Partnership. It's a powerful word in any language.
A partnership can be explained as two people joining heads, hands and heart in a communal effort to arrive at a common goal for the good of each other. Or it can be understood with the joining of compassionate effort by more than one party to contribute heart, mind and body for the common good of the community. Or it can be used in a corporate sense: to join heads and hands, hearts, passion, compassion and goods, to help people in need.
We can each determine the directions, causes, targets and reasons for participating in our partnerships. But for most of us a partnership is defined as all of the above. It takes mind, heart, hands and goods and most of all passion and compassion to soulfully reach out to those around us who are in need. I have experienced this in the 18 years working with the Mountaire Thanksgiving for Thousands food drive. And in the past few years Thanksgiving at Christmas and Thanksgiving at Easter. Thousands of people being helped out of hunger, fear and hurt, giving thanks for their blessings on feasting holidays enjoyed by many.
Partnerships that continue to grow in the business community by business partners who recognize the social and economic problems and want to reach out with other partners in a coalition of doing for others. People and companies stepping forward to join hands, hearts, and goods with companies such as ours for the good of a mankind getting more desperate for help as the years progress.
Case in point: our partnership with a Delmarva box company, Interstate Container, stepping to the plate to develop and contribute 10,000 specialized boxes to house our canned, boxed and chicken roaster that are packed for distribution the Monday before Thanksgiving.
It is the supermarkets that partner with us, allowing our volunteer partners to work outside their stores on chilly days guiding hundreds of partnering customers to purchase thousands of canned and boxed goods and donate them for our distribution. And it is those same food market partners that provide us with their best prices so that we can purchase, with corporate funds, an additional $50,000 of bulk food to supplement the goods purchased so that we can reach our desperate-designated quota.
They are: The American Legion posts, Lions Club, numerous churches, government employees, schools, local food banks, homeless shelters, food kitchens, local media and next door neighbors who walk up to participate. They are our partners, joining hands and heart, all working together with the business community to best serve the areas in which they live, work, play and pray.
We are living in a time when there are male and female military veterans who go to bed homeless and hungry; there are children in our public schools who are homeless with school lunch as their main meal of the day; there are senior citizens who are hurting and hungry; there are people who can't work and those who can't find work.
It is with a humble and thankful heart that we join our neighbors and friends, partners Monday, Nov. 19, and throughout the holiday season helping us pack and distribute food for those in need so they may cook at home with family. And thanks to the grace of God, some once receiving are now packing and distributing for others in need. During this season of giving thanks, It is by His grace that they are now members of our partnership, extending their helping hands to those who are less fortunate. God bless us all this Thanksgiving and throughout the holiday season.
Roger Marino
corporate director
communications and community relations
Mountaire Farms Inc.
Millsboro
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