Bo Knows Being Helpful: reStart Homeless Shelter

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A few years ago, on a nice Sunday afternoon, Central Packaging employee Bo walked in the doors of the reStart homeless shelter to see if he could be of assistance.

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Bo had heard about the shelter on the news and was determined to become involved.

Since then, two or three times per month, Bo volunteers in either the soup kitchen in mid-town or the shelter itself downtown. At the soup kitchen he helps to serve patrons meals while at the shelter he helps with laundry.

Bo seems keenly aware of the needs and plight of the homeless in Kansas City. Central Packaging supports him in his efforts. If you are interested in helping as well, please know that there is an endless need.

If you are doing philanthropic work in the community, please let us know. It helps us all get involved.

 

Central Packaging Lends A Hand To City Union Mission

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Dave Cole recently put together a wonderful helping hand for the good folks at the City Union Mission in K.C. Dave decided to take the initiative and attended a luncheon at the Mission.

The director of the Mission stopped him on the way out and asked what he did for a living. Dave told him, and the director asked for help; what they needed were some large boxes for charity drop-offs.

Dave called our friend, Bill Stephenson, at PCA who was glad to donate some samples that he had in his garage. These may have ended up in the recycle pile eventually, but Dave Cole found a better home for them.

The director was grateful, but Dave was not finished. Dave asked what else might need attention. The Mission serves thousands of meals per week and has a great need for paper plates, cups, etc. Dave immediately thought of teammate Gail and her customer Aspen. Aspen manufactures these sorts of things and upon Gail’s inquiry; she was informed that they would love to donate some of their overruns. In fact, they were eager to do so as they would benefit from the space it would free up for them.

Buoyed by the success with Gail and Aspen, Dave contacted Scott Hardy who is talking to his customer, Church & Dwight, about the possibility of supporting this worthy cause with some of its detergent product.

Congrats to Dave for leading this project and for taking the initiative to get involved. If anyone at CP is interested in working with the City Union Mission, contact Dave or contact the Mission.

If you are doing philanthropic work in your community, please let us know. It helps us all get involved.

All Hands For Hunger – Central Packaging Gives Back

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Now that was a fun way to help the community!

On August 26, 2011, we spent the afternoon at the Kansas City Culinary Institute and it turned out to be one of the best, if not the best, group gathering that Central Packaging has ever experienced.  By combining fun, food, teambuilding, and philanthropy, we were able to enjoy ourselves as well as know that we were doing something that was going to benefit those in need.

Before the event was held, we asked all of the salespeople to please contact some of their more active customers to make them aware that we would not be available to answer their calls last Friday afternoon.

The response from almost all of these customers was enlightening.  Not only were our customers not upset by this change in our traditional schedule, but they were enthusiastically supportive of our ultimate mission to provide for the needy.  They got it!

Mike’s Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program friend, Laura Laiben, has been doing these sorts of events with her business (Kansas City Culinary Institute) for some time.  In the beginning, these were simple teambuilding sessions where groups learned to work together and used food preparation as the medium.  At the end of the session in those early days, everyone had been bettered though the exercise, but there was so much leftover food that much was discarded to the trash.

Laura then used some of her networking contacts to establish a group of charities who could put the excess food to use feeding their clientele.  If a teambuilding group does not have a favorite charity, Laura recommends one from her list.  In Central Packaging’s case, we simply chose to work with a group with whom we have had other contact and who was also on Laura’s list at City Union Mission.  Central’s relationship with City Union Mission (thanks, Dave Cole!!!) continues to deepen.

Having 100% participation from all of the Central Packaging folks made last Friday into the event that it was.  We have a great group of people at Central:  great sellers, great customer servicers, great warehousemen, great purchasers, great choppers, great peelers, great mixers, and great walk-around-and-talk-to-the-other-groupers!

Hopefully we will have events in the future that are as much fun and as fulfilling.

Ed and Carol Pasley: Giving Back To The Community Is In Their DNA

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Ed Pasley and his wife, Carol, have found almost literally one hundred ways to give back to their community in what, when diagrammed, appears to be a spider web of interrelated organizations and activities.

At the center of the web would undoubtedly be their church, Country Club Christian Church (CCCC). However, this web builds out in so many directions and at such lengths that the church/center is hardly visible from the peripheral areas.

Ed and Carol serve on the Metro Missions Council of the CCCC. These are folks at their church who, as a small group, identify needs and focus the church’s resources to appropriate organizations around the city that help the needy.

These resources may come in the form of dollars or volunteer hours, both of which are much needed. Once the missions are identified, the real work begins.

One of the worthy organizations that the CCCC has made part of its mission is the Cornerstones of Care. This is an organization that helps foster children in the metro area. Ed and Carol donate their time mainly to the branch of this organization known as Give What You Got. This group takes in donations of all types of toys, clothing, etc. that need to be cleaned, stored and distributed.

Carol also helps the Pathways division of GWYG which helps foster kids establish themselves as independent adults when the time is appropriate. Carol and Ed comb garage sales, among other markets, to find miscellaneous items that a foster kid might need to, say, set up living in an apartment.

Another organization that the CCCC has deemed part of its mission is Cross-Lines, and Ed and Carol have deemed it part as theirs as well. Cross-Lines is in the Argentine District of the city, and operate the Cross-Lines Food Kitchen. Carol and her friend Cindy have volunteered to be responsible for lunch on the first Tuesday of every month. Not only are they there to serve the 170 – 270 people who might come to the kitchen looking for a warm meal, but they must perform the more daunting task of procuring all of the food that will be prepared and served and find all of the volunteers who will do it! This management task requires untold hours each month so lunch is ready on the first Tuesday.

Through their work with Cross-Lines, Ed and Carol have been introduced to another group, Shawnee Community Services (SCS). SCS provides some of the food that they serve at the Cross Lines Food Kitchen, but they also run their own food pantry. Each Wednesday, volunteers that include Ed and Carol pick up baked goods and fresh goods donated from local grocery stores and deliver them to SCS. These goods are then distributed to patrons before they spoil in the hands of someone who cannot use them.

Ed and Carol Pasley personify what it is to be a committed member of a community. They understand how many needy folks there are, and how many hands it takes to help them. They drive a lot of this process from their role on the Metro Missions Council, and he and Carol execute the ideas with their own hands. Ed is quick to say that Carol is the driving force for good works in our family.