National Life and Sodexo did it again. We spread the love in the form of 216 pounds of butter and 240 pounds of stuffing and many homemade apple pies. Who needs all those calories, you ask? Well, our neighbors do. According to our friends at the Vermont Foodbank, 2 in 5 Vermonters are food insecure. These ingredients went into preparing from scratch, packaging and distributing over 1,300 delicious and nutritious Thanksgiving meals to members of our Vermont community on the day before Thanksgiving.
The work began several months ago with planning; the cooking and preparing began two weeks before the big day; and the distributing began first thing in the morning Wednesday, November 23rd with setting up outside the building and in front of Bethany Church in Montpelier. Then there was the army that orchestrated the loading of meals into volunteers’ cars for delivery. Then there was the four hours during which even more volunteers handed out the meals to our neighbors. It was a day full of gratitude going in all directions.
Our Community Relations team – Jess Russo and Christina D’Agostino, led by Beth Rusnock – partnered for the third year with Chef Emma Cutler (rock star!) and her Sodexo team. That core group rallied support and donations from community partners: Bethany Church, Capstone, Chappelle’s, Black River Produce, Hollister Hill Farm, Community Harvest of Central Vermont, Central Vermont Medical Center, Hunger Mountain Coop, King Arthur Flour, Two Sons, Shaw’s, Cabot Cheese and Vermont Creamery.
And last, but certainly not least, there are the 84 NLG employee and retiree volunteers who stepped up to cook, bake, scoop, chop, stuff and bag, drive around to deliver meals or stand outside to hand out meals. To all of you who stepped up to DO GOOD – THANK YOU. You make National Life GOOD and you make our community even better.
Here’s to a beautiful holiday season where we can all Do Good, Be Good and Make Good. Cheers!
