Monday was a day of service for dozens of employees at Erie Insurance.
Hundreds of boxes were packed and will soon be delivered to families thanks to Erie Insurance employees as they volunteered at Second Harvest Food Bank.
Greg Hall, the CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank said, “It’s inspiring to see a community come together like this, to help neighbors in need, right around the holidays. To have the amazing support of an organization, like Erie Insurance with their employees, we truly couldn’t do what we do on this scale without great partners.”
This comes at a time where many Americans maybe thinking twice before they add things to their shopping carts due to costs and the lack of SNAP benefits.
As Hall described, “Around the holidays, so many family centric events are centered around food and to be able to provide for a family around the holidays together is such a wonderful thing.”
The community outreach day is something that long-time employees look forward to every year. Charles Spacht, an IT manager at Erie Insurance said, “It’s a time of community. It’s a time of sharing with our friends and helping everybody else.”
This is one of the most popular volunteer events for Erie Insurance employees, so much so that throughout the years, different departments have formed teams to come out and volunteer.”
Spacht and his fellow team members go all out when they come to volunteer. As he described, “It really goes back to when Rick started it, he eventually became known as The Turkey Man and his wife became known as Mrs. Turkey Man, what we have been trying to do is get a core team and kind of facilitate and take the heavy lift off of it and this year we decided to come back with shirts called the turkey team.”
Hall said it’s incredible to see how much these men and women enjoy helping their neighbors in need, “It is truly inspiring me. It reminds me of why we do this mission and why we couldn’t do it without community support. “
Over 3,000 dinners were packaged on Monday and they hoped to pack 750 boxes in 60 minutes. All these meals will be distributed through the charitable food network in the community.