Like for many of you, the holiday season is a time of reflection at RF-SMART. As we take a look back at the last year, we reminisce on the opportunities we've had to live out our mission of transforming customers and changing lives.
Philanthropy has always been a part of the culture at RF-SMART. In the last few years, our corporate philanthropic initiatives have been focused on fighting hunger and food insecurity in order to expand our impact. For us, it's about more than just feeling good - it's about making a difference in our communities and in our world. Here are some of the reasons we have a corporate volunteering goal:
Our US East team came together to volunteer in groups (big and small) to provide meals to communities of all ages. In the Jacksonville area, we’ve had teams deliver meals to seniors with Meals on Wheels, sort through donations at Feeding Northeast Florida, run the pantry at UCOM Jax, and participate in meal packing events with Hunger Fight to distribute meals to Title 1 elementary students in Northeast Florida. During our Wellness Week, we held an in-office meal packing event with Rise Against Hunger where we packed over 15,000 meals.
The US East Team after the wellness week meal packing event with Rise Against Hunger.
Our US West team has served with a variety of organizations this year as well. They have regularly volunteered by serving meals at Denver Rescue Mission, preparing meals with Nourish Meals on Wheels, and organizing donations at Food Bank of the Rockies.
The team from the RF-SMART US West office volunteers at Denver Rescue Mission.
Our distributed employees volunteered individually or with their families at hunger organizations local to their area. A group of our employees in the Kansas City area volunteer together once a month at Harvesters Community Food Network. They have sorted and packed through countless food items during their time at the warehouse.
Team members in Kansas City volunteer together regularly with RF-SMART partners.
In addition to volunteering, we made it a priority to hold regular companywide food drives to donate to local food pantries. In our most recent food drive, RF-SMART pledged to match $2 per every item to help those affected by Hurricane Ida. In that specific drive, we collected 2,867 items and the company donated $5,734 to Feeding America’s Disaster Relief fund.
On the left: Members of the US East Office dropping off food pantry donations. On the right: Our 2021 Angel Tree is almost ready to be picked up by the Salvation Army.
We also continued the RF-SMART tradition for our employees to participate in the Salvation Army Angel Tree. This program is designed to help thousands of underprivileged children across the country experience the joy of opening gifts on Christmas day. This year, RF-SMART team members provided toys and clothes for 90 boys or girls from our office tree.
To continue our corporate philanthropic efforts, we are excited to announce we will be increasing these goals for 2022 by expanding our impact into fighting poverty in addition to hunger! We have plans to continue our fundraising and volunteering efforts to be able to support our neighbors on a broader scale.
To learn more about what's coming for next year relating to philanthropy, check out this episode of the RF-SMART podcast to learn about our goals and ways that you can be involved!
