Brandywine Global Donates Food by the Truckload

Employees at Brandywine Global, one of eight Legg Mason Affiliates, donated 41,937 pounds of food during the Firm's third competitive food drive for Philabundance, a non-profit organization that feeds approximately 90,000 people in the Delaware Valley region per week.

"You have to love a food drive where you need a cart to move donations," was the slogan for the 2009 drive—when our second competitive food drive helped the Firm clinch the title of the largest food drive per capita in the entire Philadelphia region—when 125 employees donated over 21,000 pounds of food.

Philabundance no longer keeps per capita records, but when the 2015 slogan changed to, "You have to love a food drive where you need a U-Haul," to move an average of 170 pounds of food per employee, it’s a pretty sure bet Brandywine Global still holds the record.

The goal of the drive was to not only ease hunger pains in the local community, but strengthen teams at the Firm and provide a fun and creative outlet for employees to give back. Seventeen teams, organized by department and consisting of 15-17 members, strategized to earn the most points over four weeks using a point system designed by Brandywine Global based on the items Philabundance desperately needed.

Donated food items were worth the most points, but bonus points could be earned throughout the competition. For example, 20 ounce cans of baby formula were worth 200 points each, which was playfully called "liquid gold" as they counted their donated cash and devised what ended up being a winning strategy for the Health Point competition. And to the mother unable to afford powdered formula, which costs $16-$38 each, the 652 cans Brandywine Global employees donated truly are liquid gold.

"It's events like this that make me proud to work here," said Jennifer Waterston, Senior Marketing Sales Associate, as she stood in front of a two-story food tower that included a fraction of the donations, so teams could pose in front of their success. Even with a wide-angle lens, only a third of the donations fit in the photo opportunity.