Representatives from Lassonde Pappas present Meals on Wheels board members with a donation. Pictured left to right: Betsy Amoroso, Senior Director, Corporate Communications, Mannington Mills, Inc. and MoWSC Board member; Staci J. Dempsey, Insurance Advisor, Farm Family Insurance Companies and MoWSC Board Chairperson; Eve Minner, Executive Assistant Lassonde Pappas Co.; Krystal Reid, Director, Compensation and HR Administration Lassonde Pappas Co.
Representatives from Lassonde Pappas Corporation in Carneys Point presented Meals on Wheels of Salem County (MoWSC) with a contribution, thanks to the generosity of its Carneys Point facility associates. Each year, the employees of Lassonde Pappas hold fundraisers and then vote on a local charity to be the recipient. This year they raised over raised over $16,000.00 to benefit MoWSC. Unrestricted funds such as this are a blessing to the organization. Funds of this nature allow us the ability to extend meal service to even more clients who need us, as well as provide shelf stable meals for emergency situations.
Each year Meals on Wheels of Salem County serves more than 250 senior and disabled clients of Salem County. Approximately 12% of the clients served each year are individuals under 60 years of age who have disabilities that prevent them from being able to prepare a nutritious meal on their own. There has been a rise in requests for meals for clients under 60, specifically since the grocery store in Salem closed in the fall of 2017. Programs to help this group of individuals are scarce and so are our funds to do so. This gift from Lassonde Pappas helps us continue to provide this valuable service to people who otherwise may not be getting the food they need. We want to serve out our mission to as many Salem County residents as possible.
Eve Minner, Executive Assistant at Lassonde Pappas said, “We are so thankful to have the opportunity and means to give back to our surrounding communities, and look forward to continuing to do so for many years to come!”
The staff, board, and clients of Meals on Wheels extends their gratitude to Lassonde Pappas & Co., Inc. and to the employees there who selected our organization to be the 2017 Charity of Choice. Thank you!
Lassonde Pappas Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program began in 2016 as an effort to give back to the surrounding communities. Although Lassonde Pappas already routinely engaged in charitable campaigns, they realized that they could do so much more if all their efforts were funneled towards one organization per corporate location, as opposed to the several smaller campaigns in which the company had been participating. As a result, their CSR program was born with two overarching guidelines: 1) that each charity supported must be local to each office location, and 2) that it be chosen via an employee vote. Another key aspect to the program is that every dollar raised comes from the employees themselves – meaning, no one can solicit monetary donations from external organizations. The company matches every dollar raised up to $10k, and gives the site with the highest dollar raised an internal celebration of their choice.
This year, Lassonde Pappas raised almost $84k in total for our charities (including the corporate match). Of that, a little over $45k was raised by their employees nationwide. For Meals on Wheels, specifically, the employees located in Carneys Point raised just over $8,450, which the company then matched dollar for dollar. Fundraising events thrown by the employees companywide include everything from gift basket raffles to weekend carnivals – whatever the employees feel will bring in the most monetary donations for their cause. In Carneys Point, the employees held many raffles, sponsored on- and off-site events such as paint night and a night at the Blue Rocks, and even had the CEO in the dunk tank during their summer employee picnic to raise funds for Meals on Wheels.
Overall, Lassonde Pappas’ CSR program has helped 11 programs, 4 local to the Cumberland and Salem County areas of NJ (Salem County Humane Society, City of Bridgeton Code Blue Program, Salem County SPCA and Meals on Wheels).