Most years, December 18th isn’t anything special at BMI. It’s usually just another day in the middle of the holiday season, pretty close to Christmas and very close to our annual employee Christmas party. But in 2018 it was a little bit different, and a lot more special, because a group of BMI employees from our Sunnyvale headquarters got together and headed to downtown San Jose for a morning at Martha’s Kitchen.
Martha’s kitchen provides meals to the less fortunate in the San Jose area, and its motto is “Feeding the hungry with dignity, no questions asked.” Some of our employees remember being younger and going with their families to Martha’s Kitchen for a prepared meal, or they describe their spouses recounting similar stories. With such personal connections to Martha’s Kitchen, it seemed the perfect organization for us to volunteer at and give something back to the local community.
Our group of volunteers helped the Martha’s Kitchen staff by preparing food and setting up the dining area. Food preparation included peeling and slicing carrots, cutting oranges, mixing salads, and destemming grape clusters. They had a blast doing it in their hair nets, aprons, gloves, and all! The Martha’s Kitchen staff said we prepared so much food that they not only had that day’s portions ready, but also the next day’s; that’s the effort we like to see from our employees!
Though our volunteering lasted only two hours, the BMI management team paid our employees a full four hours since they had to leave their workstations to attend the event. BMI’s admin team knows how important helping our community is, and they want to support those that volunteer their time and encourage this kind of generous attitude.
All of those that participated were very happy to have spent a few hours helping others, and it lit a flame in our staff to provide more opportunities to volunteer for similar causes in our community.
Thanks to all that participated!