Local Company Employees and Families Spend MLK Jr. Holiday Giving Back

Portland, OR. Bank of America employees and their families spent the day repackaging food at the Oregon Food Bank. Volunteers from Pacific Power and local community members also joined in the efforts. Corporate volunteers at the Portland and Beaverton locations packed more than 100,000 pounds of food – the equivalent of 83,000 meals.

Chris Swindell, Senior Vice President at Bank of America, and Susannah Morgan, CEO of Oregon Food Bank, spent Martin Luther King Jr. Day helping repackage food for 830,000 meals for those in need.

Chris Swindell, Senior Vice President at Bank of America, hands Susannah Morgan, CEO of Oregon Food Bank, a big donation.

Bank of America employees and their families spent their day off help repackage food at Oregon Food Bank’s sixth annual MLK Day of Service sponsored by Bank of America.

Bank of America employees, and their families, joined in the bank’s sixth annual MLK Day of Service.

The Sexual & Gender Minority Youth Resource Center offered special thanks to “Human Rights Campaign Portland” and Nike for helping out on the MLK Day of Service.

United Way of the Columbia-Willamette helped organize volunteer projects like this event at “p:ear” where volunteers were helping sort through art supplies.

Community members helped assemble STEM kits for local classrooms with help from Portland General Electric volunteers.

These kids came out to create greeting cards for seniors that will be delivered with hot meals by “Meals on Wheels People”.

Volunteers braved the cold at the ReBuilding Center, a nonprofit which provides salvaged and reclaimed materials to make home repairs affordable to everyone.

Americans across the country served in food banks, in schools, in hospitals and outdoors.

This is a photo of Martin Luther King Jr., from January of 1965, when he was a guest preacher at Memorial Church in Harvard Yard.

About the national holiday:

“Dr. King’s life is a shining example that one person can make a difference and change the course of history,” said Wendy Spencer, CEO of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). “By volunteering in communities across the nation on the MLK Day of Service, we honor his legacy through the spirit of service. I am honored to serve alongside the hundreds of thousands of Americans who are turning their passion into action and giving back, and I am convinced that the day will inspire many to make volunteering part of their lives all year long.”

In 1994, Congress designated MLK Day as the first and only federal holiday observed as a national day of service, and charged CNCS with leading this effort. Participants in the agency’s AmeriCorps and Senior Corps programs are leading and joining in projects across the country. Americans may visit MLKDay.gov to find a service project for MLK Day or a year-round volunteer opportunity in their own community.

Elisa Klein

I’ve been a professional journalist and writer since 1987, (and long-time reporter for KOIN-TV.) As a nationally published reporter, with a Master’s Degree in Journalism, I love to report positive news and information. Journalism has also connected me with another non-profit where I served as a leader; the Northwest’s biggest writer’s organization: The Willamette Writers.