As part of Austin High School’s homecoming week this year, students celebrated their school spirit by gathering on the school’s front lawn to pack beneficial food for their community. In what was MATTER’s largest packing event to date, more than 1,600 students in grades 9-12 assembled 24,000 MATTERbox snack packs totaling 9,000 pounds of food!
Named “Nourishing Champions”, this first ever food-packing event at the southern Minnesota high school was sponsored by Austin’s own Hormel Foods in partnership with United Way of Mower County and The Hometown Food Security Project.
“My kids went to Austin High School,” explained Jim Snee, chairman of the board, president, and chief executive officer at Hormel Foods. “We know what a big week homecoming is, so we thought it was a great opportunity to have the students get involved to understand what it’s like to build community and help others. We called it Nourishing Champions because they’re all champions. And there are so many champions in the community that go unseen, but their needs need to be met. This was a great opportunity to get students involved and get the community involved to nourish those who really need the food the most.”
Molly Lanke, Executive Director at United Way of Mower County and also co-lead on The Hometown Food Security Project explained the importance of addressing food security in their community, “Anyone can be one bill, one medical emergency, one car repair away from not knowing where their next meal will come from. We know that one in seven children in Mower County, and one in 12 individuals, experience food insecurity, so it’s really important to look out for our neighbors. And that’s just it. It could be your neighbor, it could be your colleague, it could be your classmate. That’s why we wanted to lift so many up through this event.”
The 9,000 pounds of food will be distributed to several community organizations in Mower County including Austin High School to help fill its food pantry as well as other schools in the district.
By all accounts, the students had a blast. “I think it was pretty cool to see how our school could come together to give back to the community,” shared one student. Another added, “I also thought it was really cool that the community came out to support. We had about 150 volunteers from the community to help with this and I thought that was kind of amazing of them.”
Among those 150 volunteers were Hormel employees. Jim Snee explained why it’s important for Hormel to provide opportunities for its employees to participate in events like this.
“Employees want to work for companies that care, companies that give back to their communities. For us, we know they’re always looking for ways to volunteer…but they’re not sure where to go or what to do. An opportunity like today’s Nourishing Champions food packing event gave us a very specific opportunity to help. A place where they could come, feel good about the work they’re doing, good about the work their company is doing, make a difference in the community, and really see what the future looks like. And after spending time with the kids today, we’re going to be in good hands.”
MATTER is proud to collaborate with company partners like Hormel and community partners like United Way of Mower County and The Hometown Food Security Project that are helping to address food insecurity in their community. And to the students of Austin High School, we love your enthusiasm to help others in your school and community who will benefit from the food you packed. What a meaningful way to celebrate school spirit!
If your company would like to learn more about hosting a MATTERbox packing event, we’d love the chance to talk. We can tailor an event to your company’s specific needs and help direct the food to organizations in your own community. Please go here to learn more about MATTER’s fun and unique employee engagement events.
Enjoy the highlights of the Nourishing Champions food packing event in Austin, Minnesota!
