TQL Teams Spark Feeding Frenzy
We kicked off TQL Cares for the Holidays last week. Teams around the company and country have been busy sharing their time, talent and treasure with those in need.
Eight members of Team Dayton spent the day after Thanksgiving volunteering at House of Bread, a long-time partner for that office’s charitable work.
In addition, Taylor C. enlisted the Dayton office to help collect food for Just a Little Lunch. The grass-roots organization started as a husband-wife team in her friend’s kitchen six years ago. This year, about 70 people assembled more than 1,200 complete meals - and 350 extra sandwiches - to give to St. Vincent De Paul.
“It’s nice to actually give them the food directly, not just drop it off somewhere,” Taylor said. “It was pretty cool. I think they are going for 2,000 meals next year.”
TQL Lexington collected 1,287 pounds of food – easily eclipsing last year’s donation of 1,105 pounds - for God’s Pantry during Thanksgiving week. The drive helped replenish the shelves after the holiday rush Dec. 1.
“Our amount of food will feed at least 600 families,” said sales recruiting coordinator Sam M. “Jeremy from God's Pantry was such an angel. He actually cried when we were loading the food up. He said he was so touched by the generosity.”
God’s Pantry has a “network of more than 300 member agencies, including food pantries, soup kitchens and shelters. Through these partnerships, it provides more than 121,400 meals every day for hungry people in Central and Eastern Kentucky across our 50-county service area.”
Team Charlotte also collected food Thanksgiving week, filling several barrels for a 1,033-pound donation to Second Harvest Food Bank Dec. 1.
“We participated with them last year as well,” said recruiter Brandi M. “They are the local food bank.”
Local, yes, but with a wide reach. According to its website, Second Harvest “partners with over 650 agencies in a 19-county area. These agencies include soup kitchens, emergency pantries, emergency shelters, low-income day cares, senior programs and group homes.”
"Thank you all so much for your incredible donation," said Ethan Altmire of Second Harvest. "We can't thank you enough and we hope you continue to work with us in the future."
TQL Nashville joined forces with the Nashville Food Project Dec. 2. SOL Mark V. and his team prepped, cooked and served meals to Music City homeless. The holiday visit inspired a bigger commitment.
“This was a great organization to pair up with. They are very organized and efficient and our group loved it,” Mark said. “Over the next couple of months we will be prepping food once a month in their kitchen, making great meals for the homeless of Tennessee.
“Food comes from locally grown crops, as well as donations from Whole Foods and other large vendors. We will start having the opportunity to drive the food trucks with our team handing out meals.”
Let us know your story and how you’re helping your communities this holiday season. Send photos and/or videos of your volunteer work to socialmedia@tql.com. We’ll highlight some of them on the Life At TQL social media channels and here on the blog site.
Because TQL Cares.