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Junior Achievement and Office Depot Host "Job Shadow Day" in Company's Offices, Warehouses and Retail Stores

Junior Achievement and Office Depot Host "Job Shadow Day" in Company's Offices, Warehouses and Retail Stores

Published 04-10-03

Submitted by Office Depot, Inc.

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO and DELRAY BEACH, FL -- Junior Achievement and Office Depot, Inc., (NYSE:ODP) today kicked off "Job Shadow Day," a program that mentors students and provides them with valuable "hands-on" experience in the workplace.

The national program, which launched with a special event for Florida students at Office Depot's headquarters, encourages volunteer mentors across the nation to accept a student "shadow" at their place of business. Mentors show students various aspects of their jobs and how skills learned in school can be put into action. In this case, many of Office Depot's more than 40,000 employees will volunteer to serve as mentors and will host students at the Company's corporate headquarters, sales field offices, warehouse locations and retail stores.

In addition to providing volunteers, Office Depot will make a grant of $150 to JA offices for each of its locations participating in the program.

Beginning today and continuing throughout the school year, each Office Depot location will pair employees with visiting middle and high school students. Students will learn how English, math and problem solving skills are used every day in the workplace. Classmates will learn the importance of teamwork, make the connection between earning and learning and determine if retail is a career they would be interested in pursuing.

"This relationship is an excellent demonstration of Office Depot's commitment to educating young people," said David S. Chernow, President and CEO of Junior Achievement. "It is through generous support like this that JA can reach thousands of students across the country and show them a variety of career choices through the Job Shadow program."

Bruce Nelson, Chairman and CEO for Office Depot
Students intently listen to Bruce Nelson, Chairman and CEO for Office Depot at the Company's kick-off event of Job Shadow Day, a national program in partnership with Junior Achievement.

"Office Depot is very excited to be involved in 'Job Shadow Day' this year," said Bob Keller, president of Office Depot's North American Delivery organization and a member of Junior Achievement's board of directors. "The program will allow Office Depot employees to provide children with what they need to know about the workplace. We're proud to support Junior Achievement's goal of educating our youth about business, economics and free enterprise."

About Junior Achievement

Junior Achievement is the world's largest and fastest-growing organization dedicated to educating young people about business, economics and free enterprise. Through age-appropriate curricula, JA programs begin at the elementary school level, teaching children how they can impact the world around them as individuals, workers and consumers. JA programs continue through the middle and high school grades, preparing students for additional key economic and workforce issues they will face in the future. Today JA reaches more than four million students through 150 offices nationwide and another two million students in more than 100 countries worldwide. For more information, visit www.ja.org.

About Office Depot

No one sells more office products to more customers in more countries than Office Depot. The Company operates under the Office Depotâ, Viking Office Productsâ, Viking Directâ and 4Sure.comâ brand names. As of December 28, 2002, Office Depot operated 867 office supply superstores in the United States and Canada, in addition to a national business-to-business delivery network supported by 24 delivery centers, more than 60 local sales offices and 13 regional call centers. Furthermore, the Company sells products and services in 20 countries outside of the United States and Canada, including 37 office supply stores in France and 13 in Japan that are owned and operated by the Company; and 121 additional office supply stores under joint venture and licensing agreements operating under the Office Depotâ name in seven foreign countries.

The Company also operates an award-winning U.S. Office Depot brand Web site at www.officedepot.com where customers can access Office Depot's low competitive prices seven days a week, twenty-four hours a day, as well as a new Spanish language Web site at http://espanol.officedepot.com. The Company also operates 31 other Web sites in the U.S. and 14 international countries including: Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Japan, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Office Depot, Inc. logo

Office Depot, Inc.

Office Depot, Inc.

Office Depot provides more office products and services to more customers in more countries than any other company. Incorporated in 1986 and headquartered in Delray Beach, Fla., Office Depot has annual sales of nearly $15 billion, and employs approximately 50,000 associates around the world. Currently, the Company sells to customers directly or through affiliates in 42 countries. Office Depot is a leader in every distribution channel -- from retail stores and contract delivery to catalogs and e-commerce. Office Depot serves a wide range of customers through a dedicated sales force, telephone account managers, direct mail offerings, and multiple web sites.

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