By Kathy L. Collins
For a second year, Mosaic played a significant role in making sure families in need in the greater Brandon area have a turkey and all the accompaniments for a Thanksgiving dinner. Mosaic helped achieve this monumental task with a donation of $5,000 to ECHO, which was used to purchase turkeys from Feeding America.
Mosaic did more than just donate money, which in and of itself is a wonderful thing. Eleven employees from Mosaic’s Bartow Plant volunteered their time at the Brandon Gift of Hope on Friday, November 22. The employees helped hand out over 400 turkeys.
“Our employees are always giving back,” said Christine Smith, Community Relations Manager for Mosaic. “Helping to feed those in need in the community is just a part of Mosaic’s mission to help the world get the food it needs.”
George Katzaras, Plant Manager at Mosaic’s Bartow facility also said, “The employees love to help the community in these projects.”
Stacey Efaw, Executive Director of ECHO said, “Mosaic is such a wonderful community partner. We are grateful to be able to work with them on this project and on others.”
Smith said, “This is a way for Mosaic to give back to the community, but we know that hunger happens all year long. Thanksgiving is just representative of what the rest of the year is like.”
Indeed, Mosaic plays a big role in helping to feed the food insecure (those who do not know from where their next meal will come) all over the greater Brandon area. Every Friday, Mosaic delivers 100 backpacks to children at Gibsonton Elementary. The packs contain enough food to get them through the weekend. This outreach is called Smile Project. Mosaic provides the funding, Feeding America puts the packs together and with the help of the Greater Brandon Kiwanis Club, the packs get delivered.
In December, Mosaic will provide over 700 dinners to Gibsonton Elementary. Mosaic is also a partner with the Tampa Bay Lightning in a unique program called “Goals for Food” which will provide much needed funding to several area feeding programs including ECHO, Meals on Wheels of Tampa and Feeding America. For more information on Mosaic, please visit www.mosaicco.com. For more information on ECHO, please visit www.echofl.org.
