FARGO (KFGO) – Workers from all levels of the local FAR1 Amazon Fulfillment Center were on hand Monday morning at the Great Plains Food Bank (GPFB) in Fargo to present a year-end $10,000 contribution to North Dakota’s sole food bank.
Michael Ward is the Amazon facility’s senior operations manager. He says the company has a historical relationship with the GPFB through volunteering which led to the employees requesting a grant from the corporate Amazon in the Community program to support food bank operations.
“Continuing that partnership is really important to us. One of the foundations of being at Amazon is being community stewards – even here today we have hourly associates all the way up to the senior operations manager so it’s about the entire team being a part of the entire community,” Ward says.
GPFB CEO Melissa Sobolik says donations like Amazon’s are critical to the food bank’s operations.
“This is what keeps food on our shelves and it’s actually putting food on people’s tables tonight,” she says. “Amazon has been just a terrific partner – they volunteer, they’ve donated product before – and we just can’t thank them enough because this $10,000 will actually get turned into 20,000 meals.”
Amazon in the Community relies on its individual branches to identify local charitable organizations that fight homelessness and hunger or provide educational opportunities for grantmaking opportunities. The Great Plains Food Bank has operated in Fargo for the last 40 years and distributes food to those in need across North Dakota and in Clay County, Minnesota.