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Logistics gives back

Here’s our monthly roundup of some of the charitable works and donations by companies in the material handling and logistics space.

Man and girl with bicycles
  • The Port of Los Angeles plans to award up to $1 million in nontaxpayer-funded community grants to support nonprofit organizations that benefit the Los Angeles Harbor community. To be considered for grant money, applicants must be nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status requesting funds for projects that promote local workforce development, education, the environment, or the LA waterfront. Interested local organizations can apply by visiting portoflosangeles.org. Applications are due by May 11.
  • Employees of Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin-based Storage Battery Systems conducted a food drive in December to aid the Falls Area Food Pantry in its mission to fight local hunger. All together, the employees collected more than 2,200 pounds of food, which was delivered to the pantry in early January.
  • In 2019, employees of UPS Canada raised $1.1 million (CAD) for United Way in Canada through fundraising initiatives and sponsored events like charity plane pulls. Their efforts earned UPS Canada its 18th consecutive “Thanks a Million” award, an annual award given by the United Way to organizations that have raised $1 million or more in support of the nonprofit’s initiatives.
  • Averitt Express employees in DCDuring 2019, associates of freight transportation and supply chain services provider

    Averitt Express 

    combined to perform more than 6,000 hours of community service as part of the carrier’s Team Up Community Challenge. Overall, 94 facilities across Averitt’s system participated in the challenge, helping 210 organizations through clothing, food, and toy drives; blood donations; and disaster relief work.
  • For the 14th straight year, transportation and logistics services giant XPO Logistics Inc. joined philanthropic organization Elves & More to provide bicycles to 1,000 children in Northeast Ohio during the holiday season. XPO volunteers helped assemble the bicycles and used company trucks to distribute them to area children.
  • Third-party transportation broker Allen Lund Co. has completed the fourth year of its Acts of Kindness program, tallying 86 deeds for 2019. Employees from Lund’s 35 offices across the U.S. participated in activities that ranged from serving food at homeless shelters to filling sandbags for flood-relief efforts.
  • FedEx Corp. has pledged its transportation and logistics support to humanitarian relief agencies as they respond to the coronavirus outbreak. As part of these efforts, FedEx Express shipped more than 200,000 surgical masks and personal protective equipment like gowns and gloves in January to its Asia Pacific Hub in Guangzhou, China, to assist the nonprofit Direct Relief in its humanitarian work.
  • Transplace, a provider of managed transportation services and technology, has partnered with Feeding America, the largest domestic hunger-relief organization in the U.S. In addition to a $150,000 donation, Transplace will provide Feeding America with technology and services to support its distribution efforts.

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