Ikea has teamed up with Save the Children and UPS to help refurnish 39 early childhood development centers in New York and New Jersey hit by Hurricane Sandy last year.
The home furnishings giant said it will donate more than $100,000 worth of items, including bookcases, children's tables and chairs, cribs, desks and blankets to devastated child care centers Save the Children is helping to restore, as well as to the charity's Brooklyn field office. UPS is donating delivery services."Hurricane Sandy flooded, damaged and destroyed infant and toddler rooms and classrooms in hundreds of New Jersey and New York child care centers, jeopardizing the future wellbeing of thousands of children," Ikea said in a release."Save the Children makes child care recovery a focus of its emergency work so that children can return to a safe place to emotionally recover and to continue their development, often as their families struggle to put their lives back together and get back to work."The retailer added that many of the centers, unlike schools, are not eligible for federal assistance.
Ikea and Save the Children have been working together for more than 10 years in the US as well as in developing countries. Programs include the annual IKEA Soft Toys for Education program and the US Early Steps to School Success initiative.
