“That breakfast was m’m m’m good!” said Jonathan, a client of New Visions Homeless Day Shelter in Camden, NJ. He was referencing, of course, the delicious egg and turkey sausage bake with fresh bananas that was cooked and served by a team of Campbell employees to Jonathan and 80 of his fellow Camden residents. “For people like Jonathan, and many others that New Visions serves, that breakfast might be the only hot meal he eats all week,” said Kevin Moran, Executive Director – New Visions. “Thanks to Campbell volunteers, he has a hearty meal to start the day.”
This project is just one of 90 happening across 14 of Campbell’s U.S. locations during Make a Difference Week, the company’s annual week of service. Approximately 3,000 employees are trading their cell phones for ladles, shovels and paint brushes this week to donate 4,000 hours of time to 30 non-profit partners.
Projects run the gamut from planting fruit trees, to building shelving to make a food pantry more efficient to cleaning up trash from the Delaware River Bank. All participating sites are also donating backpacks full of food to youth in need through the Campbell Backpack Program. This initiative will supply a backpack full of items like fresh produce and shelf-stable dinner items to young people who are on the National School Lunch Program during the school week, but do not know where their next meal is coming from on the weekend.
“Investing in our community and supporting our neighbors in deep and meaningful ways matters to us as a company, as individual employees and to the people who are the fabric of the communities where we live and work,” said Dave Stangis, Vice President – Corporate Responsibility and Public Affairs. “Make a Difference Week demonstrates this commitment.”
See coverage of events as they happen by following @CampbellCSR and @CampbellSoupCo on Twitter.