Community Outreach: Delivering Food Alongside the Share Food Program

Our team firmly believes in the value of giving back to our local communities. For us, however, simply giving money isn’t enough. There’s a certain value that comes from taking the time to go and physically help those in need. Certainly, it’s a great way to see acts of kindness in action and be a part of something meaningful. 

Acts of kindness – no matter where we turn, it seems like the world is in short supply these days. Turn on the news and you’re instantly greeted with updates about people brawling on planes, sparking forest fires with gender reveal parties, defrauding pensioners, and any number of unsavory things.

But what doesn’t make the news often deserves our attention. Our nation is full of amazing stories of people lending a helping hand in their local communities and unfortunately, types of stories are often underrepresented on our news streams. Here’s one that stood out to us at the Precision OT headquarters, which we’d like to share with you today. 

From Assembling Transceivers to Packing Food Boxes: The SFP Story

Meet Stacey Bolger, Senior Director within our Precision OT family. No stranger to charity, he reopened his childhood fruit stand in 2013 after returning from Ecuador, raising $12,000 in less than 3 months for the Wilmot Cancer Institute of the University of Rochester Medical Center — where Stacy’s father (Bruce) was receiving treatment following a recurrence of lymphoma. Begun a childhood project, the fruit stand had been a community fixture, offering community members a quick, convenient way to pick up organic produce – completely on the honor system no less! Though it had been on hiatus for a while, the community quickly rallied around Stacey’s efforts – a significant act of kindness during an incredibly difficult time. 

With his background in farming, it’s no surprise that Stacey immediately gravitated to the Share Food Program when Precision OT sent him to Philadelphia to launch Precision’s Tri-state Regional office. The Share Food Program distributes food to 1 million neighbors in need each month, over half of whom are children. With food insecurity rising, due in large part to the economic woes created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for volunteers across all aspects of the Share Food Program’s operations has never been greater.

As Stacey says: “The Share Food Program offers multiple opportunities for volunteers to get involved within their local communities. You can help sort and pack food boxes, use your vehicle to deliver groceries, help load the cars that deliver to the home, and even help grow healthy produce on Share’s Nice Roots Farm and surrounding grounds. With my background, I really wanted to help on the farm, but I quickly found out that they needed help primarily on the packaging and delivery side.”

Over the last several months, Stacey and other members of the Precision OT team have been helping the Share Food Program on their packaging assembly line. As a smaller team, we’ve often been paired with other companies to fill out the 12 slots on each assembly line. “It’s been a great experience getting to meet new people with everyone united behind a really good cause,” Stacey adds. “We love how we get a chance to rotate through all the different ways in which one can volunteer for the program.”

One Act of Kindness Opens the Door to Many Others

In many ways, acts of kindness spur a snowball effect, and Stacey has seen this firsthand. “On a delivery one day in Philadelphia, I drove up to a woman’s home with her groceries and rang her doorbell but got no response. I tried ringing again with no luck. There was no answer even on the Onfleet app that we use to notify our recipients of their deliveries. That’s when some of her neighbors came out, saying ‘Oh—she doesn’t get up until closer to eleven, but we can keep them cold until she’s up.’ Her niece even came by to unlock the door and get the fresh food into the refrigerator. It really is a breath of fresh air to see acts of kindness like this and volunteering is a great way to experience this in person and remember what community really means.”

Overall, we’re excited to keep growing our involvement with the local community, charities like the Share Food Program and encourage our team members to continue getting involved in the causes that matter to them. With regional Precision OT branches popping up in multiple cities throughout the world, the possibilities are endless. And, if you are a part of the Precision OT ecosystem, the invitation is open: join us and let’s get behind our local communities together! “In a world of technology, it’s people that make the difference.”

To learn more about the Share Food Program, donate or volunteer your time, visit www.sharefoodprogram.org. 

For more information on Precision OT’s Community Outreach Program, visit Community Involvement – Precision OT.