Turning Shoes into Opportunity, Together
At On Target Staffing, our tagline is “Uniting Talent with Opportunity.” This June, our team found a new way to live it — by uniting soles with opportunity. In a company-wide initiative organized by our Human Resources team at the North Brunswick corporate office, employees across the OTS branch network came together for a Soles4Souls Shoe Drive, collecting shoes to be transformed into relief, jobs, and hope for people around the world.
The drive is the newest chapter in a community outreach program that keeps growing — from Toys for Tots and the Wilmington Saint Patrick’s Day Parade to the Azalea Festival and our returning Wilmington Sharks sponsorship — and the first initiative to activate branches across the entire OTS footprint at once.
A Drive That Spanned the OTS Network
Launched on June 15, 2026, with donations accepted through June 30, the shoe drive reached across more than 30 OTS offices in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Florida, and Delaware. Collections were concentrated at our New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania branches, while team members in other states joined in through local Soles4Souls drop-off locations or by sending donations to our corporate office in North Brunswick — proof that no branch was too far away to participate.
What made the effort special is where it came from: inside the company. HR coordinated it, employees across branches donated, and leadership championed sharing the story. No client mandate, no campaign budget — just a team deciding to do something good together.
The Results: Nineteen Pairs, Three Boxes, One Shared Purpose
By the June 30 deadline, OTS employees had donated:
- 19 pairs of shoes collected across the network
- 3 donation boxes filled
- Delivered to Soles4Souls on July 14, 2026
“Together, we’re helping our community one pair of shoes at a time. Every donated pair helps provide comfort, confidence, and opportunity.”
— On Target Staffing Human Resources
Where the Shoes Go
Founded in 2006 and headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, Soles4Souls transforms unwanted shoes and clothing into relief, jobs, and opportunity. Since its founding, more than 103 million pairs of shoes and pieces of clothing have helped create opportunities for people across 139 countries. Donations like ours flow into three signature programs:
- 4Relief — new shoes and clothing go directly to people facing homelessness, disasters, and hardship.
- 4Opportunity — gently used items are sold at fair prices to vetted wholesalers in developing nations, helping micro-entrepreneurs build small businesses and break the cycle of poverty.
- 4EveryKid — brand-new athletic shoes go to children experiencing homelessness.
There’s a sustainability win, too: every donated pair keeps usable footwear out of landfills and reduces environmental waste. What would have been thrown away becomes opportunity — one pair at a time.
Why Community Outreach Matters in Staffing
Since Roy and Elizabeth James founded On Target Staffing in 2001, the company has been guided by a simple promise: do what’s right, every time. Most days, that shows up in how we treat clients and candidates. Increasingly, it also shows up in how we serve the communities where our 30-plus offices live and work.
For a family-owned, people-first staffing company, community outreach isn’t a side project — it’s the same value system in a different setting. Strong communities build strong workforces, and initiatives like this one support:
- Employee morale, connection, and engagement across every branch
- The neighborhoods where our associates, clients, and teams live and work
- A culture of care that carries into every placement we make
Continuing the Mission
Nineteen pairs of shoes won’t change the world on their own — but through Soles4Souls, each pair has a destination: a family recovering from disaster, a child experiencing homelessness, a micro-entrepreneur building a livelihood. Small acts, multiplied across a company, become real impact.
To every OTS employee who dropped a pair in a box, mailed shoes to corporate, or simply spread the word: thank you. This drive is one more step in a growing community outreach commitment — and it won’t be the last. To learn more about the organization behind it, or to donate year-round, visit soles4souls.org.
