Giving Back | Pawn America
Pawn America is committed to supporting and giving back to the local communities where we live and work. Staff members at our stores volunteer with the Kids Feeding Kids program, are members of their local Chamber of Commerce and sponsor the Hennepin County Sheriff Foundation (HCSF). Pawn America is also helping organize the annual Heart of the City race in Burnsville, MN.
Kids Feeding Kids
Many Twin Cities kids who attend local chapters of the Boys & Girls Clubs have to go several hours of the day on an empty stomach. Too often, these kids go hungry.
To combat this issue, Pawn America® and the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Twin Cities co-sponsor Kids Feeding Kids. The purpose is to provide kids in need between the ages of 6 and 18 with nutritious meals and a positive development opportunity—involving them in cooking and nutrition classes that will prepare them for the future.
Kids Feeding Kids is built on the original Kids Café model used in 1994 where members received a free family-style meal four evenings per week and on all school release days during the school year.
In the Fall of 2006, Brad Rixmann of Pawn America® approached leaders of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Twin Cities to discuss the possibility of reinstating and reinventing the Kids Cafe program at the Jack Cornelius Club in South Minneapolis, with the longer-range goal of expanding sites through an ongoing cause-related initiative spearheaded and supported by his company, staff, business associates, and friends.
The program is sustained by the annual contributions of various, generous corporate and private donors, who play a key role in building and maintaining the Kids Feeding Kids program.
Hennepin County Sheriff Foundation (HCSF)
The Hennepin County Sheriff Foundation joined forces with Pawn America® and Payday America to launch a new initiative which is an independent, nonprofit, charitable entity dedicated to strengthening public safety through youth-based activity programs, prevention, intervention, education, outreach, and 21st-century crime-fighting tools and programs.
Pawn America® is founding partners of the Hennepin County Sheriff Foundation and specifically sponsor the organization's scholarship program.
Chamber of Commerce
Pawn America® stores have chosen to be an active part of their local communities by joining their area Chamber of Commerce. Our stores are dedicated to staying informed about the activities going on in their communities while supporting organizations that promote economic growth and development and impact public policy.
Heart of the City Race
Organized by Pawn America, this annual event began in 2012 and transformed into A Run to Remember two years later when one of the event founders, Trish Wehling, lost her daughter, Jordan, in a car accident. All participants are invited to use the race to celebrate and honor lost friends and family, with all proceeds benefiting the Kids Feeding Kids program.
