Salt Lake City— Extra Space Storage employees at the Salt Lake City headquarters joined together to participate in a Virtual Food Drive for Utah Food Bank and raised over $22,000 in one week. In past years, the company has held a traditional food drive – collecting canned goods for the food bank, but with much of the workforce working from home this year, they pivoted the drive to be virtual. Extra Space Storage committed to matching employee donations up to $10,000.

“We had no idea how participation would be in the new format,” said McKall Morris, Extra Space communications manager. “Originally, we set our donation goal at $5,000, but within a day we had surpassed that! It is incredible to see how generous the team is. We’re very pleased to be able to support the Utah Food Bank’s efforts this year.”

Founded in 1904, Utah Food Bank has the mission to fight hunger statewide. Today, 511,000 Utahns are at risk of missing a meal, but Utah Food Bank is helping families facing hunger through their direct service programs and food distribution to a statewide network of 203 partner agencies. Utah Food Bank’s Virtual Food Drive system allows anyone to fill a virtual shopping cart with the items needed most, all without stepping foot in a grocery store. The Utah Food Bank is able to stretch each $1 donated into $8.03 worth of goods and services, so every donation has an impact. Last year, Utah Food Bank distributed 44.1 million meals across the state and is on track to do exceed 2019 totals.

“As our communities in Utah make changes to schools, events and services in response to the coronavirus crisis, we have already seen that hunger has increased exponentially,” said Ginette Bott, Utah Food Bank President & CEO. “Extra Space Storage’s donation will provide the equivalent of 91,000 meals for Utahns facing hunger. Thanks to the support of groups like them and so many others in the community, we can continue to meet the increased need head-on.”

Extra Space Storage is a real estate investment trust (REIT) and a member of the S&P 500. Between the Cottonwood Heights headquarters and the Midvale call center, Extra Space employs over 500 Utahns. The company has the lofty motto of “helping people to their better tomorrow” and puts their company values of integrity, excellence, innovation, teamwork and passion front and center.

“While there were definitely challenges in 2020, the Extra Space team was fortunate that no employees were laid-off, furloughed or given pay cuts due to COVID-19. Personally, I feel really grateful to be at a stable company this year – I think a lot of us feel that way,” Morris said. “I think that’s one reason this year’s virtual food drive really exceeded expectations; gratitude is a big motivator to give back.”

About Extra Space Storage

Extra Space Storage Inc., headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, is a self-administered and self-managed REIT and a member of the S&P 500. Extra Space Storage operates 1,900 self-storage stores in 40 states, Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico comprising approximately 1.4 million units and approximately 147.5 million square feet of rentable space. Extra Space Storage offers customers a wide selection of conveniently located and secure storage units across the country, including boat storage, RV storage and business storage. Extra Space Storage is the second largest owner and/or operator of self-storage stores in the United States and is the largest self-storage management company in the United States. Learn more on extraspace.com.