Making a Difference by Feeding Others

As COVID-19 swept across our communities, resources were stretched thin and the economy suffered, affecting businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies across the world. It’s now more important than ever to work together to sustain our communities with entertainment, employment, and necessities like food, safety, and shelter. At Microsoft, making a difference in people’s lives is engrained into our culture and influences everything we do. At our core, we feel it’s our responsibility to do what we can to support our communities.

The Microsoft Dining team found ways to give back within communities we serve. To help slow the spread of COVID-19, we moved our sites to a work-from-home status and closed our cafés. Consequently, this presented us an unprecedented opportunity to donate perishable food to local organizations in a unified way across the Americas Portfolio. 

In the United States, the Dining teams in both Fargo, North Dakota, and Charlotte, North Carolina, donated nutritious food to organizations serving those in need in their communities. In Fargo, we donated fresh fruits, vegetables, and milk to the YWCA Cass-Clay Emergency Shelter that works to eliminate racism and empower women by providing emergency shelter services to women and children who face domestic violence, human trafficking, or homelessness. These donations allowed the staff to focus on their critical core services.

In Charlotte, the team donated eggs, fruits, and vegetables to Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina. Second Harvest supplies food and essential groceries to over 800 agencies feeding hungry people in 24 counties. Additionally, the Dining team partnered with a local Microsoft team member to deliver 400 milk cartons to an organization giving out items to kids not able to attend school in the Clover School District.

The Bay Area Teams, in partnership with Microsoft catering, identified an opportunity to donate prepared meals to various individuals and organizations who would benefit from a nutritious meal. In San Francisco, we were able to order food and distribute 700 individual meals for the Marin City elderly community, 800 prepackaged lunches to the VA Hospital, 150 grocery bags for elderly and low income families, and 150 meals to San Mateo Medical Center.

In South Florida, 400 lunch boxes were put together to support Caring for Miami, an NGO community based that services anti-hunger food programs for children and the homeless. Donation of healthy lunch boxes included a sandwich, juice box, chips and fresh fruits. These meals are helping to sustain their goal to cover basic needs for families with low resources in the Miami Dade area.

Latin America is also joining this initiative. Together, Mexico and Costa Rica donated 3,000 lunch boxes, composed of a sandwich, juice box, water, cookies, and fresh fruit. In Mexico, the nutritious food boxes were distributed to two NGOs: Alimento Para Todos (Food for Everyone) and Centro Comunitario Santa Fe (Community Center). Due to the rise of the pandemic, these organizations have seen a 40% increase in requests to aid families, mostly due to the reduction of informal employment for the most vulnerable population in Mexico City. 

In Costa Rica, we took the opportunity to support the volunteers who have generously given their time to do good for others. The lunch boxes were distributed through the United Way Costa Rica, a non-profit business organization that promotes sustainable development in Costa Rica. The lunches were provided to young individuals dedicating their time to sort and organize donated nonperishable food, and coordinating delivery to people in need, often working long hours without a sustainable meals for themselves. 

These are just a few examples of the important and inspiring work being done across the Americas to empower people and organizations to achieve their goals and carry out their mission. When we work together to engage and collaborate with organizations for good, and make resources available and accessible, we make our communities a more sustainable, safer, and happier place.