Florida Crystals Employees Support Hunger-Relief Efforts by Gleaning with CROS Ministries
Florida Crystals was honored to volunteer to harvest mangoes to donate to local food banks, a process called gleaning, with our friends at CROS Ministries on June 24 at SWA’s mango grove on their High Ridge Road property.
CROS Ministries serves the food insecure in Palm Beach and Martin Counties through community collaborations. Eleven of our employees helped harvest 2,368 pounds of fresh mangoes to donate to the Palm Beach County Food Bank.
We began our relationship with CROS Ministries during the COVID-19 pandemic, because we understood the importance of helping our community, especially in times of hardship. Food banks around the United States are seeing longer lines as the number of people in need of food has increased.
“The strategy of the gleaning program is to be able to get volunteers to come out into the community and harvest food that is left over,” said Keith Cutshall, CROS Gleaning Program Director. “Without volunteers, this program would not be possible, because we cannot afford to pay for help since the food is donated for free. When a company like Florida Crystals says they want to come out and help volunteer, it’s great because we don’t have a lot of access to volunteers on the weekdays.”
CROS Ministries has been serving the community for 43 years, and the organization has been extremely successful in addressing hunger with programs such as summer camp, food pantries, gleaning and Caring Kitchen, which is a program that provides mid-day meals to the hungry in Delray Beach. The number of food-insecure people has dramatically increased because of the pandemic, but we are glad to show our support and lend a helping hand with events such as this.
“I’ve been with Florida Crystals for one year, and I jumped at this opportunity, because I enjoy doing volunteer work and felt that this would be a good opportunity for me to meet people,” said Mary Coates, IT Communications Lead. “One of the things that I really like about the Company is its reputation, because it is one that is community-minded and giving.”
We’d like to express our deepest gratitude to our employees who share and strengthen our mission to be the best stewards of our communities:
- Sophia Assam
- Mary Coates
- Dolly Davis
- Oriol Emmanuel
- Kerri Grachik
- Gabriela Hernandez
- Colleen Nolan
- Avril Scarlett
- Sevi Tomrukcu
- Caroline Villanueva
- Kristina Webb