April 17, 2020
The Coronavirus health crisis continues to seriously impact the most vulnerable members of communities where GSF and its family of companies do business. In response, associates around the world are taking care of each other and their neighbors in need. From micro-volunteering to large-scale donations, look to the generous associates of GSF when looking for the helpers in these unprecedented times.
KanPak associates in Penn Yan, New York donated touch-free thermometers to local first responders to help keep the community safe. Foundation volunteers and family members also created and distributed appreciation cards to local essential businesses in the Penn Yan Area to thank those serving the community in restaurants, hardware stores and assisted living homes for senior citizens. In Kansas, KanPak donated safety glasses to a local hospital to help protect essential medical workers.
QCD Charlotte helped its local food bank transport donations to the convention center for a mass volunteer packaging effort. GSF Foundation volunteers from the same Charlotte facility assembled cheerful Easter baskets for local elementary school students. Irvine associates and their families also made Easter baskets and gave them to a Southern California nonprofit.
“Living GSF’s culture through and through, many associates have engaged in micro-volunteering activities with small groups or within their own households while staying home,” said Tess McAnena, GSF Foundation Executive Director. “These small efforts add up to benefit children and families in a big way.”
In addition to fast-tracking nearly $200,000 in food bank grants through matching funds with 12 local Foundation committees, GSF associates have supported customer food donations. In early April, GSF’s Protein Products team supported its McDonald’s customer donation to the Food Bank of East Alabama, which received 25 pallets of hamburger meat made nearby in the Opelika facility. That’s nearly 500,000 quarter-pound burgers!
The Opelika facility also donated 1,000 protective plastic suits to the East Alabama Medical Center (EAMC). Healthcare workers at the local hospital desperately need the isolation gowns, as their supply of personal protective equipment recently dwindled down to only a few days left. According to an EAMC executive, “This donation was just in time.”
With ingredients donated by Cargill, McCain Foods, Schreiber Foods and Griffith Foods, GSF Corporate Chef Glenn Lewis teamed up with other local chefs in GSF’s Chicago Innovation Center to cook up 150 individually packaged dinners for doctors and nurses at Lurie Children’s Hospital. This month’s additional donation of time and talent expands on the chefs’ ongoing commitment to prepare meals for four-to-six weeks and donate them to more than 100 children and family members staying at four Chicago-area Ronald McDonald House locations. GSF customer McDonald’s included a photo and details about these efforts in its website story this week.
More than 100 KanPak China associates contributed charitable donations, which received matching funds from the company. As a result of this donation campaign that began in February, KanPak China gave about $7,000 (U.S.) to support their local Red Cross in purchasing protective equipment needed for medical staff serving their community in nearby hospitals.