Monday was my company’s fourth annual Day of Caring. Every year on President’s Day all 125 of our employees have the opportunity to volunteer at a place of their choice instead of working. President’s Day is a bank holiday which means that the stock market is closed. I work in finance so bank holidays are a great day for my company to give back to our community without missing out on the chance to serve our clients.

My department chose to volunteer at a local food bank that helps provide meals to families in need and weekend packs for school children who only get food at school during the week.

This is my third year volunteering at this food bank and I can honestly say that I really enjoy it! My team loves to make everything a competition. We usually break into two teams and race to see which team can create the most weekend pouches or who can package the most cereal containers.

I love that my company encourages us to go out into the community and make an impact. We have various other events throughout the year that focus on individual non-profits in each of our markets.

Our Day of Caring really means a lot to me because there were many times in my life where I was unable to donate money and resources. As a college student especially, the only thing I was able to donate was my time. No matter how big or small, you can still make an impact.

This year my team packaged over 1300 weekend pouches! This beats the record of 987 that we set two years ago. We hustled and worked together to create an efficient packing system in order to pack as many weekend pouches as possible in our time at the food pantry. It was also great team building!

Do you enjoy volunteering in your community?

Photo by Robert Baker on Unsplash