NEWBERRY COUNTY — Through the Komatsu Feeding America campaign, four Newberry County non-profits have each received $1,000.
This money will allow them to continue their hard work in the community.
Don Russell, general manager of the Komatsu in Newberry, said they were given $4,000 to distribute and Komatsu basically gave donations to every local entity (Komatsu locations) based on their head count. With 200 employees, Komatsu in Newberry was given $4,000. Komatsu America Cooperation chose to do this due to the hardships brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Newberry County Council on Aging, Newberry County Disabilities and Special Needs Board, Newberry County First Steps, and Senior Catering were the four non-profits selected in Newberry.
The non-profits were selected via the Morale Committee.
“They are responsible for keeping everybody happy, part of that is giving. They are responsible for deciding what our charitable donations are on a regular basis — this new donation is in addition to our normal charitable giving, we normally give to Newberry County Council on Aging and Newberry County Special Needs and Disabilities Board,” Russell said.
The committee is made up of six Newberry Komatsu employees, those members took recommendations from outside of the committee and via a vote, picked the four selected non-profits.
“I feel a lot of pride in my company for being so responsible,” Russell said.
In addition to this recent donation, Komatsu raised over $250,000 nationwide. In the midst of a pandemic, the teams at Komatsu America Corp., Komatsu Mining Corp., Modular Mining, Hensley Industries, Gigaphoton, NAC, TimberPro and Quadco answered the call to support Feeding America’s COVID-19 response, to help individuals and families in need.
According to a press release from Komatsu, 530 employees representing 29 states across the U.S. donated $44,081.67 to the online campaign with an average gift of $83.17. Company contributions included $150,000, plus the maximum amount of $50,000 in matching funds driven by employee donations.
This brought total combined contribution to $253,281.67, in support of Feeding America’s COVID-19 Response Fund.
Feeding America positioned itself to react quickly to the COVID-19 crisis, according to the release — establishing a dedicated fund in mid-March. Since that time, they have focused on food sourcing and distribution by leveraging national relationships to secure food donations, partnering with the USDA to tighten farm to food bank relationships, and purchasing high volume of foods to cover longer lead times.
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