The Ruby’s Pantry food distribution at Platteville United Methodist Church is held the first Thursday of every month.
This posed a potential problem in January because the usual supply of volunteers from UW–Platteville was likely to be short because of UWP’s winter break.
Enter employees of Lactalis in Belmont, who pitched in Thursday afternoon, filling boxes with food and other items and then putting them in the trunks and cargo areas of vehicles that drove up through the winter darkness.
The Lactalis volunteer effort was part of the company’s Make a Difference volunteer program started three years ago to encourage “employees to participate in charitable giving and volunteer at several local schools or not-for-profit organizations,” said Louise Gotzinger, Lactalis’ senior human resource generalist.
The company pays its employees to “participate in local, national or global community service activities during their normally scheduled work week paid up to 16 hours,” she said.
“Lactalis believes people and our communities are at the heart of our company. Employees play a vital role in supporting the communities in which we live and work. We provide programs, policies, and initiatives that support our employees’ overall well-being. We strive to create an engaged culture of respect, diversity, inclusion, and fairness to support and nurture our employees to bring their best selves to work and the communities in which they live.”
Lactalis employee Perry Reuter previously volunteered at Ruby’s Pantry, and Gotzinger said he “knew the pantry would be short of help in January due to college students going home for the holidays and took it upon himself to start a signup sheet and recruit volunteers for the Pantry.”
As a result of Reuter’s efforts 24 Lactalis employees volunteered Thursday afternoon and evening. Some unloaded boxes of food, toilet paper, shampoo and other household items. Others put them into boxes. Still others put the boxes into the back of vehicles lined up in the church rear parking lot.
“Volunteering provides employees with a feeling of satisfaction and wellbeing by ‘paying back’ to their communities,” said Gotzinger. “Feedback on the ‘Make a Difference’ program from employees is they have fun with their coworkers outside of work along with knowing they are doing something good. Another employee shared with me that they have never worked for a company that pays their employees to volunteer and values the opportunities to volunteer.”
