Supporting local communities by volunteering our time

Amazon has long been committed to the communities where its employees live and work. Increasingly, the focus of the company’s giving has been on supporting neighbors in need by helping to fight hunger and homelessness, and thousands of volunteer hours are severed each year at employee-driven community events.

Amazon fulfillment centers have made it a priority to donate to food banks, and in 2016, Amazon launched its first nationwide initiative with U.S.-based nonprofit Feeding America. Through this initiative, Amazon donates excess food from its U.S. fulfillment center network to Feeding America to distribute via food banks. Amazon has since donated enough food to provide millions of meals to those in need.

Recently, the Amazon Business Marketing team volunteered at Food Lifeline, a hunger solution center that collects, sorts and repacks nourishing food for more than 300 local food banks, shelters, and meal programs throughout Western Washington, providing the equivalent of 116,000 meals every day for hungry children, adults, and seniors. According to Food Lifeline, nearly 40% of the food produced every year in the United States ends up in landfills while millions of people go hungry. To help solve this problem, Food Lifeline re-purposes millions of pounds of food from farmers, manufacturers, grocery stores, restaurants, and retailers.

We're happy to have served as some of the 13,450 volunteers that visit the Food Lifeline Hunger Solution Center annually. During our day of volunteering, our “bakery team” packed 4,953 pounds and our “produce team” packed 8,128 pounds, amounting to 10,961 meals for hungry neighbors.

If you're inspired to volunteer with Food Lifeline, visit their volunteer page to get involved.