Over 1,000 items given to Bread of Life Soup Kitchen
CARIBOU, Maine — In just over two weeks, the employees of Sitel, a call center in Caribou, collectively donated about 1,069 items to the Bread of Life Kitchen in Caribou.
Sitel employee Ashley Clark says the donation was part of the company’s “Week of Thanks,” which involves employee appreciation as well as a service project.
“We realize that the need for food is not just during the holidays, but all year round,” Clark said. “We wanted to do something to thank the community of Caribou for welcoming us with open arms, so we chose to donate food to the Bread of Life.”
Bread of Life Board Member Jean Miesburger says the call from Sitel was a pleasant surprise.
“I was very impressed because we hadn’t discussed this in the past,” said Miesburger. “It was exciting to think that they had taken it among themselves just to do this. The next thing we knew, they called and said they were ready to bring the food out to us.”
While the kitchen is closed in July, the donations will be a tremendous help when Bread of Life opens its doors in August. Donated items include cleaning supplies as well as food, which will assist the volunteers next month when the kitchen, located on 62 Collins Street, is operational.
“We’re kind of racing around to get ready,” said Miesburger. “We serve meals Monday, Wednesday, and Friday so of course we’re checking everything. And they’ve turned up with everything we’ll need. It’s like an answer to a prayer.”
Clark says that Sitel employees turned the charity into a mini-competition between employees at the Caribou site, in which teams competed to see who could gather the most donations.
“We had one team donate almost 300 items just themselves,” Clark said. “We counted before we left and had about 1,069 items total.”
“It’s going to be such a big help for us, it really is,” said Miesburger. “We definitely appreciate it.”
“We’re happy to do it,” said Clark.
