Melaleuca employees are known for their generosity, and their spirit was on full display during the company’s recent food drive. As a result of their donations, along with a 100 percent match from the Melaleuca Foundation, Melaleuca raised a total of $68,456 to help families who are struggling with food insecurity.
After meeting with several nonprofits to evaluate current needs, Melaleuca donated $51,500 to the Community Food Basket Idaho Falls, which supports 22 food pantries as southeast Idaho’s primary food storage facility. This was the amount needed to pay off the mortgage of its 22,000-square-foot warehouse.
Most importantly, as a result of this donation, the Community Food Basket will now reallocate its $3,000 monthly mortgage payment to buy more food each month and help more families in need.
“Melaleuca’s generous donation ends our capital campaign to raise the funds needed to pay off the mortgage of our food storage warehouse, and we couldn’t be more thrilled,” says Ariel Jackson, Executive Director of Community Food Basket Idaho Falls. After 42 years, our food donations now have a permanent home, and this has been made possible by generous partners such as Melaleuca and its employees.”
The Community Food Basket wrote a news release about the surprise donation and sent it to the local press. The story has been published in East Idaho News, the Post Register, Channel 8 and Channel 6.
“Melaleuca’s Team Members are known for their generosity, compassion and commitment to enhancing lives,” said Melaleuca CEO Frank VanderSloot. “They came together to help the hungry, especially during the holidays, and they raised enough to transform the future of the Community Food Basket and those who benefit from it. The Melaleuca Foundation was pleased to partner with them in support of a nonprofit that has improved our community for decades.”
To raise this money, hundreds of Melaleuca employees made generous contributions and participated in inter-departmental contests that inspired competition, connection and celebration. High stakes, such as taking pies in faces, eating ghost peppers, and taking on the “smelly fish challenge” as seen on YouTube, upped the ante for weekly competitions between departments.
Melaleuca has been a longtime supporter of the Community Food Basket, regularly donating money and food to the organization. In 2020, it built a temperature-controlled facility outside the warehouse so the public could drop off food outside of normal business hours. In 2018, the company bought and donated several new commercial freezers and refrigerators to it. And for more than 30 years, Melaleuca has funded the expenses for several food drives that have repeatedly filled food storage warehouses to help those who are hungry.
