ST. GEORGE — Employees from a St. George manufacturing company celebrated the season of giving Thursday by preparing nearly 18,000 meals to be shipped around the world to people in need.
As part of its annual Christmas party this year, Wilson Electronics incorporated a service project in support of Rise Against Hunger, an international hunger relief organization that distributes food and aid to vulnerable populations.
“This year, we wanted to do it a little differently and give back,” Travis Alexander, Wilson Electronics human resources director, said of the company Christmas party.
The company’s hundreds of employees worked together at the Wilson Electronics headquarters in St. George to assemble food kits to be shipped to needy people in the Philippines and hurricane-battered Puerto Rico.
“We had kind of a lofty goal of getting 17,000 meals done and shipped out,” Alexander said. “They gave us an hour and a half to complete 17,000 meals, but we actually beat that and came in just under 18,000 meals in 45 minutes.”
The crew set a new record for meal kit assembly, according to Rise Against Hunger.
“We follow a lot of operational excellence principals as a manufacturer,” Alexander said. “We put our heads together and found some efficiencies we could make and got it done in half the time.”
The company funded about half of the nearly $6,000 raised for the event.
The remaining donations came from personal contributions from Wilson Electronics employees and several partnering Southern Utah-based businesses, including Redboard Circuits, ABS Packaging, Fasco, Printcraft Press, Land’s Precision, Wescom Marketing, Berry’s Manufacturing, Intermountain Staffing, Bill Entwistle and Richard Arnold.
“We love that we were able to bring in some local companies to help a local effort to do something global,” Alexander said.
In 2016, Rise Against Hunger worked with approximately 376,000 volunteers to secure meals for more than 1 million people.
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Well done Wilson Electronics! That’s how you demonstrate compassion and brotherly love! Thank you all.