“At our core, coming together to serve others is what we do. Our Abundance of Barrels food drive allows us to connect with our local communities in one of the most meaningful ways – by providing food for those in need. With an organization our size, we can have a tremendous impact on the communities we serve, and I couldn’t be more proud to be part of this organization!” – Brandon Gerardy, Regional Director of Central Michigan
Giving back and serving others is at the core of who we are as healthcare providers, but that sentiment doesn’t stop in the clinic. As an organization, we believe it’s our duty to help those within our local communities and the holiday season is a great time to come together and give back tenfold.
Our Abundance of Barrels campaign is in its third year and was originally founded on the simple notion of helping our local communities by using our facilities as platforms for collection stations, then donating all the non-perishables to local organizations. Steve Kelly, Regional Operations Director of Northwest New Jersey, explains, “when it started, we only had about 150 clinics, and now we’re closer to 450, so the impact grows as the organization does, which is a pretty incredible thing. I’m truly proud to be a part of the service committee this year and have enjoyed participating in this campaign annually since it began a few years ago.”
As Steve points out, the ability to unite across 14 states and collect thousands of non-perishable items allows us to help countless people enjoy holiday meals with their loved ones. Together we’re making families’ holiday seasons a little brighter by coming together to accomplish outstanding things!
A Friendly Competition
In true Ivy fashion, we always add a little friendly competition into the mix, just for the fun of it. Teams are encouraged to decorate their barrels to win bragging rights for their creative efforts. With four different categories, teams tried to beat their competition, with winners noted below:
Coming Together for a Greater Cause
While clinics were recognized for their outstanding creativity, the real winners in this event were the organizations we donated items to and the community members who could enjoy a meal with their loved ones. With company-wide participation, we donated thousands of pounds of non-perishable items to nearly 450 community organizations.
Due to the extreme generosity of our teammates, patients, and their families in the Fishkill, NY region, their clinic donated 282 pounds of non-perishable foods to the
Fishkill Food Pantry.“Serving our communities in this way is so close to my heart. People always want to help others; they just don’t know how. Our patients answered our call to action with incredible generosity! I spoke with the liaison for the food pantry, and they typically see a slowdown in donations between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, so it is my intention to continue our efforts for another six weeks!” – Heidi Fiederlein-Kesper, Clinic Director, East Fishkill, NY
“We’re so grateful to our patients and the Avon community for their contributions to the Abundance of Barrels food drive. We delivered 225 items of food to the Avon food bank!” – Austin Bronson, Clinical Director, Avon, CT
“After weeks of collecting donations from staff and patients, the Denville clinic was once again able to donate to St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church. Each year, St. Mary’s accepts donations from the local area and uses them to provide to those in need in the Denville area, and once again, our team was proud to be able to help them in helping others!” – Adam Freitag, Assistant Clinic Director, Denville, NJ
“During this season of giving, it has been an honor to partner with legendary Brooklyn Baptist Church to help get food to those in need.” – Salvatore Aprea, Business Development, Brooklyn, NY
We Belong and We Serve.
Despite not having a home office, our teammates who work remotely still wanted to be involved, so they generously set up a donation link to
Feeding America. “We may not have had a barrel to fill, but we still want to participate and do our part to give back, and through Feeding America, we found a great way to do that virtually,” said Gina Otterbein, Director of Learning and Development.
Not just during the holiday season but every day, our organization is incredibly grateful to each and every teammate, patient, and community member who contributed to our food drive this year. With our collective efforts, we were able to donate thousands of items to food pantries and families in need in each of our 450+ communities. The kindness displayed proves that when we work together, we can make a huge impact – and for that, we’re thankful.
