Marking National Volunteer Week

By
Saturday, 12 April 2014

Our San Francisco office was closed today to accommodate team moves to new spaces within our building. Rather than work from home or take the day off, 50 or so of our employees took advantage of the time out of the office for a bit of community service. Coincidentally, this is National Volunteer Week, so we were in good company.

Some of our HR team met at St. Anthony’s Dining Room to serve 2,500 lunches to people in need. Some 40% of all the free meals served in San Francisco are served by St. Anthony’s. Our volunteers learned about their work in the Tenderloin neighborhood by serving trays, busing tables and working the food line. After volunteering, the team sat down and shared a meal and conversation with guests in the dining room.

The Business Development team headed over to Episcopal Community Services’ Canon Kip Senior Center on Natoma Street, where more than half of the participants are currently or formerly homeless. Our folks completed a volunteer training session, served lunch and played bingo with the seniors.

Meanwhile, over at the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, our Research team covered the morning shift, and our Marketing & Communications team went in the afternoon. The morning assignment: bag pasta (and did they: 4,875 pounds in three hours).

In the afternoon, the Marketing-Comms team measured and bagged rice (4,500 one-pound bags of it) for use in food pantries and soup kitchens.

All of our folks enjoyed the camaraderie and teamwork volunteering provides, and as a bonus learned about community needs and some the organizations serving people in tangible ways. We’re always glad to volunteer our time for these worthy causes.