National Volunteer Month Highlights: Fighting Food Insecurity
April is National Volunteer Month, and employees across Thomson Reuters made an impact in their local communities. One event included employees from the Minneapolis-St. Paul chapters of Thomson Reuters Early Careers Network and Global Volunteer Network volunteering with Second Harvest Heartland in Brooklyn Park, Minn.
Second Harvest Heartland is a food bank that works to end hunger through community partnerships. Adam Gruenewald, senior content specialist, helped coordinate the volunteer event with Claire Dolney, outbound product marketing manager, and Kaydee Miller, inbound product marketing associate manager.
Gruenewald said Thomson Reuters volunteers contributed about 30 hours to fighting food insecurity. Employees assisted with tasks including packing cereal and sorting apples and bread.
“We certainly had a lot of fun helping out Second Harvest in their efforts,” Gruenewald said. “Personally, I find myself very fortunate in that I know where my next meal is coming from, unlike so many others. We will definitely be back to continue the fight against hunger.”
In the first shift, volunteers packed 308 boxes of bread, amounting to 4,312 pounds or 3,593 meals. The second-shift volunteers packed 153 boxes of apples, amounting to 6,002 pounds or 5,002 meals. The third-shift volunteers packed 107 boxes of apples, amounting to 4,231 pounds or 3,526 meals, as well as cereal.
Thomson Reuters employees receive paid time-off for their service through the company’s community giving and employee volunteer program, which provides employees with two paid volunteer days each year.
Legal Professionals President Paul Fischer recently encouraged employees to take advantage of these programs and shared his perspective on the importance of volunteering.
“For over eight years, I’ve been on the board of directors for Wilderness Inquiry,” Fischer said. “It takes my love for the outdoors and allows me to share it with people who may not otherwise find themselves in a forest or canoeing on a pristine lake, due to their age, background or abilities. There are things that I get to be part of as a board member or during one of our adventures that I simply don’t find in anything else I do. We all benefit from the work and decency of other people in ways that we don’t always realize, but we are more aware of the kindnesses of others when we’re helping someone in need.”
Thomson Reuters employees also recently volunteered to provide 360 Communities with blankets and hygiene kits and to support Afghan refugees resettling in the United States. Check out the Thomson Reuters Social Impact and ESG Report 2021 to learn more about how the company is serving communities in need.
Photo credit: @adamgruenewald
