Here at Burton we have a longstanding tradition called “PB&J Day”, where we spend an entire workday during the holiday season assembling sandwiches that are ultimately donated to feed needy families and individuals through a partner organization. This year, on Thursday December 21st, we were grateful to Landmark Restorations for allowing us to use their facility on the west side of Atlanta to create our Burton-powered sandwich assembly line.
We assembled a grand total of 5,415 sandwiches. That’s on par with the number sold by your average McDonald’s over an entire day! It was enough to fill a U-Haul van to the brim, and we donated about five extra boxes of bread as well.
With so many sandwiches, it can be a challenge to find a partner organization that can take them all. So this year we tried something new by partnering with a company called Goodr, a local startup with the mission of “leveraging technology to combat hunger and prevent food waste by redirecting surplus food from restaurants, event centers, airports, and businesses to the millions of people who are food insecure.” Goodr users connect with them mainly through a smartphone app that allows them to log any edible food they have leftover but cannot serve to their customers, and Goodr drivers are routed to their location to pick up the food and take it to the closest non-profit that can provide it to the hungry, elderly, or otherwise needy populations right here in Atlanta. We wanted to work with them for PB&J Day because it allowed us to take advantage of their network of drivers and non-profits, and to help support a local startup that is doing amazing work in the realm of sustainability and waste diversion – something we are passionate about here at Burton.
We take comfort in knowing that our work, helping clients across the country save energy and resources, has a genuinely positive impact. But that impact is often hard to actually see or feel. With PB&J Day, we are thrilled to use our time to do something that directly reaches the members of our local community who need it the most. Goodr visited four different non-profits that day, giving over a thousand of our sandwiches to each of them just days before Christmas. Not bad for a team of energy geeks!
