Sodexho fights hunger with Serv-A-Thon Day effort

Nation's Restaurant News, May 5, 1997 by Kathy Blake

Kathy Blake

For most employees in contract foodservice management, the work week is Monday through Friday, and Saturday is a day to spend with family and friends.

On Saturday, April 5, however, thousands of employees of Sodexho USA, the Waltham, Mass.-based contractor, spent at least part of the day working - and they didn't even get paid. Instead, they volunteered their time to serve the less fortunate, in Sodexho's first-ever Serv-A-Thon.

'For years I've seen Sodexho people - individually or in groups - get involved in charitable causes,' explained Steve Brady, vice president of marketing and communication at Sodexho. 'So the idea of asking them to dedicate one day to hunger relief was just part of the nature of our business.'

Brady pointed out that statistics indicate there are up to 30 million hungry people - many of them women, children, and elderly - in this country.

'We have the resources, and it's our responsibility to make a difference,' he said.

The Serv-A-Thon was the latest project for S.T.O.P. Hunger - Sodexho Teams Our People - the hunger-relief initiative Brady started in 1996. It was an opportunity for every employee and client to choose a local hunger-relief charity and serve it any way they could.

The projects in which Employees engaged were as varied as the regions of the country that participated. They ranged from food drives and fund-raisers to special dinners and food-preparation classes. Everyone, it seemed, could come up with a pet project.

Joe Nelson, account operations manager at Citgo in Lake Charles, La., and 13 other Sodexho employees prepared a Louisiana-style feast for 32 women and children at Calcasier Parish Women's Shelter in Lake Charles. Crawfish etouffee, chicken strips on crawfish dressing, green-bean casserole, rolls, homemade apple pie and ice cream were on the menu. One employee dressed as a clown and gave children small gifts.

'The first thing I thought of when we got the word about Serv-a-Thon Day was this shelter for women and children,' Nelson said. 'I'd heard about it on TV and had an employee a few years ago who was a battered wife and stayed in a shelter for a while.

'At first we were all a little shy,' Nelson said of the experience, 'and they backed off from us. But it wasn't long before they became excited, and we felt more comfortable. It's a sad thing to see - women with black eyes and scared little kids, and they're at the worst time of their lives. They feel like nobody loves them. I think we helped raise their spirits.'

Nelson and his crew also raised cash - $300, presented to the shelter's director - through a raffle at Citgo. Nelson said the Sodexho employees had such a successful experience that they plan to go back on Mother's Day. Another raffle was launched immediately to support the Mother's Day plans.

Apparently, it was the direct contact employees had with the homeless that most affected the volunteers. Sodexho employees in Dallas had a similar - albeit unplanned - experience.

'We had planned to raise money for the North Texas Food Bank but hadn't planned to meet recipients,' said regional operations manager Briant Dukes. 'But when we did, we said, 'Hey, this is why we're doing this!' and it made a big difference in how we felt about our efforts.'

The fund-raiser was organized in cooperation with Finish Line Events, a contractor for food concessions at the Texas Motor Speedway, which opened the first weekend in April. 'They [Finish Line] staff concession booths by contracting out to charitable volunteer groups, which, in exchange for their labor, get 10 percent of the profits for their charities,' Dukes said. 'We bid as Dallas Hunger Link, made up of Sodexho employees.'

Nearly 200 volunteers were scheduled to work Thursday through Sunday, and Sodexho vendors offered to provide meals for the volunteers all four days. Unfortunately, rain on Thursday and Friday kept the crowds away, relieving many of the volunteers from service. However, the donated meals arrived right on time.

'We had all this donated food and not many volunteers,' Dukes said. 'So we called the Food Bank, and they sent two trucks filled with 40 hungry men to help us eat the food. You could see they were not only hungry but also uncomfortable. And I guess we were uncomfortable, too, until we got to talking to them and realized they're just like us - they're just down on their luck right now. It was very enlightening and gave us all a bigger sense of purpose.'

When the sun came out in Dallas on Saturday and Sunday, fans descended on the raceway and volunteers were able to raise $3,000 for the food bank.

Putting a 'whole new light' on things was part of the unexpected results of efforts by Sodexho employees who volunteered at the Good News Mission in Indianapolis, according to Bob Horan, general manager at the Indiana Government Center.

'We'd been sending leftover food to the mission every week for a long time, but we'd never been over there,' Horan said. 'Our management team put together a menu for a buffet of food, donated by Sodexho, that included Yankee pot roast, grilled chicken over rice pilaf, fresh vegetable saute, roasted new potatoes, fresh-baked rolls, tossed salad, fruit salad, hot apple cobbler, chocolate-marble sheet cake and milk and other beverages. We knew that fresh fruit and vegetables, milk and cheese are rare for them, so we emphasized those things.'