Thru the Lens: CBRE Cares New England facilitates second annual Food Drive

In conjunction with a variety of local food pantries affiliated with Feeding America, CBRE Cares New England recently facilitated its second annual Food Drive to collect and distribute non-perishable goods to families in need across New England. Donation stations were established in each of the company's corporate offices in addition to numerous CBRE/NE-managed properties. Over the course of just two weeks, CBRE Cares New England collected a total of over 3,000 pounds of food donations. Beneficiary organizations included the Greater Boston Food Bank, Worcester County Food Bank, Loaves & Fishes (Hartford), Rhode Island Community Food Bank and the New Hampshire Food Bank. A capping off event took place on June 23rd at the Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB), where more than 50 CBRE/NE volunteers joined a host of directors and volunteers to help achieve GBFB's mission of ending hunger in eastern Massachusetts. CBRE/NE volunteers unloaded boxes of donations, carefully inspected each item, sorted all products in their appropriate boxes, and weighed each box for distribution to a network of nearly 600 hunger-relief agencies. The CBRE/NE team processed a whopping total of 17,056 pounds of food, which will result in 10,970 individual meals for the Greater Boston Food Bank to supply to those in need. "We're happy to have helped the Greater Boston Food Bank in their fight to end hunger in eastern Massachusetts. After our great experience last year we were anxious to return and do our part," said Andy Hoar, president/co-managing partner at CBRE/NE. "Greater Boston Food Bank's new facility is beautiful and we're pleased to have made this Day of Service such a success. It was a lot of fun and a great opportunity for a bunch of us at CBRE/NE to spend the day together and get to know each other outside the office. This is community service at its best." Founded in 1981, the Greater Boston Food Bank feeds over 394,000 people annually in nine eastern Massachusetts counties. This nonprofit organization is the largest hunger-relief organization in New England and one of the largest food banks in the country. After literally running out of room in their prior location of 60,000 s/f, The Food Bank relocated to a 117,000 s/f facility completed in March of 2009. This space upgrade enables the Greater Boston Food Bank to significantly increase its distribution eventually accommodating 50 million pounds of food and grocery products.