Pulte Homes' newest employees chose to host a company-wide food drive to benefit the Backpack Pantry at Martinez Elementary School, an at-risk school in North Las Vegas, as their community outreach project for this year.
Thousands of non-perishable items were collected and delivered to the pantry warehouse on Nov. 21, just in time for the long Thanksgiving Holiday weekend.
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The school reported that the Pulte donation was likely the single largest it had received at any one time, according to Sasha Jackowich, public relations manager for the home builder.
"While still in their training phase, we ask new employees to coordinate a community outreach effort, in order to introduce them first hand to one of Pulte's core values, philanthropic involvement," Jackowich said. "This new team of employees chose an incredible community project with their food drive that will benefit many children and their families this holiday season and beyond."
In 2003, there were an estimated 3,500 homeless school-age children in the Clark County School District. The Backpack Pantry at Martinez Elementary School supports the students who have little or nothing to eat at night or on the weekends.
Teachers at the school learned that many students' only meals during the week were the free lunches offered during school days. The program was launched with the idea of providing these students' backpacks filled with nutritious foods on Friday, so they don't go hungry over the weekends.
The children then return the backpacks on Monday empty, so they may be refilled the next Friday of the school week. All food collected by Pulte new hires will be used for the Backpack Pantry program at Martinez.
"Projects like this are so important during the training phase for new employees. It integrates those new to the area into the fabric of our community, gives new hires the opportunity to exhibit leadership outside of their paid position in the company and allows all of Pulte's employees to come together to do something great for our community," Jackowich said.
In addition to collecting donated food items, the new employees also held an internal build a house contest, where various departments within Pulte had to build homes out of canned food items not exceeding 100 food items. The winning department received a free lunch donated by Panera Bread Co.
"Our new employees did an amazing job organizing this huge food drive. Their reward was providing much needed nutrition to local children, giving the children one of the basic needs essential for effective learning -- food," Jackowich said. "We are all really proud of Pulte's newest employees for helping to make a difference in our community."
Pulte Homes Inc., is based in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. and operates in 54 markets throughout 28 states.
In 2004, the company delivered 38,612 homes in the U.S. and generated consolidated revenues of $11.7 billion.
