David Weekley Homes Collects Thousands of Meals, Donations During Annual Food Drive
Houston, TX (December 13, 2019): Nearly 60,000 people nationwide walked away from the Thanksgiving table with a full belly and a happy heart this year, thanks to the partnership of David Weekley Homes and 18 charities across the U.S. From November 1 – 15, the company hosted its fifth annual companywide Thanksgiving Drive, collecting more than 154,000 pounds of food for 18 local non-profit organizations around the country with help from homeowners, real estate agents, vendors, trade partners and team members.
“To me, Thanksgiving is about family,” said Jennifer McColloch, CARE council chair with David Weekley Homes at its corporate office. “It is heartwarming to know that by taking away the stress of having to provide food, we’re able to bring families closer together during the holidays.”
Companywide, more than 1,100 team members contributed nearly 8,000 volunteer hours to help families in need. In addition, The David Weekley Family Foundation donated a total of $103,000 to local organizations.
The annual drive is an initiative of the company’s CARE program, which allows the extended David Weekley Homes family to live out its purpose of Building Dreams, Enhancing Lives. For more than 20 years, The David Weekley Family Foundation has donated more than $200 million to worthy causes in the U.S. and abroad, and team members have volunteered countless hours with various organizations across the country.
For the fourth year in a row, the Tampa team collected food, including 600 turkeys, for Feeding Tampa Bay, providing nearly 28,000 families in need of a healthy Thanksgiving meal. On the final day of the food drive, the team hosted a tailgate party inviting Feeding Tampa Bay and community partners to celebrate the food drive’s success. In addition, a monetary donation of $4,000 was donated to help enhance their food drive’s volunteer experiences at their facility.
“David Weekley Homes visited Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida on November 15 with truckloads of nonperishable food drive collections, an army of volunteers and a monetary gift to help further enhance the volunteer experience,” said Samantha Westley, Volunteer Assistant at Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida. “In addition to their donations, they helped sort more than 5,500 pounds of food.”
The Houston team, along with team members from the company’s corporate office, donated more than 160,000 ounces of nonperishable food items to Houston Food Bank. The team also invested eight volunteer hours to help sort and provide nearly 12,000 meals to families in the Houston area.
“The generosity from David Weekley Homes is overwhelming and greatly appreciated,” said Linda Casey, strategic gifts officer with Houston Food Bank. “Thank you for making Thanksgiving better for so many families this year!”
In Phoenix, 115 team members, along with homeowners and vendors, collected more than 800 meals for St. Mary’s Food Bank Alliance. In addition, The David Weekley Family Foundation gave a monetary donation of $4,000, to fund emergency food boxes to feed 28,000 families in the Phoenix area.
“Thank you so much for your recent donations to St. Mary’s Food Bank,” said Matt Cooper, volunteer recruitment specialist with St. Mary’s Food Bank. “We are working hard to alleviate hunger in Arizona and truly couldn’t do it without the support of companies and organizations like David Weekley Homes.”
About David Weekley Homes
David Weekley Homes, founded in 1976, is headquartered in Houston and operates in 20 cities across the United States. David Weekley Homes was the first builder in the United States to be awarded the Triple Crown of American Home Building, an honor which includes “America’s Best Builder,” “National Housing Quality Award” and “National Builder of the Year.” Weekley has also appeared 13 times on FORTUNE magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For®” list. Since inception, David Weekley Homes has closed more than 90,000 homes. For more information about David Weekley Homes, visit the company’s website at www.davidweekleyhomes.com.