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Equitable’s Return to Office Creates Meaningful Impact for People Facing Hunger Worldwide

on  July 29, 2022

When the financial services company Equitable prepared to return to the office in Charlotte, North Carolina, and New York, New York, they knew they wanted the future of work to be engaging and collaborative. They also wanted it to be impactful — both for their employees and for people around the world. Equitable is committed to advocating for vibrant and healthy communities, which includes supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #2 of zero hunger. Throughout the month of June, Equitable hosted six Rise Against Hunger Experience meal packaging events — three in Charlotte and three in New York — for their staff to come together to package meals for people facing food insecurity around the world. 

At each event, Equitable employees and financial professionals worked together to package soy, dehydrated vegetables, rice and vitamins into bags. Across the six events, 290 employees packaged 66,000 nutritious meals total. The events brought colleagues together from across the organization, including the CEO, COO and the majority of the company’s senior leaders. Many colleagues who had previously only corresponded virtually also got the opportunity to meet in person for the first time while simultaneously giving back. 

These six events truly created “moments that matter” — opportunities for collaboration when Equitable teams were on-site, which the company plans to continue in the future. Stephanie Shields, Equitable’s Head of Employee Benefits, explained that these events are crucial to the company’s future of work, saying, “As our team navigates the future of work and utilizes moments that matter as we return to the office, we were eager to give back to our community through the Rise Against Hunger projects. The activity provided a great way for our teams to come together to be a force for good, all while having some fun working together toward a great cause supporting the Rise Against Hunger efforts!”

By including Rise Against Hunger meal packaging events as part of their return to the office, Equitable not only created space for their employees to collaborate and get to know one another, but the company also helped make a difference in the work to alleviate food insecurity! The 66,000 meals packaged by Equitable will help nourish the people Rise Against Hunger serves around the world. Looking for an impactful team-building opportunity for your group? Host your own Rise Against Hunger Experience meal packaging event — like Equitable did!

Interested in learning more?
Our team is ready to help!

To find out more about meal packaging and how to organize your own event, fill out the form and a Rise Against Hunger team member will contact you to start planning. If you’ve connected with our team or filled out this form previously, no need to submit it again. A Rise Against Hunger team member will be in touch soon!
 

Perfect for all kinds of organizations:

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About the Author

Strength, Stability And Hope

The gift that filled Nelly’s table.

“We were yielding very little, and the crops could not sustain us the whole year,” Nelly remembers. As a mother of seven and a farmer with two decades of experience, the stress of inconsistent yields was all-consuming. A poor harvest not only strained her family financially, but also limited their own meals to just two a day. Their story reflects that of many in their fishing and farming village near a lake in the Karonga district of northern Malawi. Here, heavy rainfall makes conventional farming methods nearly impossible. The entire village is, quite literally, saturated in food insecurity — a reality that leaves families struggling to survive season after season without a dependable source of nourishment.

In 2019, Nelly began participating in Harvesting Prosperity and Resilience, a sustainable agriculture project implemented by Rise Against Hunger in partnership with the Foundation for Community Support Services (FOCUS). The project works with 3,100 smallholder farmers in Malawi’s Karonga and Mzimba districts to strengthen food and nutrition security by improving production methods, nutrition practices and household income.

Just one year later, Nelly was ready to expand the variety of crops on her farm. What land once only produced maize began to flourish with sesame, cowpeas, rice and groundnuts during the rainy season (summer), as well as maize and vegetables during the dry season (winter). Through climate-smart agriculture training, she learned new techniques like manure making, pit planting and mulching, crop rotation and intercropping. Equipped with these tools, Nelly’s farm began to thrive.

After the 2023–2024 growing season, she sold enough produce to purchase an ox cart. Her harvests in 2024-2025 season yielded over 500 pounds of crops, including 22 bags of groundnuts, seven bags of maize, 12 tins of sesame and three bags of rice. With this surplus, she was able to invest in a motorbike, which she now uses to transport African doughnuts (mandasi) that she cooks and sells — creating yet another source of income for her family.

The transformation reaches far beyond her finances. Nelly now has the stability to provide for her husband and children. “I am able to eat different food types, pay school fees for my children and fulfill the visions that I have made with my family,” she beams. “I am now sleeping peacefully without any fears of food or paying school fees for the children.”

Her leadership has also grown. Today, Nelly serves as a leader in the Harvesting Prosperity and Resilience project, teaching other farmers in her district to adopt climate-resilient, labor-saving practices. By sharing her knowledge, she is multiplying her impact — empowering her neighbors to experience the same transformation she has achieved.

Across Nelly’s community, food and economic security are on the rise. Lombani, a government extension officer for the region, explains, “I can see the community is being transformed in the sense that in the area, there is food, income and nutrition security. Development is also happening at the household level.”

Nelly reflects on what it means to invest in holistic programs that address the root causes of hunger: “We are now healthy people. Children are going to school after eating their breakfast, having high yields and different types of crops due to conservation agriculture practices. With the support from the project, we have food, and we can access other food items from the market after selling our produce.”

This is the gift that fills: a future full of stability, strength and hope. It fills tables with food, families with security and communities with the resources to thrive. It’s an investment in futures rooted in resilience and hope.