Each quarter, EnableComp focuses on one major project in order to give back to the communities in which we live and work. It has become tradition here that our first big project of every year is a food drive benefiting Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee. Second Harvest is a network of individuals, local nonprofit organizations and corporate partners working together to fight hunger in our community. They cover 46 counties in their service area covering 20,712 square miles in Middle and West Tennessee and have provided approximately 27,000,000 meals to food-insecure individuals in these areas.
Since most donation banks are wiped out after the holiday, the timing for our food drive couldn’t have been better. With this in mind, it was off to the races and so the competition began. The rules were simple: teams were assigned two letters (i.e. A & B) and boxes were distributed. Additionally, each team was given a bonus box that was specifically for ‘most needed items’ from their website. Each item brought in that started with the teams’ assigned letters were worth one point and each item brought for the bonus box were worth 2 points. The competition ran for two weeks. At the end of the drive, cans were counted and donated. The team with the most points would be awarded the Golden Can Award!
The two-week drive went by fast, but everyone pitched in and did their part as empowered team members. It was a close race with the top three teams’ collections coming in at 248, 254, and 287. Nonetheless, the winning team emerged and the Golden Can Award was all theirs! Overall, we were proud of our drive as we collected 938 pounds of food. The contents of Second Harvest’s average grocery cart of food given to a neighbor is 100 pounds, so our donations were equivalent to feeding 9 families.
EnableComp’s food drive was filled with fun, competition and hard-work, but the most valuable lesson I think we all learned, is what great things CAN happen when we all work together.
Learn more about Second Harvest Food Bank here.