Meal kits for food-insecure areas
In collaboration with the US Hunger project, ASEA associates and field leaders attending the 2021 North America Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, assembled 40,000 meal kits in honor of Verdis Norton’s birthday and the annual ASEA Impact Week of service.
The ASEA Advancing Life Foundation worked with the Feeding America Foundation to find the most food-insecure locations in the United States and Tennessee. After compiling and building food kits, they donated 10,000 kits to Hancock County, Tennessee; Holmes County, Mississippi; Presidio County, Texas; and Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota. All four of these counties have over 29% of their population without enough food.
Toys for children in need
At ASEA headquarters in Pleasant Grove, Utah, corporate employees sanded and oiled 500 toy cars to prepare them for painting at the Tiny Tim’s workshop. Tiny Tim’s Toys is a foundation dedicated to taking scrap wood and creating toys to send to children in need. The wood is donated, and any money given to the foundation goes to buying wheels and parts and keeping the lights on in the workshop.
The toys ASEA employees constructed were sent to the workshop, where they will get their faces and wheels. Employees were also allowed to visit the workshop. There were several jobs available to volunteers, like tracing cars, attaching wheels, and painting faces. Twenty employees and their families showed up to donate three hours of service.
“There is a group of older men, all retired, that show up three days a week and donate their time making cars for children,” said volunteer Sarah Bailey. “It reminded me of Santa’s workshop. Most of the volunteers are regulars, and they do all the more dangerous work, allowing new volunteers to perform the fun tasks. That inspired me.”
