Seattle-based professional consulting firm Design Laboratories, Inc. (DLI) has played a major role in our hunger-relief work for about seven years. Lyndsy Atkins, DLI’s director of personnel, first learned about Food Lifeline when one of her employees told her about his experience giving time. Since then, she’s coordinated associates’ monthly volunteer effort in our distribution center.
Lyndsy says she appreciates the flexible schedule and easy process of volunteering with Food Lifeline. About 10 to 15 DLI employees help sort and repackage food and product every second Saturday morning, and it gives her peace of mind to know that even if she can’t make it to a shift, her co-workers will be well cared for.
Over the years, DLI’s involvement in alleviating hunger has expanded to include participation in Stamp Out Hunger, when neighbors across the United States donate food at their mailboxes. For the past three years, DLI associates have been spending the day of the drive at the Bellevue post office collecting nonperishable food from various letter carriers for delivery to our facility. DLI also sponsors the auction at Dress Down Hunger, Food Lifeline’s annual fundraising event.
Lyndsy and her team have more recently joined in our Meals for Minds program, which provides healthy food for schoolchildren at risk of hunger. Each spring, folks from DLI visit a local low-income school and set up a makeshift grocery store where students are able to pick out food for their families. Volunteers help kids shop and then load their full bags onto the bus.
Each special volunteer role DLI associates play makes a real impact in the fight against hunger — and their team is enthusiastic about how their work changes lives. Lyndsy says the positivity they feel when volunteering is contagious. She and her employees are so glad they can help bring relief to people right here in their local community.
“The feeling when you leave — knowing that the food you repacked on Saturday morning will go out to food banks on Monday and be put to use immediately — is so rewarding,” she says.
Our special thanks to Lyndsy and everyone at Design Laboratories who’ve made the commitment to help solve hunger for our neighbors facing food insecurity. Your efforts make a difference every day!
