Living in a Season of Generosity

By Gregory Pings, manager of Content Marketing for Xerox

The holiday season, more than any other time of the year, brings appeals for help. Individually, we cannot answer each plea. As a group, however, we can accomplish so much more. For this reason, I have collected examples of holiday giving from Xerox employees around the world.

Xerox people have purchased and collected food, toys, blankets, medical supplies and much more in support of needs that are both local and far-reaching. By no means have we captured every example of giving on this

Operation Foodbasket — Operation Food Basket is in its 35th year and has donated 47,900 pounds of food.

list, but they all originate from the shared belief that each of us is part of one community.

Rochester, New York

More than 450 volunteers from Xerox, and its community partners, have collected donations and purchased food this holiday season for Operation Food Basket. This is an annual holiday campaign organized by Xerox employees to help those in need during this holiday season. Volunteers packed and delivered food directly to needy families just before the holidays. The campaign raised over $43,000 and, as a result, nearly 2,000 people in the Rochester area received food for one week or more. Operation Food Basket partnered with four local social services agencies to identify recipients.

Group with Angel gifts_Christmas 2015 — Smaller gifts were wrapped, placed inside a larger (wrapped) box. Items ranged from coloring books to watches and iPods.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Employees from Document Imaging Center that serves Louisiana’s Department of Children and Family Services participated in local food drives as well as an Angel Tree. Employees (photo, left) purchased and wrapped clothes, toys and gifts – a complete Christmas — for four foster children.

United Kingdom

UKGifts — Making a difference for children at Christmas is worth doing, so say Xerox employees in our Communication and Marketing Services and Large Enterprise Organization teams in the United Kingdom.

The idea of a child waking up on Christmas day without a present is heartbreaking. That thought inspired employees in the United Kingdom to join an appeal that makes sure every child living in poverty in Leeds and West Yorkshire receives at least one gift.

In a different U.K. office, the Industrial Placement Student (intern) Charity team raised £1,545 for The Prince’s Trust. Activities included festive fundraising activities, including a Christmas-themed cake sale, wear your Christmas jumper (sweater) to work day, and selling Christmas cards and personalized calendars. The Prince’s Trust supports vulnerable young people: those who are unemployed, leaving social care, underachieving in education or young offenders. More fundraising events are planned for 2016.

Seven employees from the London team at Buck Consultants at Xerox took part in the Santa Run for their in-house charity, The Royal Marsden. The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity raises money to help provide world-class care for cancer patients, and to support the hospital’s pioneering work in cancer research and education.

Santas(Detail) — A bake sale, a raffle and a 5k Santa Run raised more than £500

The Buck team in London also filled shoe boxes for The Samaritan’s Purse. The contents included toys, games, coloring books, hats, gloves, toiletries and sweets, which children around the world received on Christmas Day. The team also collected food for the Waterloo Food Bank, which provides three days of emergency food to people in need.

Buck Consultants, Northeastern United States

We can’t say which floor won, because the bragging rights are limited to corporate headquarters. But we’re happy to show one of the food towers our people created. (View more photos on Person to Person’s Facebook page.)

Stamford, Conn., employees from Buck Consultants at Xerox collected 75 pounds of food for the Food Bank of Lower Fairfield County. Their counterparts in New York made 764 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for New York’s Coalition for the Homeless. And in New Jersey, employees raised over $3,000 towards cancer research during “No Shave November.”

Norwalk, Connecticut

Employees on each of the three floors occupied by our headquarters competed to see which floor could collect the most food. The competition netted 1,550 pounds of food plus $780 in gifts cards and cash donations. (A sample, photo, right.)Food, cards and cash were picked up by Person to Person, which operates a food pantry in downtown Norwalk.

Indiana

Our Indiana Eligibility team for Government Health Solutions was challenged to top last year’s food drive – 10,800 food items. Friendly competitions, jeans days and pizza parties helped our people close their 2015 food drive with 20,472 items, all donated to local food banks around the state.

Maryland

Xerox was a sponsor of the food packing event and provided a financial donation to supplement the boxes that volunteers packed.

Employees and clients from Xerox Public Sector Solutions turned out to box up holiday meals for the Maryland Food Bank. (Photo right.) With teams of other volunteers, they packed more than 20,000 boxes set to feed 80,000 people.

Austin, Texas

Xerox people in Austin, Texas, have honed their pancake flipping skills over the past five years in service to the Rosedale School Pancake Breakfast. Rosedale is a public school that provides individually tailored programs to Austin’s highest-need special education students. Hosted in the cafeteria, the event is attended by students, their teachers, caretakers, the school’s administration as well as a very special guest: Santa Claus.

Xerox volunteers prepared and served pancakes, sausage, juice and sprinkles -- a crowd favorite. Learn more about the Rosedale School at www.rosedaleproud.org. — Xerox volunteers prepared and served pancakes, sausage, juice and sprinkles — a crowd favorite. Learn more about the Rosedale School at www.rosedaleproud.org.

Toronto, Canada

Earlier this year, nearly 150 people in need received no-cost eye exams during a three-day event in Toronto. The program was co-presented by the United Way Toronto and York Region, Buck Consultants, FYidoctors (Canada’s largest optometry company) and VSP. If prescribed, glasses were provided free of charge.

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Athens, Greece

With thousands of refugees arriving on Greece’ shores, Xerox Hellas employees joined their fellow citizens in responding to the humanitarian crisis. Our people collected 29 boxes of clothes, blankets and other items that refugees can use to cope with the difficult conditions they are experiencing.

These boxes were sent to the island of Lesvos. They will be distributed to Syrian refugees by the Red Cross and other organizations. — These boxes were sent to the island of Lesvos, and will be distributed to Syrian refugees by the Red Cross and other organizations.

Petra Poczkodi led this bake sale in Barcelona to benefit orphans in Yaounde, Cameroon.

Barcelona, Spain
Syrian refugees in Croatia benefited from a winter coat drive. Xerox Services employees in Barcelona collected 30 bags of gloves, scarves, coats, hats and socks. Separately, children at Petit Dan et Sarah in Cameroon received 320 Euros from a Xerox bake sale. Petit Dan et Sarah includes living quarters and a school so that the children get a chance to study and have a better future.

To all Xerox people who help their communities, please know that your acts of kindness and compassion are appreciated in ways that none of us will ever fully understand.

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