On November 18, our team spent the morning volunteering at Project Host, a nonprofit in Greenville that addresses the immediate issue of hunger in our community. In addition to providing food, Project Host focuses on the root causes of food insecurity (poverty and underemployment) through its culinary school and student employment opportunities in its social enterprises.
While volunteering, we worked in the produce garden, harvested vegetables to be used in food service later, organized supplies, and helped with food preparation. As construction professionals, we loved a volunteer opportunity that enabled us to work outside and indoors.
Part of the beauty of volunteering for nonprofits in our community is learning about their impact. Project Host serves 40,000 free meals from its soup kitchen each year and grows 2,000 pounds of product in the garden where we worked.
We also learned how the CC Pearce Culinary School operates—the program provides a pathway to financial stability for its students and teaches life skills. Students can apply what they learn immediately through the Project Host social enterprises, the HostMobile food truck, and the Project Host Bakery. From there, they can readily apply for employment with real experience and training.
The HostMobile food truck regularly visits breweries and locations around the community and can be booked for events. We are already scheming about when it will visit the Raby Construction office!
Volunteering together as a team is an incredible experience for our employees and builds connections with the community we call home. Thank you to Project Host for the experience!