More than 330 McGuireWoods lawyers and staff in 13 of the firm’s 20 worldwide offices donned hairnets, aprons and gloves and slathered jelly and Peter Pan® peanut butter onto sliced bread as fast as they could in a joint hunger-fighting initiative with client ConAgra Foods.
In about 15 minutes on Tuesday, the Am Law 100 firm made 4,883 PB&J sandwiches, topping its goal of 4,000 by 22 percent. The sandwiches were then delivered to local nonprofit soup kitchens and homeless shelters in each of the 13 cities.
The volunteers – their offices linked by live videoconferencing – spread peanut butter manufactured and donated by ConAgra onto slices of bread, added grape jelly, pressed the dressed slices gently together, sealed them into airtight plastic bags and set them aside for counting, boxing and delivery.
“We are in the greatest country in the world but there are still a lot of people around us who need help or food and a little bit of support,” said Charlottesville partner Jonathan Blank, one of the primary organizers of the multi-office event. “If we can take just 30 minutes out of our day to make hundreds if not thousands of sandwiches, maybe we can make a difference.”
In only its second year, the McGuireWoods PB&J Sandwich Challenge dwarfed the inaugural 2013 event, which involved only the firm’s Atlanta and Charlottesville offices.
“We had a good time with it,” Charlotte, North Carolina, Office Managing Partner Scott Vaughn said afterward, reporting that his more than 60 volunteers had made 1,500 sandwiches for the Charlotte Rescue Mission.
“We are honored to have partnered with ConAgra in this effort to combat hunger in communities throughout the country,” said Terry Bagley, deputy managing partner in charge of the firm’s Litigation Department.
The event sprang from the close relationship between ConAgra, America’s largest packaged-food producer, and McGuireWoods’ Food and Beverage team. ConAgra’s involvement and support for McGuireWoods’ PB&J Challenges is just one of the initiatives that are part of the rel=”noopener noreferrer” company’s “Child Hunger Ends Here” outreach.
The McGuireWoods offices participating, the number of sandwiches made and the charities that benefited from the sandwiches were: Atlanta, 336, Crossroads Soup Kitchen; Baltimore, 288, Our Daily Bread Baltimore; Charlotte, 1,500, Charlotte Rescue Mission; Charlottesville, 250, First Presbyterian Church of Charlottesville; Chicago, 400, Cornerstone Community Outreach Homeless Shelter; Jacksonville, Florida, 275, Sulzbacher Center; Los Angeles, 169, Downtown Women’s Shelter; Norfolk, Virginia, 137, Oasis Social Ministries; Raleigh, North Carolina, 403, Church of the Good Shepherd; Richmond, Virginia, 500, The Healing Place; Tysons Corner, Virginia, 260, Baileys Crossroads Community Center; Washington, 312, Martha’s Table; Wilmington, North Carolina, 53, Rescue Mission of Cape Fear.
To learn more about the event, please see the media coverage on Charlottesville TV stations.