This month we kicked off our 3^rd Annual Thanksgiving Food Drive, and this year we will expand the cause to include a toy drive as well. The drive will benefit His Place Ministries, a local charity. This has been our most successful cause as a company, with over 600 pounds of food collected last year that took two full truckloads to transport. That translates to over 300 food bags, enough to feed 300 families for one day! Committing to a cause like this allows us as a company to give back to our local community and help provide to those less fortunate.

Our Involvement

This drive got its start when it was recommended to Contec as a great fit for us that could help us continue to touch the lives of those in our local community. For the past two years we have had people bring in various non-perishable, Thanksgiving related food items; as well as other types of food. When we did this drive last year we recognized the opportunity for a toy drive, so we expanded the drive this year to include this. We are collecting toys that are new and unwrapped, for children ages 2-17. Once the food has been collected and donated to His Place Ministries, it will be used in a Thanksgiving Meal for less fortunate families. The excess food will be stored in their pantry to be donated to other families. The toys that we collect will be used in their Annual Christmas Toy Drive.

The company has been divided into different teams and each team puts their donated items into a collection box. At the end of the drive we weigh all of the items collected by each team. The team with the highest weight per person will be crowned the winners. The winning team will get to pie a manager in the face at the company Thanksgiving Potluck. Being able to do this and give back to the local community in this way has been an amazing opportunity for us that we hope to grow year after year as our company grows.

“Being able to help coordinate this drive has been an amazing and meaningful experience, especially since it is helping families and children in need locally and is helping to bring them some holiday joy.”
– Heather Felix, Chair of Contec Food and Toy Drive

His Place Ministries

His Place Ministries is the charity that our collections are being donated to. They are a local, grass roots charity located in downtown Melbourne. They have a food pantry and a clothes closet that helps provide for families in need. They also prepare a community Sunday Dinner every Sunday afternoon and have a cold shelter when necessary for the homeless. They have various other community service and volunteer programs throughout the year to help support the same cause.

Two of these other programs are their Thanksgiving Meal and Christmas Toy Drive, which our donations will be used towards. The Thanksgiving Meal fed “…..” and the toy drive provided toys for over 2,000 children back in 2014. In the food pantry and clothes closet parents can come in and shop around for various essentials. This is where our toys and excess food donations that are not used in the Thanksgiving Meal will go.

"Our Food Pantry is open every Tuesday and Friday. We serve approximately 100 individuals and families each day we are open. Your support in providing food greatly helps the needy of our community. Thanks so much for your partnership!"
- Terry Morris, His Place Ministries

His Place Ministries is an amazing organization that Contec is very proud to be working with. They do some very special things for our community and we are glad that we are able to do this Thanksgiving Food and Toy drive to help them out. If you would like to start your own drive contact His Place Ministries