Donor Spotlight: Corbion
On September 11, 2024, 74 volunteers from Corbion flocked to Harvesters’ warehouse with a singular goal: packing Holiday meal kits. Lots of Holiday meal kits.
To watch Corbion’s employees work was to witness a well-oiled machine running at full steam. Cans, boxes and bags of ingredients were rapidly (and neatly) packed and stacked onto palates for distribution to our neighbors. Our staff had their work cut out for themselves keeping up. But we managed!
In total, Corbion packed 5,799 meal kits, totaling 43,667 pounds of food. It may seem a bit premature to be thinking about the holidays, but Corbion’s early effort is going to make a huge difference for households in our neighborhoods come Thanksgiving.
Corbion has been an avid supporter of Harvesters for years, giving a significant amount of money and volunteer labor. In fact, they’ve been doing holiday box-packing events since 2010! Mark Hotze, Corbion’s Vice President for North America, shares why Harvesters was again their charity of choice for 2024.
“There’s a lot of overlap between our two missions,” Mark says. “I think the core of what Corbion does is to try to feed the planet. That’s one of our key tenets as an organization, as well as providing a safe food supply. So, Harvesters’ mission falls squarely within the middle of that. It’s a great opportunity for us to give back to the community. What we’re trying to do is to provide everybody with access to safe and affordable food.”
Corbion’s employees definitely share Mark’s vision. In fact, the company currently holds the record for number of boxes packed in a single event. And who did they beat out? The multi-Super Bowl-winning Kansas City Chiefs.
“It’s the only time I want to beat the Chiefs,” Mark laughs. “It’s pretty cool to have the record.”
In addition to packing thousands of meals this year, Corbion presented Harvesters with a check for $50,000. This money amounts to about 100,000 meals for our neighbors. And we don’t just benefit from these large gifts, but from the continual generosity of individual employees.
“We subsidize meals for our employees at our own cantina, “Mark explains. “We’re not asking people to pay for those lunches, but instead to just make an automatic payroll deduction that goes to Harvesters. It’s a completely voluntary thing, but I don’t think there’s one employee that’s part of the lunch program, and honestly, many who are not eating lunches on campus, that isn’t getting donations taken out on a weekly or monthly basis.”
Want to follow Corbion’s lead and pack some Holiday boxes for your neighbors? Sign up yourself or a group here.
