Social Purpose Spotlight – Continental Refrigerator

In NAFEM’s monthly Social Purpose Spotlight, one member company’s social purpose story is featured. Perhaps reading about the creativity and dedication of fellow NAFEM members will inspire you to start a program at your organization or provide some new ideas to enhance what you’re already doing.

To kick off 2025, we talked to Elizabeth Grant, marketing coordinator, Continental Refrigerator, Bensalem, Pa. Continental Refrigerator has been involved in supporting its local food bank through monetary donations for a number of years. In November 2024 however, they held their first employee-driven food drive. Grant explains, “our employees wanted to be more hands-on with our philanthropic efforts so our marketing team decided a simple starting point for us to do that would be to collect and donate highly requested, non-perishable food items.”

Continental supports Philabundance as their local food bank. Philabundance was founded in 1984 and works with 350+ community partners to distribute food throughout nine counties in Southeastern Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey.  In addition to food distribution, the organization works to reduce food waste, increase access to nutritious meals, and tackle the root causes of hunger through programs such as a community kitchen.

Continental believes that getting involved in community giving should not only be important, it should be expected. Grant added, “we appreciate that NAFEM has such a generous donation matching program to ensure our donation was able to positively affect even more people in need.”

The company’s non-perishable food drive was such a success that they’ve decided to make it an annual event and are committed to increasing their donations by 20% in 2025. Employees felt like they were truly making a difference in the lives of local families and there was a lot of excitement generated as the donations started to stack up during the month and colleagues worked together for a cause.

If your organization is considering a social purpose initiative, Grant suggests, “don’t be afraid to start small, if that’s all your business or associates can handle. Any effort is better than no effort, and there will always be ways to increase or change efforts in the future.”

NAFEM’s Social Purpose program, #NAFEMFightingHunger, just completed its fifth year, meeting our goal of raising funds to support 6.5 million meals for those in need. When members donate funds, food or volunteer time to their local Feeding America member food banks or any local food bank, NAFEM contributes matching funds. In 2024, NAFEM matched $319,000 of member contributions to local food banks. 

For ideas to start or enhance your company’s efforts, visit #NAFEMFightingHunger. If you have questions or would like to be featured in a future Social Purpose Spotlight, contact NAFEM Headquarters, +1.312.821.0201.