DEPOSIT, N.Y. — Leonard Bus Sales is showing its appreciation to the communities its serves by launching a “Giving Thanks and Giving Back” charitable initiative.

The initiative includes a program that provides meals to children in need, a holiday canned food drive, and annual direct contributions to food banks.

Instead of sending out holiday cards, Leonard Bus Sales, the region’s distributor of IC Bus and Trans Tech school buses, is making contributions to local food banks as a way to give back to the community.  In addition, the company recently sponsored a can drive competition among all of its facilities to benefit local food banks. Within four weeks, the support from the Leonard Bus Sales team resulted in over 9,000 cans, or nearly 4 tons of food, which the company donated to local food banks across the state, according to the company.

“Our company has been committed to providing safe school buses to protect children for over 50 years,” said Jon Leonard, vice president of Leonard Bus Sales. “Our Giving Thanks and Giving Back program is just an extension of our commitment to the children and the communities that we serve.”

The heart of the “Giving Thanks and Giving Back” initiative was launched earlier this year when Leonard Bus Sales partnered with seven regional food banks across the state. The partnership was forged around the dealer’s recent participation in a national “BackPack” program to help eradicate child hunger and raise awareness about the problem of food insecurity in New York state.

Established by the nonprofit organization Feeding America, the BackPack program provides meals to over 450,000 children in need during the time they are not at school. The food is usually discreetly distributed at the end of the school day, and given to the child when they leave for the weekend or for vacation.

Instead of spending money on promotional giveaways at industry tradeshows, Leonard Bus Sales now dedicates those resources to helping feed over 4,000 children a year by donating $5 per event attendee, according to the dealer.

“Leonard Bus Sales is committed to donating one backpack per event attendee for each of the industry trade events it attends,” Leonard said. “The seven participating food banks are provided a proportionate share of the meals donated based on the number of children they serve.”