and the major rise in unemployment, millions of Americans who never needed help before the pandemic are in desperate need of help in supplementing their food budgets. Food drives have not only brought our teams and communities closer, but they have allowed us to bring supplemental food to members of our community who are in need. We encourage you to join us by dropping off food items at the following locations. We, in turn, will distribute them to our local food banks and missions.

Los Angeles

Topdrawer Studio City
12188 Ventura Blvd.
Studio City CA, 91604
Organization partnership: Midnight Mission

Boston

Topdrawer Harvard Square
5 Brattle St.
Cambridge, MA 02138
Organization partnership: Dorchester Community Fridge

Chicago

Topdrawer Lincoln Park 
810 W Armitage Ave
Chicago, IL 60614
Organization partnership: Alt Chicago

Bay Area

Topdrawer Cow Hollow
1840 Union St.
San Francisco, CA 94123
Organization partnership: SF-Marin Food Bank

Topdrawer Mission
980 Valencia St.
San Francisco, CA 94110
Organization partnership: SF-Marin Food Bank

Topdrawer Haight
1409 Haight St.
San Francisco, CA 94117
Organization partnership: SF-Marin Food Bank

  • Monetary Donations: Our Berkeley store team has already raised $2000 for Planting Justice by selling beautifully handmade bandanas and masks in their store. We have more in the works that will be sold in our other Bay Area locations. The team members designed the masks and made them by hand together. This again brought our team together for a good cause and helped our brothers and sisters in need in the Bay Area. You can see a link to this project. 
  • Volunteer work: As a company, we encourage each employee to devote four hours of community service work per month with hours that are fully paid for by Topdrawer. In October, our San Francisco store teams safely came together and furthered their relationship with Planting Justice by volunteering at their nursery in Oakland, CA and our other teams are choosing similar organizations in their neighborhoods to volunteer their time. 

2. Future Plans:

  • As a company, we are currently working toward getting Topdrawer Fair Trade Certified for the new products we are developing. We are also launching new product lines that will be partnered with 1% For the Planet, in which 1% of sales will be given away, for projects that help the environment and people in need. These moves will directly protect land, waterways, and lives throughout the world and ultimately give back to our communities. We are proud to share more information about these effects in 2021.


During this tumultuous time - involving the pandemic and protests that have demanded genuine social justice, our Topdrawer team has embraced the concept of community. We view this as a journey where we challenge each other to become better people, better citizens, and better as a company.  We strive to build strong relationships with all of the organizations we are working with along with you, our Topdrawer community.

Thank you for all your continued support in all our efforts to make a difference.

Sincerely,
Shawna Villatoro 
Director of Stores
Itoya Topdrawer Corp