Taking a Bite Out of Hunger

One of the best parts of working at a startup is creating new traditions, and the one I am most proud to be part of is volunteering at events that coincide with each new Delphix product release. We celebrate our accomplishments by going out into the community and helping in an area where we are passionate.

After our last release, we volunteered at food banks across the company and the country (Boston, Boulder, San Francisco) and we did it again this time. We chose to support food banks because hunger is a cause that is often forgotten during the summer months, and also because we all loved the experience of helping others so much. Hunger affects 1 in 5 children in the United States currently. Most free school lunch programs only continue during the school year, so during the summer kids don't have access to food. On August 14th, the Boston Office volunteered at the Greater Boston Food Bank.

The 8 Delphix Employees joined volunteers from Bain Capital and Constant Contact. They handled 7,863 pounds of food, enough to make 5444 meals possible; each person that volunteered handled 175 pounds, making possible 121 meals. The Greater Boston Food Bank serves 545,00 people annually and is trying to increase its distribution this year to provide at least one meal a day to everyone in need in eastern Massachusetts.

Also on August 14th, the San Francisco and Menlo Park offices combined their volunteering powers and headed back to the SF Marin Food Bank. This time around, we bagged 1-pound bags of rice for families and once again there was a competition; though we didn't beat the record of 39 perfect 1-lb bags of rice - I believe my group won with 16 perfects! We helped over 100 families that day and every week the SF-Marin Food Bank aids 30,000 households with the food from their pantries. One of the most amazing things is that for every $1 someone donates, $6 of food is distributed.

Our Colorado Office took two shifts of volunteering at the Community Food Share this time; Colorado did two shifts to ensure that everyone in the office would be able to participate without sacrificing the quality of service to our customers. The first shift sorted 6 pallets of baked goods, mostly bread and donuts while the second group's job was to get rid of "isolation" food items. There were items in various forms of decay. Peeling wrappers of rotting bananas and throwing them in a bin with wasps circling you was kinda fun according to the participants. The Community Food Share is responsible for distributing to 50 local human services and distributed 7.8 million meals in 2013.

I, along with my coworkers, am looking forward to keeping this tradition alive and taking a larger bite out of hunger. One team helping fight hunger in three locations.