Over the past four years Access Group Solutions (AGS) has donated close to 1,500 kgs of food to Uniting’s Food For Families program.
In Victoria, the business, which offers a range of integrated and specialist services including facilities management, security, cleaning, asset maintenance and other specialist services, operates at five locations across Moonee Ponds, Craigieburn, Parkmore and Maribyrnong.
“We started our collections during the Covid period as we recognised people were struggling much more than usual,” says AGS Business Manager, Rebecca.
“We wanted to reach out and assist people within our communities where we could.”
Being so closely connected to their local communities, giving back has always been important to AGS.
“We spend countless hours in and among our local residents and most of our employees reside in these communities or have loved ones within them,” she says.
“This brought Uniting’s Food For Families program a bit closer to the hearts of our employees.”
For Rebecca, the program has also helped ground her in what’s really important.
“It’s a perfect opportunity to take a step back and reflect on what we have, how lucky we are that we can go home at the end of the day and be able to cook a meal for our families without worrying where the food will come from.”
The program has also been easy for AGS to adopt yearly.
“To help run Food For Families we provide information from Uniting’s website, like posters, brochures and shopping lists,” says Rebecca.
“We send multiple reminders during collection periods and keep boxes at each one of our sites.”
Food For Families has further supported the team to connect and bolster morale.
“The program is a fantastic way to engage our people in team building exercises without them even being aware of it,” says Rebecca.
“People love it,” adds Guest Services Manager, Waleed.
“They’re asking me about the program every year before Christmas now. People see it as a great opportunity to help our community.”
With rising rents and soaring food and energy prices, donations of food can have an incredible impact for those doing it tough. Uniting are grateful to businesses like AGS for their compassion, dedication and efforts to support those who need it most.
“We love that Uniting recognise our efforts each year by providing a wonderful certificate for our participation,” says Rebecca.
“We make copies of these and share with all of our teams involved so they can see their efforts are not only recognised by AGS and by our clients, but also Uniting and the community.”
The program has been so popular among AGS staff that Food For Families boxes have now been permanently stationed in all lunch rooms across the business’ five Victorian sites.
“We are really excited to display boxes and promotional items throughout our lunchrooms all year round,” says Rebecca.
“The boxes are a constant reminder for our teams and have provided them with opportunities to pop
something in on their lunch breaks.
“This is such a simple initiative that can have a great impact for others.”
Learn more about workplace or business donations to Food For Families.
