Comerica Bank expands annual Shred Day to collect food for metro Detroiters in need.
It’s the heart of summer and you’re hosting family barbecues, pool parties and other get-togethers, but your kitchen table is full of old bills, invoices and bank statements. Spring cleaning has passed but you just couldn’t bring yourself to throw these sensitive documents in the trash. What if a dumpster diver digs through your garbage can? Or an identity thief steals your sensitive personal information?
According to Javelin Strategy & Research’s most recent identity fraud report, more than 12 million Americans were victims of identity theft in 2012. That’s one victim every three seconds.
On a recent Saturday, Comerica Bank teamed up with Iron Mountain Incorporated and CBS Detroit to host its sixth annual free community Shred Day to help metro Detroiters fight against identity theft. This year’s event, held at Comerica Bank’s Livonia Operations Center, offered community members the same shredding and recycling services as years past but expanded to include a food collection benefitting Gleaners Community Food Bank of Southeastern Michigan.
“Nobody wants to think about identity theft and many believe it could never happen to them,” said Linda Forte, senior vice president of Business Affairs, Comerica Bank. “It’s our hope that Shred Day not only helps prevent identity theft but raises awareness of its seriousness.”
Comerica called for metro Detroiters’ old invoices, bank statements, medical records and other important documents to be shredded and the community responded. In the end, nearly 1,400 cars passed through, dropping off more than 74,100 pounds of paper that was shredded.
Shred Day participants didn’t have to worry about their paper waste polluting the environment or ending up in landfills because Iron Mountain transported all shredded material to paper mills to be turned into pulp for recycled paper.
This year, Comerica decided to expand its commitment to the community by capitalizing on the popularity of Shred Day and asking metro Detroiters to bring donations of nonperishable food items when dropping off their sensitive documents. Turning out to be the right move, Gleaners volunteers collected more than 3,050 pounds of assorted food and nearly $2,300 in donations which will provide more than 9,400 meals to the hungry in Southeast Michigan.
“Based on the popularity of previous years, we knew the need for identity theft education and prevention was there and so we offered shredding services again,” said Forte. “But this year we decided to fill another need by encouraging Shred Day visitors to drop off food donations benefitting Gleaners, and the amount of support we received was truly inspiring.”
Fitting in with Comerica’s team-oriented culture, Shred Day was made possible by the nearly 40 volunteers from departments throughout the bank, including Business Affairs, Corporate Communications, Corporate Legal, Corporate Security, Fraud Services, Marketing and Records Retention.
“Shred Day is not only popular in the communities we serve but has garnered support internally. Our colleagues look forward each year to helping people protect their identity through this special one-day event,” said Forte.
Community Shred Day was established in 2008 by Comerica Bank-Michigan with the help of Iron Mountain. With its Michigan Market success catching the eye of national leadership, Shred Day has since been replicated in Dallas, San Jose and Houston.
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