With generous hearts and a little friendly competition, the OneSpace team fully embraced the spirit of the season by donating thousands of items to the Community Interfaith Food Pantry, which provides food to families who are experiencing difficulty in meeting the demands of daily living throughout the Belleville and Swansea communities.

OneSpace sponsors a canned food drive every year, but this year, the drive took on a new level of urgency when the engineering department challenged the client-services team to see which group could bring in more items. Other departments heard of the competition and wanted in on the action. Ultimately, the entire company got involved, and the race was on.

The two teams had one week in which to contribute as many non-perishable food donations as they could. Within just three days, more than 1,000 items had been collected – an impressive number by itself.

If it had not been for the competition, that might have been the final count, but both teams rallied in the final days. To increase participation, team leads encouraged employees to contribute cash, then shopped for items on their behalf. Senior Accounting Specialist, Shannon Lewis, collected over $875.00 and used savvy shopping skills to add an additional 900 items to the collection on Thursday, catapulting her team to first place.

“Our team displayed incredible generosity. It was truly amazing to see the people I work with every day come together to be part of something bigger than themselves,” Shannon said.

At the end of the week, the entire OneSpace team ceremoniously gathered to count the food items and announced a grand total of 2,947 donations. For a competition with just over 50 total participants, the output was enormous. The company also contributed a matching cash donation, providing the food bank a healthy bonus to help local families throughout the holiday season and into the new year.

“The OneSpace team members are some of the kindest individuals I’ve ever met,” said Vice President of Client Services, Jayme O’Renic, “They know a small amount of generosity can go a long way, especially at this time of year.”