This holiday season FP decided to have an office wide food and clothing drive to help out those less fortunate in our area. What’s the best way to get everyone involved? A great competition. Our office broke up into teams labeled with our favorite FP colors; Team Citrus, Team Sangria (go team!), Team Caribbean, Team Juiced, and Team Peri. (Visit www.freshproduceclothing.com to see all the colors mentioned!)

Each team had 3 weeks to get friends, family, and everyone they knew to help them raise enough donations to win a mysterious  grand prize. We collected everything and turned away nothing. Everything from warm blankets and jackets to fun new and loved toys, and tons of bulk food items (Thanks Costco!) The toys were a huge hit in the office as they blinked and whizzed around the office bringing laughter and cheer.

It gets pretty freezing here in Boulder,CO and this year we decided our donations would partly go to the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless who are a key member of community assistanace here in Boulder. They provide several services like basic shelter amenities, mail and phone services, and transitional housing for those in danger of becoming homeless. The rest or our donations went to OUR Center in Longmont which helps the homeless pave their way back to self sufficiency by providing child care, a clothing bank, a food bank, rent, utility, and transportation assistance.

The 3 week competition was fierce and finally in the end two teams tied! Team Peri raised the most clothing with 5 huge bags and boxes full of children and women’s warm clothing, while the Team Citrus raised the most food with 7 overflowing  gigantic boxes of comfort food items. Everyone really gave all they could in this hard economic season and in the end we gathered over 23 boxes of a variety of items.

Team Peri! Left to Right – Tom, Luis, Nikki, Jean E, Megan, and Morgan.

Team Citrus! Left to Right – Cherie, Randy, Gaylyn, Katie, and Peter.

But the giving didn’t stop there! Even after was all said and done, both winning teams had won a magnificent lunch on FP and instead of taking the present, both teams paid the money forward onto both of our donation recipients! Team Peri took it another step further and also forwarded their annual FP Holiday Dinner gift cards as well!