The CMD Mission Statement guides employees to “Inspire each other to be better than yesterday,”  and this extends to corporate citizenship.  Pre-pandemic, CMD was just launching the first activity in a new citizenship program.  The 2019 “Holiday Give-Back” program involved employees volunteering their time to help local charities around the holiday season, including the Salvation Army’s bell ringing fundraiser.  Once the pandemic hit, and social distancing was the norm, these volunteer opportunities ceased to exist.

But the pandemic contributed to new unemployment and food-insecurities within our local communities.  So, CMD came up with a “touch-free” method to assist those in our community who could use some help.

Help for the Hungry

To provide employees the opportunity to contribute without the ability to do so with volunteer hours, they were invited to donate to a fundraiser by way of payroll deduction.  Keeping it simple and quick was important, so CMD collected contributions from just two paychecks in March.  The contributions were voluntary and confidential, and CMD was pleased with excellent response to the fundraiser.

Local Food Programs Feel the Need

• Due to the coronavirus, unemployment rates have doubled.
  • Increasing the need for people relying on food pantries to feed their families
• Pre coronavirus, 1 in 11 people were unable to regularly feed their families in the Fox Cities
• Since the coronavirus, food pantries in our area have seen an increase of between 25-40% families who need assistance, most of these people needing to rely on their services for the first time in their lives.
  • Loss of jobs
  • Loss of unemployment benefits
  • Children aren’t as able to benefit from school meal programs need to get fed at home
• Local food pantries expect this increased need to continue for many months or years to come as lasting effects of the virus linger.
  • As the government assistant programs go away
  • Some people won’t have jobs to return to once the pandemic is over

When the extend of the need in our communities was discovered, two programs were selected to receive the donations:  Paul’s Pantry in Green Bay and St. Joe’s Food Pantry in Menasha.

Generosity is Contagious

CMD was thrilled to collect $4,500 from employees during just the two-paycheck campaign, and the company matched all donations for a total of $9,000 collected.  Each food program received $4,500.

Help for the Hungry was just one of many examples of community giving the company has engaged in.  It is CMD’s mission to continue these types of programs well into the future.

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