Employees share holiday spirit with those in need

Staging bags at Forest Home Elementary.

We Energies employees recently shared their time and personal resources to make the holidays brighter for many in the Milwaukee area.

Employees at Metro North and Calumet service centers collected toys for 50 children and delivered them on Dec. 16 to the Young Leaders Academy elementary school on 13th Street and North Avenue in Milwaukee.

Earlier in the month, four supervisors volunteered their time one evening to help with the Meals for Minds program, a monthly distribution of food at a local school.

The distribution site, Forest Home Elementary School at South 15th Street and West Forest Home Avenue in Milwaukee, was selected for this program because 95 percent of the students at the school qualify for the free- or reduced-price lunch program.

Assisting Meals for Minds.

More than 250 families received bags of food on the night that Randy Chase, customer service supervisor, Patty Finn, project supervisor, Kathy Wilson, field services supervisor, and Jennifer Eisner, customer service supervisor, worked.

Distributing 250 food bags.

Wilson said it was “very rewarding, humbling and great to see kids’ smiling faces,” as families came through the school to receive the packages of food.

“Rewarding and eye opening to see the challenges our communities face,” is how Eisner described the experience. Eisner coordinated We Energies’ participation in the event. “Without volunteers,” she said, “Meals for Minds would not be possible. We were proud to represent We Energies through this life-changing program.”

Meals for Minds is a partnership between Target and Feeding America. Target provides the funding for the program and Feeding America provides the food.