Chegg Employees Assist Community at Family Harvest Days

Chegg for Good is a social service and charitable offshoot of the popular online textbook rental and sales company Chegg in California. The company regularly sets aside paid workdays for its employees to volunteer in their communities. Chegg staff members recently worked with the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties to distribute food during one of the organization’s Family Harvest Days in San Jose.

Family Harvest Days offer both high-quality food and educational programming to low-income families with children under 18. Volunteers at the events assist with set-up and food distribution, sign up new participants in the Second Harvest program, and help attendees carry food to their vehicles.

The Chegg employees were eager to unload and distribute the fresh, frozen, and canned fruits and vegetables, frozen turkeys, eggs, and milk that would make a big difference in the lives of San Jose children. Second Harvest clients joined in and helped out as volunteers before receiving their own much-needed supplies. Without the services of Second Harvest, many children and teens from food-insecure households would have few nutritious meals at home.

Rick Bolander, the managing director of Redwood City-based Gabriel Venture Partners, holds a board seat at Chegg and other corporations that have benefited from his entrepreneurial expertise.

Chegg for Good Visits Africa by Rick Bolander

Many know Chegg as the online portal that connects students with academic resources. However, aside from providing homework help, course information, textbook options, and scholarship connections, Chegg also gives students a way to make a difference. Through the company’s philanthropic arm, Chegg for Good, eight college students earned the opportunity to make an educational visit to South Africa and Zambia this past July.

Chegg For Good teamed up with rock superstar Bono’s international advocacy group, ONE, to help students learn firsthand about foreign aid, advocacy, and service. To investigate global health issues, agricultural challenges, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa, the group met with student advocates, young local entrepreneurs and emerging leaders.

As they return to campus, these social entrepreneurs have pledged to use this new knowledge to foster awareness of these and other serious issues faced by millions of African students, such as extreme poverty and lack of access to first-rate educational institutions. These students are to be commended for their dedication to becoming catalysts for positive change.

About the Author: A member of Chegg’s Board of Directors, Rick Bolander consulted for the African Communications Group in Tanzania early in his career. Bolander is the Managing Director of Gabriel Venture Partners, based in Redwood Shores, California.