Our CBI Nashville Team recently exemplified our Live Love Serve Philosophy when they organized an effort to support the local homeless in their community. Nashville has approximately 1,900 citizens who are currently experiencing homelessness, with 1,400 of them being housed at local shelters and 500 living on the streets. Our team in the Nashville market wanted to do something to support these community members as the winter months approach, which is why they decided to organize an effort to collect supplies for and assemble Blessing Bags for the homeless.  

Blessing Bags are Ziploc bags packed with items like snacks, toiletries, gloves, socks and non-perishable food. The idea is for CBI Associates to keep these bags in their cars and hand them out to homeless individuals when they encounter them. These Blessing Bags were meant to provide a little hope and relief to a struggling neighbor in the form of basic essentials.

Ashley Howell, a CBI Nashville Associate says, “My colleague Jennifer Edmondson and I were looking for a team building activity that would bring our office together and provide support to our local community. We both commute to work and often see individuals impacted by homelessness on our way to and from the office. As we reflected on the challenges of being homeless, we came up with the idea of the Blessing Bags. We were really proud of the way our Nashville team embraced and supported this effort and our community. It is such a blessing to me that I am able to serve others through CBI and the Live Love Serve Foundation.”

At CBI and the Live Love Serve Foundation, we have always been committed to loving and serving in the communities in which we do business. Blessing Bags in Nashville are just one of the many ways the Associates in our markets are living our Live Love Serve Philosophy and giving back to those in need. 
 

Our Mission at CBI Workplace Solutions and the Live Love Serve Foundation is to LIVE a God centered life focused on LOVE. We do this by SERVING our communities through the support of religious and other charitable organizations that positively impact people.

This week our Associates in the CBI Piedmont Triad market lived this mission as they partnered with the United Way to collect and create Boo Bags to distribute to local children on Halloween. The United Way typically hosts a Trunk-or-Treat event each year, where children in the community can come in-person to safely collect candy and socialize with others. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Trunk-or-Treat took on a different form this October with the help of CBI. 

The CBI Piedmont Triad market hosted a community drive where they collected items like hand sanitizer, toothbrushes and toothpaste, sidewalk chalk, notebooks, snacks and candy and placed them in gallon sized zip lock bags to be given out by the United Way. The Piedmont Triad Architectural and Design Community, as well as, many of CBI's vendor partners showed up to support this cause, bringing donations from their own locations to ensure that CBI had the items they needed to make the Boo Bags complete. These Boo Bags were made to lift up the children receiving them and bring some joy during the unusual time of a global pandemic, however, they also brought together so many individuals from the Piedmont Triad business community and allowed us a little joy too. 

Susan Russell, CBI’s Market Leader in the Piedmont Triad Market, learned about the United Way’s call for Boo Bags through an organization called Volunteer Center Triad in Greensboro.

“When I saw the need for trick-or-treat bags by the United Way, I thought this would be a fun way for our organization to provide support to our local community while also spreading some Halloween joy. The United Way’s goal was to obtain 400 Boo Bags for local children in our community. By the week before Halloween, 1,500 Boo Bags had been created. Our CBI Piedmont Triad and A&D community contributed 200 bags to the effort, about half of the United Way’s initial goal.”

Jennifer Heinz, a CBI Piedmont Triad Associate says, “We had a great time collecting materials and assembling Boo Bags for children in our community. My favorite thing about the Boo Bags is that each contains an encouraging, handwritten note for the kids to read. It’s been a difficult year for everyone, and we just wanted to help provide a little extra support for these kids on a special holiday.” 

CBI Workplace Solutions and the Live Serve Foundation is proud to partner with the United Way in many of our markets. 

Learn more about the United Way of Greater Greensboro, their mission and how you can get involved by visiting their website at https://www.unitedwaygso.org/. Happy Halloween! 
 

As the summer comes to an end and we start to enjoy the cooler weather, the Live Love Serve Foundation would like to put a spotlight on Second Harvest Foodbank of Metrolina – a community organization committed to supplying food and grocery items to charitable agencies that assist people in need. 

This September, Second Harvest Foodbank has created a 30 day awareness campaign called Hunger Action Month, where people all over the United States stand together to end hunger. This month is a time where individuals and partner organizations should spread the word and take action in the hunger crisis that exists in our nation today. 

From its regional distribution center and secondary branches, Second Harvest Foodbank serves a total of 24 counties, with 14 being in North Carolina and 10 counties located in South Carolina. Last year, the Second Harvest Food Bank distributed more than 60 million pounds of food and household items throughout its 24 county service region, with 12.8 million of those pounds being distributed to agencies in Mecklenburg County alone. 

How the Live Love Serve Foundation Partners with Second Harvest Foodbank 
CBI Workplace Solutions and the Live Love Serve Foundation have been longstanding supporters of Second Harvest Foodbank of Metrolina. Each year in December, we host an end-of-year, holiday celebration for our Associates in which we celebrate our successes as a business and a community. At this celebration, we always come together to participate in a service activity that will benefit neighbors in need and many times throughout the years the service activity we have chosen is to host a food drive benefitting Second Harvest Foodbank of Metrolina.

Additionally, throughout each year, various CBI locations and individual Associates have given their time to sort and package food at the Second Harvest Foodbank’s regional distribution center located in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Second Harvest Foodbank is very near and dear to our hearts and the Live Love Serve Foundation will continue lending our support however we can throughout this fall. 

There are many ways you can contribute to the Second Harvest Foodbank of Metrolina. Whether you host a food drive, give your time in the regional distribution center or make a donation, all efforts are much appreciated and needed. Learn more about Second Harvest Foodbank and how you can support them in the upcoming months by visiting www.secondharvestmetrolina.org. Let’s all do our part to take action against hunger.