Skip to Content

Watch This Video And Toyota Will Donate 1 Meal To Food Bank Of NYC #MealsPerHour #Sponsored

Toyota MPH Logo

This spring, I had the honor of being a sponsored ambassador to work with Toyota as they partnered with Food Bank For New York City to help bring relief to areas that were most impacted by Superstorm Sandy.

This post is meaty – so if you are looking for the KEY takeaway… it’s this. Watch the video!! Every click through feeds a family. Think about how powerful that statement is. Toyota will donate a meal for every view this video receives (up to 1,000,000,000). They’ve already donated 250,000 meals! I just love this campaign!

Ok – now for the story.

As you know, Toyota partnered with Food Bank For New York City to help them serve meals to more New Yorkers who were impacted – and still suffering – from Superstorm Sandy. I live in Long Island and saw first hand the devastation that Sandy brought to the region. My next door neighbor is still out of her home because a tree fell through her roof. This is one of many, many stories that I am sure you have heard. It was a horrific storm.

Toyota and Food Bank For New York City created a program called Meals Per Hour and leveraged the Toyota Production System Support Center (TSSC), which shares Toyota know-how with nonprofits and other organizations to help them do more with less. The program focused on improving operations at a mobile food unit and distribution program in a Sandy-affected area, with the goal of increasing the number of meals that are distributed per hour.

Are you ready to hear how the program did? I still can’t believe what a DIFFERENCE a little tinkering can do.

Results From The Meals Per Hour Program

  • Increase the number of emergency meal boxes distributed from 25 per hour to 450 per hour.
  • At Metro World Child’s Distribution Warehouse, where volunteers pack boxes to distribute to families in need, we were able to reduce the time to pack each box from 2.2 minutes to 11 seconds!
  • At Metro World Child Truck Distribution, where volunteers hand out the boxes of emergency food, together we were able to reduce the time it took to distribute each box from 2.4 minutes to 8 seconds!

Can you stand it?! What a difference!!!!  Just think about all the families who will benefit from this positive change!

Documentary Short Needs Some Love

To share the journey, filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost (of Supermarché) will release a documentary on June 20th. For every video view Supermarché’s documentary short receives, Toyota will donate one meal to Food Bank For New York City, up to 1,000,000,000 meals by July 19, 2013.

I Need Your Help!!!!!

All you have to do to participate is watch the video. Click and Toyota will donate one meal. How simple can this get?! Toyota has already provided 250,000 meals – help us donate up to 125,000 more by watching the video.  Watch now to donate a meal to a family in need.

My Personal Journey

Being part of this program was quite literally life changing. I always wanted to get involved in my community but didn’t know where to begin. I used to sign up for so many community service initiatives in college. So, I really felt great giving back with Toyota. Stuffing boxes and helping feed NYC families in need was a moment I will never forget. When I came home, I had a big conversation with my children about how important it was to give back. Just because my town has moved on and picked up the pieces from Hurricane Sandy does not mean all other towns have done the same.

Even the thought process that small changes can make a big difference has been so very impactful on my family. I’ve mentioned a few small changes I’ve made in the past, but here are a few more:

  • Started making school lunches day before so we don’t stress out in the AM during breakfast — frees up parent time during breakfast
  • Keep water bottles on lower shelves of the refrigerator so children can get their own drinks during the day — my youngest needs a lot of attention at 4 months old, so I need all hands on deck now. If I’m feeding Caleb, I can’t always get up to get drinks for older two. This resolved this issue.
  • Pre-cut up snacks / wash fruit so children can grab food if they want a quick bite — same as above.
  • Have children bring their laundry to the laundry room every other day and put it in the washer before heading out to school — 3 kids, 2 adults and 2 shedding dogs… yes, there is a lot of laundry. Now the kids bring their clothes in the morning and then put it away when they get home from school. It’s part of their routine (officially) and I stop wasting an entire Saturday doing 7-8 loads of laundry for the entire house.

Before everything was on me and everything was last minute / rushed. Well, NO MORE! Now, we are thinking ahead and all chipping in and I SWEAR it wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t go through this training.

So, one more time – please take a minute and watch the Meals Per Hour documentary. I had an amazing time being part of the process and I would love for you to see the journey. Every view provides a meal to a family in need. You cannot beat that.

This post was written as part of my sponsored partnership with Toyota for Meals Per Hour.

 

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.