Officials at the Orange County Rescue Mission say it's the largest donation yet this season – some 2,100 pounds of food to feed hungry families this Thanksgiving Week - that equates to more than 4,200 meals.
Morgan Drexen(http://morgandrexen.com) employees showed their compassionate and competitive spirit by collecting food and other critical household items during a two-week period, ending with plenty of time for Thanksgiving dinner.
The first week saw a steady stream of donations, but Morgan Drexen Director of Information Technology Jake Jacobsen wasn't satisfied. He proposed a competition among employees on all five floors of Morgan Drexen's Costa Mesa headquarters - the floor that collected the most items would be declared the winner. The only prize for the victorious floor: a sense of pride and satisfaction in collecting the most donations for a very worthy cause.
In the end, employees on the fourth floor, populated by the Client Services and Creditor Relations departments, came out on top. Jacobsen, who has previous ties to the Orange County Rescue Mission, is thrilled Morgan Drexen's 340-plus employees responded to his challenge.
"It started with the idea of having the IT department all pitch in some money and we could go shopping for some food to donate," explains Jacobsen. "Then I figured it might be fun to challenge another department to try to bring in more. By the end of the day we had challenged almost every department in the building. The winner of the challenge doesn't really matter, because in the end, all the food goes to help people in need during the holidays."
The piles of collected donations included stuffing, pasta, cereal, rice, canned vegetables, sweet potatoes, beans, clothing, blankets, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and countless other household items.
women's coats "We can't do what we do if it weren't for you guys," says Kristin Bruce of the Development Department for the Orange County Rescue Mission. "We wouldn't have any work to do. I think that we kind of get to be the vehicle that delivers it to the people that need it, but there wouldn't be anything to deliver if we didn't have friends, or relationships or a community that supported us like you guys did. [Our clients] are so grateful. Their lives are being changed because of you guys."
Jacobsen is well aware of the good work performed by the mission.
"While working for my previous employer, I spent quite a bit of time doing project work and providing IT support services to the Orange County Rescue Mission," says Jacobsen. "The most impressive thing I remember about OCRM was that they do it all without government funding. They are supported entirely through private and corporate donations."
The Orange County Rescue Mission provides food, housing, medical and support services to homeless men, women, children and families throughout Orange County, helping them to become self-sufficient. Mission officials say the recent economic downturn has resulted in a sharp decrease in donations, all while the need has simultaneously gone up.
Morgan Drexen is committed to community service. The company partners with nearly a dozen non-profit groups throughout the region and has raised tens of thousands of dollars for charity in 2012 alone. Headquartered in Costa Mesa, CA, Morgan Drexen provides automated software and support services to attorneys across the United States.
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