Job Lot uses its business talents to give back big

Ocean State Job Lot principal Marc Perlman disputes one of the main statistics that has earned the company the Providence Business News 2014 Business Excellence Award for Community Involvement.
He said the award application’s quote that the company had $3.1 million of charitable-foundation contributions in 2014 underreports all the philanthropic work the foundation does.
“We are the largest contributors to the Trinity Repertory Theater Company, to the University of Rhode Island,” he said proudly. “We are a main sponsor of the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network and the Rhode Island Free Clinic. We do stuff everywhere. We are always involved in something.”
Marc Perlman and his brother and co-principal, Alan Perlman, have a right to be proud. Since 2003, the Ocean State Job Lot Charitable Foundation – a 501 nonprofit – has directed a Three Square Meals hunger-relief program. The effort distributes approximately 2 million pounds of nutritious, dry goods each year to food banks within range of the retail chain’s 114 stores in New England, New York and New Jersey.
The program’s funds are raised each year between November and December through a combination of in-store customer donations, contributions from the Job Lot business community and matching funds. In 2014, the program distributed a total of 82 tractor-trailer loads full of items to 13 regional foods banks.
The foundation also supports medical and educational institutions, military-service members, the performing arts, those with special needs and foster children, and disaster-relief efforts around the world, all in a variety of ways.
Additionally, the company – which the Perlmans and Roy Dubbs began in 1977 – encourages its employees to volunteer for worthy causes and bring to the company’s attention any meaningful cause needing foundation support.
The secret of the company’s success as a philanthropic organization stems from its ability to find the right product deals for its shelves. The company will find where to buy what’s needed at a low cost, whether it be food, clothing or toiletries, and it will already know the correct way to ship those goods to where they need to go in the most efficient way possible.
Perlman said in every community with an Ocean State Job Lot store he finds convenient distribution warehouses for the goods he delivers to that area’s food banks and other charities.
“Fortunately, the success of our operations gives us the opportunity to participate,” Perlman said. “We feel it’s the right thing to do. It’s important to be part of a foundation that gives back to the community.”
Rhode Island Community Food Bank CEO Andrew Schiff has high praise for Ocean State Job Lot. “The company donates 500,000 pounds of food to us each year,” Schiff said. “To give perspective, we distribute a total of 10 million pounds of food throughout the state every year. So 5 percent of that – a dollar value of around $900,000 every year – is thanks to the help of Ocean State Job Lot.”
Schiff said the food bank benefits enormously from the company’s technical expertise and assistance. “They are experts in getting the lowest prices on food. They always know where to get the best deal,” he said.
Schiff said this is especially true with foods that aren’t regularly donated to the food bank, such as cereal. Ocean State Job Lot knows how to leverage the right price to move the items that are needed into the food bank’s hands.
He said what’s unique about Ocean State Job Lot’s owners, the Perlmans, is that “they are so hands-on in their operation of the company and their philanthropy. Alan is on our advisory committee. He understands our work. He will call me whenever he has an idea what will help us. We don’t know what we’d do without them.”
David Sarlitto, who has been Ocean State Job Lot marketing manager for seven years, said the key to the company’s success in charity work is simple. “Here you will find a big heart connected to a big brain when it comes to figuring how to help,” he said.
Among Marc Perlman’s proudest charity moments is last year’s “Honor Flights” for 200 World War II veterans. They were flown to Washington, D.C., to visit the war’s memorial and to meet retired Gen. Colin Powell and former U.S. Sens. Bob and Elizabeth Dole.
Perlman, his wife and their son, David, took the trip with the veterans, after organizing nearly every facet of what was needed for the flights. It earned the company tons of thank-you letters from the elderly veterans.
Perlman also vividly recalled when a Korean War veteran whose son was in the Iraq War came to the Ocean State Foundation, because toiletries and clothes were needed for wounded soldiers who had been sent to a German hospital. The company quickly solved the problem, from finding the products at the right price to securing their transportation overseas.
In addition to all of the above, each Ocean State Job Lot store offers a variety of discounts related to the company’s philanthropy. As examples, Educators’ Partnership programs offer a 30 percent discount to teachers for school supplies. The Silver Salute program offers a 30 percent discount to senior-citizen military veterans.
The food banks, pantries, shelters and soup kitchens served by the foundation have included the Connecticut Food Bank (East Haven, Conn.), the New Hampshire Food Bank (Manchester), the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley (Cornwall on Hudson, N.Y.), the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts (Hatfield, Mass.), Good Shepherd Food Bank (Auburn, Maine), Vermont Foodbank (Barre), Boston Medical Center Food Pantry, the Greater Boston Food Bank, Long Island Cares (Hauppage, N.Y.), and the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York (Latham).
In Rhode Island, nonprofits Ocean State Job Lot’s foundation has served include Amos House, the Rhode Island Special Olympics, the Rhode Island Donation Exchange Program, Crossroads Rhode Island; and the Rhode Island Free Clinic.
The foundation also has reached across U.S. borders, sending disaster relief help to Central America, The Dominican Republic, Haiti and Armenia. •

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