Week Four – USI Gives Back: 113 Community Service Events Have Been Completed Since 8/1 Kick Off!

Twenty nine USI offices nationwide participated in 41 local community service during week four of USI Gives Back. The following is a quick summary:

West - Downtown Stockton is a high poverty area; the needs are great and the poor are in abundance, so 12 associates from the USI Stockton, California, office spent four hours serving meals at St. Mary's Dinning Hall, which has been preparing over 1,000 meals each day for the needy for decades. In Cheyenne, Wyoming, 11 employees spent four hours making wreaths, decorating wheel chairs and helping patients get ready for their Luau at the Sierra Hills Assisted Living. The Portland, Oregon, office, helped out at The Pongo Fund, Oregon’s only full-time charity fighting animal hunger because hungry people have hungry pets. In Boise, Idaho, seven USI associates spent six hours giving back to Jannus, which supports over 20 local programs that promote community health and create economic opportunities for the betterment of lives. The group donated and delivered 30 pieces of furniture and eight boxes of office and home supplies.

More than 400 dogs and cats were visited by 29 USI employees from the Woodland Hills, California, who spent four hours helping with various tasks at the Best Friends Animal Society. This is the only national, animal welfare organization focused exclusively on ending the killing of dogs and cats in America's shelters. Seventeen associates from this USI office also spent 12 hours assisting teachers with special needs clients in a classroom setting at New Horizons, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping individuals with special needs reach their full potential. In Irvine, California 38 staff members spent 12 hours giving back to Families Forward Back to School drive. Families Forward is a non-profit organization committed to helping local Orange County families who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. And in three hours, the Anchorage, Alaska, team of seven employees stuffed over 4,000 bags with school supplies for the upcoming school year in support of HUGGS, an event that was started several years ago to help low income families.

Southwest - Thirty five staff members from the USI Dallas, Texas, office helped out at the North Texas Food Bank, a top ranked non-profit relief organization, providing access to more than 190,000 meals each day for hungry children, seniors and families through a network of more than 1,000 special programs and 200 partner agencies in a 13 county area. In Houston, Texas, associates continued giving back by helping out at Kids’ Meals, a meals on wheels program for pre-school children

Mountain - Over 16,000 pounds of produce were bagged for distribution by Great Plains Food Bank by four employees at the USI Bismarck, North Dakota, office, in support of United Way. This food bank helps more than 1,000 families in the local community. 

Midwest - The Chicago, Illinois, office continues to pay it forward with kindness. They visited the Individual Advocacy Group, a community center where 33 USI employees donated four hours to help those with special needs. And, staff members from Cincinnati, Ohio, continue to stay busy, donating their time at Matthew 25 Ministries and at the PAWS Adoption Center. Matthew 25 Ministries is an international humanitarian aid and disaster relief organization helping more than 20 million people in need each year, and PAWS is a no-kill shelter dedicated to the reduction of homeless pets by promoting adoption, spay/neuter, education and responsible pet ownership. In addition, four USI associates from this office spent four hours at CareNet delivering mulch, weeding and fixing flower beds as well as organizing diapers. CareNet is an evangelical Christian crisis pregnancy center organization for women in need.

Meanwhile, seven USI employees from the Independence, Ohio, office spent four hours at the Boys and Girls Club helping the children with art and music projects, and five employees spent four hours distributing four tons of fresh produce to over 400 families at the Salvation Army. This office also gave back at the Westside Catholic Center where six members spent five hours sorting clothes and helping patrons who are in need of clothing, school and household items. The Terre Haute, Indiana, office also has participated in a few events. A team of associates helped at Exotic Rescue Center, which houses approximately 200 exotic felines and is one of the largest rescue centers in the United States for abused, unwanted and neglected exotic felines. This USI office also participated in a backpack drive and they volunteered their services at the Bethany House Homeless Shelter, which has sheltered single women, women with children, and married couples since it opened in April 1980.

Southeast - As a product rescue center volunteer, 70 USI employees from the Atlanta, Georgia, office, sorted, organized and packed recently donated food and personal care products at the Atlanta Community Food Bank for distribution to over 600 local partner agencies. Nineteen associates from the USI Memphis, Tennessee, office donated five hours of their time and provided school supplies for Rachel’s Kids, which has been helping inner city children and families for 20 years. Rachel and her husband, now deceased, started the program to help the community around their business. Meanwhile, in Charlotte, North Carolina, 70 folks inspected and sorted 30 pallets of food for the Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina (SHFBM). This amount equates to 23,000 lbs. or 15,333 meals. More than 50 million pounds annually is distributed by SHFBM which is made up of 80% volunteer workers. And, 53 associates from the USI Fort Lauderdale, Florida, office, spent six hours donating their time and talent at Feeding South Florida, the sole Feeding America food bank serving Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe counties. 

MidAtlantic - Twenty Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, employees visited the Youth Services Inc. of Philadelphia, and spent five playing basketball, videos games, cleaning up the shelter, and just letting them know that there are people who believe in them. This is the second visit for this office, which also donated 200 pounds of school supplies and 100 pounds of clothing and sneakers. A small group of four from this office also assisted 150 children with back to school supplies through the Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, court system, by donating a wide variety of school supplies. And, four associates spent four hours at Junior Achievement of Southeastern PA, where they made and bagged 3,300 lesson plans. Junior Achievements Step to Success emphasizes a foundation of college aspiration within the School District of Philadelphia by targeting 3rd Grade Students.

Eight USI employees from Wilmington, Delaware, stuffed over 200 backpacks over two days for the Sunday Breakfast mission, which provides free stuffed backpacks to children in grades K-8. And, 10 staff members from Falls Church, Virginia, peeled and chopped vegetables for thousands of meals that are distributed to local service agencies through the DC Central Kitchen. This facility is recognized as a "community kitchen" that recycles food from the Washington, DC area and uses it as a tool to train unemployed adults to develop work skills while providing thousands of meals for local service agencies. Members from this office also visited SERVE, sorting donations and organizing food types, restocking food on shelves and other kitchen tasks. SERVE provides 600 families every month with emergency food assistance, nutrition information, healthy cooking demonstrations and strategies for buying healthy food on a budget.

Northeast - In Toms River, New Jersey, 19 USI staff members spent four hours at cleaning up the beach at Island Beach State Park & Nature Center Preservation Project (IBSP). Locals and vacationers flock to IBSP annually to enjoy its beauty and natural surroundings, and the state park relies heavily on volunteers throughout the year to provide the best visitor experience possible. This office also helped children in need by collecting backpacks and lunch boxes along with many other needed supplies in support of the Provident House School Supply Drive. 

New England - Thirty five USI employees from the Woburn, Massachusetts, office helped to get the SISU Youth Center at the Lawrence Family Development ready for opening day by painting and cleaning. The Center is a youth, social service organization where the Finnish word “Sisu” means “tenacity of purpose” and “succeeding against all odds.” 

USI Affinity - The Matawan, New Jersey, office held two Stuff the Bus events supporting the United way, where over a two day period they counted, sorted and packed over 13,000 back to school items.

USI Consulting Group - In Glastonbury, Connecticut, nine employees donated 11 hours by helping the American Red Cross staff with its blood donation drive. Every two seconds someone in the United States needs blood, and with 21 million blood products transfused each year, there is currently a shortage. This office also visited FoodShare where 27 individuals repackaged enough apples and carrots for 6,667 meals. All products that leave FoodShare go to local food banks, churches and shelters. 

Emerson Reid - Eighty eight people were fed at Ronald McDonald House Long Island by 12 associates from the Melville, New York, office, who cooked and served brunch for them. This office also purchased the food and presented the balance of their funds ($532) as a donation. Recently, a group of nine from the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, office spent three hours at the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank sorting and packing 792 bags of produce. This foodbank is the largest, non-profit food distribution organization in central PA, partnering with 900 agencies and distributing 48 million pounds of food and groceries – the equivalent of 40 million meals. Fourteen employees from this office also cleaned and re-shelved more than 200 books and audio books, scrubbed walls, collected trash, and washed windows and doors at the Madeline L Olewine Library. Over in the Williamsport, Pennsylvania, office, three employees participated in Andrew’s Special Kids Charity, raising almost $2,000 at a yard sale for The Children of Lycoming and Clinton Counties with Disabilities. This charity’s mission is to provide special needs children with every opportunity in life so they may reach their full potential.

Corporate - Lastly, 67 staff members from the Valhalla, New York, office visited the Hilltop Hanover Farm & Environmental Center where they weeded, cleaned, sorted and cut vegetables, and refurbished a garden used for community education. Hilltop is dedicated to the development and advancement of sustainable agriculture, environmental stewardship, community education, and accessible food systems.

We have one more week to go, so let’s keep this amazing momentum going and make next week our best week ever! Click here to see our USI Gives Back video.