Corbion and Winco Team Up to Help Harvesters Food Bank
Neighboring KC businesses join together to pack more than 10,000 boxes of food for hungry families across the Metro area.
As Corbion employees were planning recently for the company's upcoming 9th annual "Pack It Up for Harvesters" event outside its distribution center in Grandview, Mo., they received a generous offer: "Come in out of the cold, use our warehouse space, our forklifts and our people and let's help Harvesters together!"
The offer came from Winco Fireworks, which operates the warehouse adjacent to Corbion's distribution center and has been part of the Kansas City community for 40 years. The Corbion team gladly accepted, and the two companies will work together inside the Winco facility in Grandview to pack more than 10,000 boxes of food on Thursday, Oct. 18. About 100 Corbion and 40 Winco employees will take time away from work to make it happen for Harvesters.
The special packing event will be begin at 10 a.m. at the Winco warehouse located at 14140 Botts Road in Grandview, Mo.
"Our 'Pack It Up' event is always a special day for Corbion employees, who have become quite invested in making a difference for the Harvesters cause in the Kansas City area," said Andy Muller, executive vice president Biobased Ingredients, Corbion, "but having our friends and neighbors at Winco lend their space and their support this year just reinforces the pride we take in being a part of this community."
Winco began efforts to support Harvesters this year through its company-owned-and-operated Pyro City retail stores, donating a portion of proceeds from July 4th sales of its Pro Punk product to local food banks across the country. In Kansas City, the company donated $1,000 to Harvesters.
"It has been inspiring for us to see the passion our friends at Corbion have for giving back to the community," said Michael Collar, president & COO, Winco. "As a company that's all about the importance of traditions, we are excited to join with Corbion in helping Kansas Citians and to begin a new tradition for everyone at Winco."
With newly built North American regional headquarters in Lenexa, Kan., Corbion is a global ingredient solutions provider that has been part of the Kansas City business landscape for nearly a century. The company's annual fund drive combines employees' monetary contributions with a corporate gift to purchase food donations, which Harvesters distributes to the hungry across the metropolitan area during the holidays. Since 2011, through its support of Harvesters Food Bank, Corbion has provided well over 270,000 meals to Kansas City area families in need.
"We are grateful to Corbion and Winco for their efforts to help us provide more holiday boxes to families in our service area," said Valerie Nicholson-Watson, Harvesters' President and CEO. "These boxes contain the ingredients for holiday side dishes so that families can gather round a table and celebrate together. The employees participating in this special packing event provide vital support for Harvesters mission of feeding hungry people today and working to end hunger tomorrow."
If your company or organization would like to pack Holiday Boxes for Harvesters this season, please contact Harvesters' Food Drive team at (816) 929-3055 or fooddrive@harvesters.org.
About Winco Fireworks:
Winco Fireworks is a national consumer fireworks distributor, headquartered in Prairie Village, Kan. The company launched in the summer of 1964 in Pittsburg, Kan. as a 60-square-foot firework stand and now operates dozens of stores across the country. Since incorporating in 1979, Winco has stood for innovating the fireworks industry and has been producing quality products for consumer fireworks for more than 39 years. Winco is a proud member of the American Pyrotechnics Association and works with state and local governments to ensure both fair and safe industry regulations. For more information, please visit wincofireworks.com.
About Harvesters-The Community Food Network:
Harvesters is this area's only Feeding America food bank and was Feeding America's 2011 Food Bank of the Year. Serving a 26-county area of northwestern Missouri and northeastern Kansas, Harvesters provides food and related household products to more than 620 not-for-profit agencies including emergency food pantries, soup kitchens, homeless shelters, children's homes and others. Agencies in Harvesters' network provide food assistance to as many as 141,500 different people each month. Harvesters, which was founded in 1979, is a certified member of Feeding America, a nationwide network of more than 200 food banks, serving all 50 states. For more information, visit www.harvesters.org
