Comfort Cases: Dignity Instead of a Trash Bag

Imagine that you’re a child who has just been taken from a dangerous home — but home nonetheless — and delivered to a stranger’s house for possibly the rest of your childhood. You’re frightened and distressed. And what are you given to pack your clothes and belongings in?

A trash bag.

It seems unthinkable, but it happens every day in the U.S. In fact, It happens 700 times a day, according to Comfort Cases co-founder Rob Scheer.

“I know that first hand because in the 70s, I walked into foster care at the age of 12 carrying a trash bag,” said Scheer. “And at the age of 18, when I aged out in my senior year of high school, I left carrying a trash bag.”

If the medium is the message, he said, that message is that you are no better than trash.

Scheer spent his senior year of high school living on the streets in northern Virginia. He went on to a tour of duty in the U.S. Navy and a successful career in banking but never forgot his early suffering and the humiliation of that garbage bag.

“Little did I know 15 years ago,” Scheer said, “when we decided to adopt through foster care, our first two children would arrive, both of them carrying trash bags. Three months later, our other two children arrived, both of them again carrying trash bags.”

Scheer decided he was going to change this.

“As leaders, we don’t have the right to sit on the sidelines and watch a game being played,” he said. “We have to get into the game and play it. And so we started Comfort Cases.”

Comfort Cares assembles backpacks with new pajamas, personal care items, a book, a stuffed animal and other necessities that are then distributed to local departments of family and children’s services. The Scheer family held the first packing event in 2013, and since then, the organization has distributed more than 250,000 backpacks and duffel bags, and has a presence across the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and most recently has expanded into the U.K.

In December, database software company Couchbase and custom storage company Closet Factory San José — which donated the backpacks — sponsored a Comfort Cares packing event at Couchbase’s Santa Clara headquarters. The volunteer team of Couchbase employees filled 250 backpacks that went directly to the county child protective services, which distributed them the same day.

Couchbase account manager Katie Henderson connected the two businesses — her husband, Jeff, is the owner of Closet Factory Bay Area. For every new Closet Factory project, the Hendersons donate a high-quality backpack or duffle bag.

“We [Closet Factory] wanted a cause instead of just a business,” said Henderson. “We believe every child should have a personal place to put their stuff. Every child deserves to feel valued and loved.”

When Couchbase CEO Matt Cain told Henderson that he wanted to get involved with the event, “the next day, we planned the Santa Clara event.”

“Children in foster care are the responsibility of the entire community,”  said Comfort Cases’ Scheer. “Investing in their future is essential for the betterment of society.”