Food Share issues corporate challenge

NIWOT – Community Food Share, a food bank serving Boulder and Broomfield counties, is recruiting corporations for its annual “Compete to Beat Hunger” Corporate Challenge, scheduled this year for May 7-13.

The friendly competition among a select group of local companies is meant to raise both dollars and food for the food bank. Corporations of all sizes are encouraged to participate, and winners receive prizes and bragging rights. Some companies collect both money and food, while others raise just one or the other. Community Food Share relies on both types of donations to maintain its operation but has more flexibility with financial donations because it can distribute four meals for every $1 donated.

Among the activities companies have used to promote the challenge are spring cleaning sales, raffles, plant sales, kickball and poker tournaments, silent auctions, wine auctions and bingo.

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Competing companies get 10 points for each dollar donated and one point for each pound of donated food. Prizes are awarded for most points per company and most points per employee, enabling companies of all sizes to be competitive.

WhiteWave Foods Co. (NYSE: WWAV) won in both categories in 2012, a year in which the Corporate Challenge raised $225,185 and 5,360 pounds of food.

In its 32nd year, Community Food Share distributes more than 7.5 million meals annually, free of charge, through a network of more than 50 member agencies and two direct-distribution programs that target specific at-risk populations. The value of the food is $12.5 million.

The nonprofit organization is headquartered in Niwot but plans to move later this year into a 68,000-square-foot building it has purchased and is renovating at 650 Taylor Ave. in the Colorado Technology Center business park in Louisville. Community Food Share bought the building in August for $3.5 million, including $2.5 million from an anonymous donor.

One of every six people in Boulder and Broomfield counties lives at or below 130 percent of the federal poverty line ($29,965 per year for a family of four), according to the Community Food Share website. More than 59,000 people in Boulder and Broomfield counties live at this poverty level – more than enough to fill Folsom Field – and 13,000 children are enrolled in free lunch programs in the Boulder Valley and St. Vrain Valley school districts.

For more information or to sign up for the Corporate Challenge, contact Susan Finesilver at sfinesilver@communityfoodshare.org or 303-652-3663 extension 209. An enrollment form is available at www.communityfoodshare.org.