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Home > About Us > Corporate Citizenship > | |||||||
| San Diego Site Has An Appetite for Community Service November 2003
When the holiday season comes around each year, employees at MITRE's San Diego location roll up their sleeves and get busy. Not only do they prepare bountiful meals for their own families; they take time out to ensure that their less fortunate neighbors also have food on their tables. This autumn, for the third year in a row, employees will be joining forces with the San Diego Food Bank to sort and deliver care packages to the needy around the city. The relationship with the San Diego Food Bank was established two years ago. It developed out of MITRE employees' grassroots desire to become more active in the community. The site manager at the time, Gary Brisbois, suggested that an specific action plan be created that emphasized group-oriented activities, so MITRE colleagues would be able to volunteer together as a unit, building office spirit. Jim Manley, principal enterprise architect, researched team-oriented volunteer prospects in the area, and recommended the San Diego Food Bank, plus a specific follow-through plan for action. "We kicked off our charitable work in the fall of 2001 with excellent participation," recalls Manley. "Approximately half of the site was involved at one time or another in a cohesive six-week effort using corporate "C" (Civic) time." This six-week effort, which leads directly into the holidays, is keeping MITRE employees busy again this season. Once a week, between ten and 15 employees travel to an assigned location to sort donations collected at food drives in supermarkets, schools, and businesses throughout the city. During these four-hour stints, a MITRE volunteer is sorting, packing, or distributing non-perishable edibles. "One day we might be putting together packages for the seniors food program," says Manley. "Each package contains items from each food group." Dan Archer, an assistant program manager at MITRE San Diego who has happily worked several shifts, adds, "Another day, we might be working on an assembly line, sorting and filling large boxes of food that will feed a family of four." In fact, during the 2002 Thanksgiving season, several volunteers from the San Diego site enlisted in "Operation Gobble," a citywide program that distributed over 2,000 turkeys donated by California supermarkets to food pantries. As MITRE colleagues hauled passels of turkeys out of large trailers and loaded them into vans for delivery, they were surprised to see California's lieutenant governor working right alongside them, slinging birds with equal enthusiasm. These activities bring not only satisfaction and a sense of togetherness to the San Diego site, but a bit of enlightenment as well. Manley explains, "The bundles that we personally assemble for distribution really opens my eyes as to how much a package of food can make a difference in someone's life." Concludes Archer, "We find the volunteering initiatives are worthwhile and fulfilling. And it really makes each of us feel good when we see how gracious people are in accepting the donations—and how happy it makes them!"
Page last updated: April 9, 2004 | Top of page |
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