Diageo North America employees convene to support local communities virtually

As a bridge to our third edition of Diageo Community Activity and Relief Efforts (Diageo CAREs) day, we must acknowledge that this year is different for all of us across our North America market. However, this did not prevent our employees from taking advantage of our standing policy to give each employee up to 40 hours to volunteer in their local communities. Through a series of projects, both virtual and in-person, safely distanced, we were able to give back to our local communities through food drives and meal packing to fundraisers for animal shelters and providing support to those affected by the wildfires in California.

The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized how important it is for us to deepen our connections with communities and support those in need. These are some of the causes and charities that volunteers worked on:

• Packing more than 3000 meals and making birthday cards for those in need in the New York City community by volunteering at God’s Love We Deliver!
• Supported the ‘September 13th Miracle’ food drive in Montreal, Quebec -where people placed boxes of non-perishable food items on their doorstep and volunteers collected donations to distribute to local food banks.
• Launched a virtual food drive to help families affected by the California wildfires through the Redwood Empire Food Bank and surpassed our goal of 500 items purchased to 578. Through Crown Royal’s Purple Bag, 1800 bags filled with snacks, essentials and personal care items were also delivered to The Salvation Army.
• Coordinated a food drive for the Shelby County Humane Society and the Shelby County Backpack project which is a pantry which supports children in the community which are identified as in need by school administrators. 
• Provided support for Holiday gifts and meals to six military families, through the Soldier’s Angel’s Adopt-A-Family initiative in Detroit.
• Created cards to brighten and encourage the senior community during times of self-isolation, through the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) in Florida.
• Supported the Ruff House Rescue animal shelter by the ‘walk for a dog’ fund raising project through the WoofTrax mobile app.

In addition to the volunteering policy, Diageo North America offers other resources to encourage its team to become involved in their communities:

• Diageo CAREs portal: a one-stop destination site that helps our employees to discover upcoming events and volunteer opportunities, track the number of hours contributed and amount of money donated to charity.
• Corporate matching gifts program: our people can make a one-time or recurring financial contributions to qualifying local causes, and have the company match each donation from $25 to a maximum of $2,000 annually per employee.

Last year Diageo CAREs Day saw nearly 1000 employees give back to communities where our company operates through a series of projects and events across the region: 300 employees worked on restoration and beautification initiatives in Lower Manhattan, while close to 700 employees coordinated efforts across Canada and the United States. Staff at 15 separate locations rolled up their sleeves to assist with a variety of causes, including hunger, community beautification, economic independence for underserved communities and helping military families in need.

We look forward to what 2021 has in store as we will soon emerge stronger in our efforts to give back to the communities where we live, work, source and sell.