Vulcan Materials Company “stockpiles” 4 tons of food for community organizations across Alabama and beyond
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Looking for ways to get your workplace involved in giving back during the holidays? Take a cue from Vulcan Materials Company, headquartered in Birmingham, where giving back is ingrained in the corporate culture.
Case in point: in the month leading up to Thanksgiving, more than 800 Alabama employees across Vulcan’s Southern and Gulf Coast division, as well as Vulcan’s Employment Development Association, participated in a friendly competition for a good cause: the Stockpile for Hunger Food Drive Challenge.
Fun Fact: “Stockpile” is a play on words. Here are stockpiles of material at a Vulcan Quarry.
Vulcan’s Stockpile for Hunger
Food Drive Challenge
The Philosophy
“At Vulcan, we take pride in giving back to the community.”
Atisthan Roach, manager of community and government relations, Vulcan Materials
By the Numbers
- $1,445 and 2,080 pounds of food was collected from October 15 to November 15, 2018.
- 7,860 pounds, or 4 tons of food, was the grand total after converting dollars into pounds of food using Feeding America’s calculator (multiplying $1 by 4).
- 14 local community organizations benefitted throughout Alabama. Each participating Vulcan location chose where to donate the food they collected, so they could help the communities closest to home.
- 1,990 pounds of food, collected by the Birmingham location, was donated to the Community Foodbank of Central Alabama.
- 2x the good: During the first week of the competition, Hurricane Michael made landfall. As a result, Vulcan expanded the competition to include monetary donations to the American Red Cross for Hurricane Michael relief and matched employee donations. Locally, the Ensley location donated the monetary equivalent of 1,200 pounds of food to the American Red Cross.
- Company-wide impact: Coast to coast, Vulcan Materials Company employs more than 8,000 people, and every division held a food drive in 2018. The corporate match for Hurricane Michael relief extended company-wide.
Fact: Getting your workplace involved in charitable giving and volunteer efforts may boost morale and workplace atmosphere, and it can build essential leadership skills to boot.
Source: 2016 study by Deloitte
3 Tips to Get Your Workplace Involved in Giving Back, Vulcan Style
- Allow autonomy. Vulcan Materials Company gave each regional division the autonomy to run its own food drive. Then, within each division, each location selected where donations would go. This empowers employees and helps them build connections in their local communities.
- Instill friendly competition. This makes it fun and motivates teams.
- Be flexible so you can respond to urgent needs. Vulcan’s corporate office adjusted the terms of the challenge due to Hurricane Michael. In the first week, monetary donations to the American Red Cross for hurricane relief counted toward teams’ food drive totals with a corporate match added.
More Ways Vulcan Gives Back
Here are a few additional ways Vulcan employees give back to the Birmingham community. Maybe these can be an inspiration for your company, too.
- 22 years of participation in the Pig Iron BBQ Challenge, supporting Children’s Harbor.
- Volunteer activities at the Bell Center, a children’s early intervention program in Homewood.
- The Quarry Crusher Run, benefiting Tarrant City Schools.
- The Cahaba River Society annual Fry-Down at Railroad Park.
- The Salvation Army’s Angel Tree Project.
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