Last Wednesday, Eight O’Clock Coffee teamed up with First Book to host a fun-filled day of off-site learning for local second graders at Eight O’Clock Coffee’s Landover, Maryland roasting and packaging facility. At the event, Eight O’Clock also proudly announced the production of 5,000 co-branded copies of the Sesame Street Workshop book, We’re Different, We’re the Same, now available to children nationwide on the First Book Marketplace.

The day’s events included a tour of the plant and reading activities with 63 second graders from nearby Woodridge Elementary School. Students got to see what goes in to every bag of Eight O’Clock Coffee and enjoyed reading We’re Different, We’re the Same with Eight O’Clock Coffee employee volunteers. A tasty Sesame Street-themed lunch followed, and the event ended with each child taking home two brand new books in an Eight O’Clock Coffee tote bag.

“We love hosting the First Book events and spending the day with the kids—they really light up when they get new books,” says Alisa Jacoby, Senior Brand Manager at Eight O’Clock Coffee. About the book We’re Different, We’re the Same, Jacoby adds, “Having recently changed our Eight O’Clock Coffee packaging, we can relate to the idea of being different on the outside, but the same on the inside!”

Through the First Book and Eight O’Clock Coffee partnership, 580 books will be donated to Woodridge Elementary School, two for each student. Kyle Zimmer, President of First Book, commended Eight O’Clock Coffee’s efforts, “Their continued dedication to promoting literacy helps to ensure that all children have ‘the same’ educational resources and opportunities.”