• Other Global Locations
  • Search
Host an Event
Donate

Five-Year Partner Thermo Fisher Reaches 1 Million Meal Impact

on  July 10, 2019

We are always excited when one of our longstanding partnerships reaches a milestone in our movement to end world hunger. On May 17, Thermo Fisher Scientific gathered employees in Carlsbad, California, to package and celebrate the company’s 1 millionth meal with Rise Against Hunger.In recognition of their efforts, we recently honored Thermo Fisher with an engraved gong “” a signature feature used at Rise Against Hunger Experience events to audibly track the number of meals packaged throughout the event. We also presented a framed photo of a child who has benefitted from one of our programs with the help of partners like Thermo Fisher.

From left to right: Vero Ehrlich and Linda Hammond from Thermo Fisher Carlsbad Community Action Council, Merete Miles, Karen Noe, Director Global Expansion and Corporate Development for Rise Against Hunger, and Katie Panzica”‹, Corporate Social Responsibility, Thermo Fisher.
“In addition to supporting an important cause, the partnership with this organization allows us to make a large impact while providing our colleagues with an easy way to get involved. The packing events that Rise Against Hunger facilitates allow dozens, if not hundreds, of colleagues to work together at our facilities. These events provide a convenient volunteer opportunity for those who may have a harder time leaving the office,” said Katie Panzica, Global Engagement and Communications Lead, Corporate Social Responsibility.Since the start of our partnership in 2014, Thermo Fisher has donated nearly $450,000 to Rise Against Hunger and has had more than 5,000 employees package meals at 60 events in 20 different cities around the world. More important than the number of meals themselves are the actual lives they will impact. 1 million meals have made an impact on the lives of over 10,600 people in 21 countries in communities across South and Central America, Africa and Asia, enabling them to rise and break the cycle of poverty. Over the years, meals packaged by Thermo Fisher employees have also been distributed to locations in need while responding to emergencies in eSwatini, India, Malawi and Mozambique.We are fortunate to have partners like Thermo Fisher who have been dedicated to our mission for many years. Our partners and volunteers are a huge part of our success and are the reason we are able to send millions of meals to people in critical need and impact lives worldwide.Are you interested in your company making an impact in our movement to end hunger? Please visit our Engage Your Workplace page to learn more!

About the Author

Kimberly Bowman is the Marketing Associate on the Rise Against Hunger Marketing Team. She assists with corporate partner marketing campaigns, benefits support and overall marketing activities of the organization.

More Posts by Kimberly Bowman

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.