While planning a business development session in New Orleans, a team of General Mills employees decided to spend its free time volunteering for a service project in a city that still stumbles since Hurricane Katrina hit on Aug. 28, 2005.

 

Jim Underwood, a regional sales manager for General Mills in Colorado, says while the world’s attention and the media have moved on to other stories, the team knew that residents of "The Big Easy" are still trying to rebuild their community. More than 400 families are living in FEMA trailers, and more than 6,000 families can’t afford to rebuild. 

 

Turning to the General Mills Foundation, it was recommended that the group partner with the St. Bernard Project, a nonprofit organization founded in 2006 by a teacher and an attorney that rebuilds homes - 330 so far in the greater New Orleans area.

 

60 volunteers, six homes, plenty of stories

So more than 60 members of the General Mills Convenience team put on their work clothes and set out to make a difference by working on six different homes.

 

Families were present to share their plights at each home where the General Mills team worked, and the 60 employees became immersed in their work, and subsequently sent gift packages of General Mills products to each home.

 

Sheila Gallagher, a vice president in sales for General Mills, says,“The benefit went far beyond just doing some hard work in a community. Our lives were touched by the stories of these families.” 

  

About 82 percent of our U.S. employees volunteer through company-sponsored programs, or on their own. 

 Inside General Mills