On our way from our cars and pickups through the front doors of the stores in town, we hear the familiar ringing of the kettle-minders’ bells encouraging us to give whatever small amount we can afford. The newspaper headlines proclaim the economy is eating into charitable giving and the newsreaders back up the claim in their nightly newscasts. Yep, it’s tough out there.
With that in mind, this year Gold Dust decided to help two organizations help families in need by not just opening our check book, but by offering some logistics. Rich Wright, our dispatcher, organized a food run over the weekend to help out not only the Klamath Lake Counties Food Bank, but also Southern Oregon Outreach Foundation (SOOF), an organization that we’ve been working with to bring food and supplies back to the Klamath Basin. But not only did we donate the time and fuel of one of our semis, we also threw in some pallets of potatoes to help fill their pantries. How many potatoes, you ask? 40,000 pounds. And yes, they were potatoes we grew and processed right in Malin as well as some we purchased from another local grower.
After heading over the hill to Grants Pass to SOOF’s warehouse, Gold Dust’s truck swung by the Klamath Lake Counties Food Bank to drop off two pallets of potatoes and three pallets of groceries from SOOF. Though Mother Nature covered our mountains (and the roads as well) with much needed snow, James Anderson, the driver, made the 300 mile round trip safely and with no incidents. The groceries and potatoes will help families in Klamath and Lake Counties over the Christmas holiday and into the new year.
While we’re proud of that accomplishment and being able to help both of those organizations during a time of year they need it most, we’re also proud of what our employees are doing around the packing shed. If you go into the office, there’s a jar that our office and floor employees have been filling. It’s hard to say what the current tally is, but when the period of giving is over, the funds will be matched by Gold Dust and then split between the Klamath Lake Counties Food Bank and Toys For Tots. If you’ve read this blog much at all, you’ll see we constantly say we have a high caliber of people working for us. The giving these folks are doing is yet another example of why we’re proud of the people that are in our offices, out on the processing plant floor and out in the fields. And we can’t wait to see how much is raised!
We hope everyone is having a happy Christmas season, and if you want to help, we highly recommend visiting the Web sites of the Klamath Lake Counties Food Bank and Southern Oregon Outreach Foundation. On the Klamath Lake Counties Food Bank site, they have a page showing how you can help the food bank. And if you’d like to get in touch with Southern Oregon Outreach Foundation to see how you can help, visit SOOF’s contact page. And be sure to read our press release!
Margi Anderson says
Way to go. It is so community minded of your company to help like this. My husband and I beleive that helping our food bank is one of the best things we can do for our own town and we are happy to see a company that believes in helping too.
admin says
@Margi Anderson
I’m glad to see someone is reading about what we’re doing!:) Thank you for your kind words.
The Klamath Lake Counties Food Bank serves a huge area and wide variety of people, plus they have a lot of drop sites available where folks shop. We encourage people to help their local food banks whenever possible because, in the end, you’re helping people in your community. With that said, it’s pretty incredible what SOOF is able to accomplish with such limited resources. We’re lucky to have both organizations helping the Basin and Lake County.
Have a Merry Christmas, Margi!