Featured Project: From Transit Van to Mobile Food Pantry

Avery Dennison Graphics Solutions teamed with Akron, Ohio-based Repros Color to rebrand a retrofitted Lake County transit authority (Laketran) Dial-a-bus to serve as the new Lake County mobile food pantry.

“This was an exciting project for us,” Repros senior account manager Anthony LaGuardia says. “We’ve been doing vehicle wraps for Laketran since 2014, but most people at Laketran wouldn’t have known Avery Dennison was our film provider. Laketran came to us before Christmas and said, ‘We’ve got a cool project we’d like you to work on. Do you know anybody at Avery Dennison? They’re donating the film.’”

With Repros being an Avery certified wrap installer and Laketran knowing Repros uses Avery’s films daily, LaGuardia says the three organizations came together to form the “perfect marriage.”

Daralyn Baldogo, senior marketing communications specialist, Avery Dennison Graphics Solutions, adds, “We welcome opportunities where our employees and our products can make a meaningful impact and help others. The mobile food pantry bus for Laketran, and in conjunction with Repros, was an immediate opportunity where we at Avery Dennison could provide support and value to the community.”

Repros was founded in 1975 as an engineering blueprint company and later became a distributor of engineering copiers and plotters. Today the company houses digital wide-format equipment specialists, with three wide-format machines, two flatbeds, and two UV flatbeds.

“My uncle, who took over the company in 1999, saw the industry changing,” LaGuardia explains. “One day, he said, ‘Let’s see if we can make banners off of one of these plotters.’ That one machine grew into a company where half the business is large-format, wide-format graphics. We do a lot of trade show work and signage for major league stadiums and ballparks.”

Today, vehicle graphics represent 25% of the shop’s business.

For this particular project, LaGuardia and his team used Avery Dennison’s MPI 1105 wrapping film.

Laketran CEO Ben Capelle explains. “We’re excited to be able to repurpose a bus to meet this community need. We have donations secured through April but anticipate the program will continue with the support of the Cleveland Food Bank.”

Since early January, the van has been visiting communities throughout the county to distribute 180 boxes of fresh produce to seniors in need each week. Three Lake County senior services agencies worked together to secure food donations from the Greater Cleveland Food Bank. Each agency plays a role in taking reservations, sorting donations, and distributing the food. Every month, 720 households receive over 22,000 pounds of fresh produce through the program, according to Laketran.