SWEETWATER COUNTY — In response to the recent article that was published on SweetwaterNOW.com, regarding the shortage of summer donations at the Food Bank of Sweetwater County, the committee at Tata Chemicals rallied together to organize an Emergency Fundraising Drive at their plant in Green River.
It took the committee just 24 hours from the time they read the article to get a plan in place, organize the logistical details and get the word out to employees.
“Working with local organizations for the benefit of the community is of utmost importance to us here at Tata Chemicals,” said Paul Peterson, Vice President of Manufacturing at Tata Chemicals. “The local food banks are an invaluable resource for people in our area who struggle to secure nutritious food, so when we found out they were experiencing summer shortages, we jumped at the opportunity to host a fundraising drive in partnership with the United Steelworkers.”
In 2 weeks’ time, they raised $10,530 for the four local food banks in Sweetwater & Uinta Counties. This is pretty awesome considering the quick turnaround, and the number of employees 500 active.
- Food Bank Green River
- Rock Springs Food Bank
- Bridger Valley Interdenom
- From the Heart Ministries
To make this fundraiser a success, the committee manned a table in the company parking lot twice a day (6:30-7:30 AM & 2:00-3:00 PM) from July 20-30th. They generated additional funds by hosting an auction among plant managers and employees for “premium” parking spots (in the parking lot closest to the plant). The parking spot winners were announced just last Thursday.
Managers ending up spending $750 to keep their parking spots and in the end only two of them managed to keep their spots.
“The most interesting thing is that people didn’t just give once. We had a quite a few people give money every morning. They walked out with their wallets open. It was great.”
– Patty Darnell, Office Manager at Tata Chemicals
United Steel Workers Local 15320 donated $500 to the cause from the local’s fund.
“I was exceptionally proud of the employees and the response we got from them. We do food drives for Christmas but this was the first time we did one in the summer. We have a very good group of people out here.” Darnell said.
Darnell added that, “The company would like to toss a friendly challenge out to the other local mines, to help the food banks with their summer slump! If Tata Chemicals can raise $10,530 with 500 employees, what can other companies raise?”
