http://youtu.be/2injpFbiVtEThe United Way of Greater St. Louis’ 2012 campaign video.
Thanks in part to the support of the United Way, the St. Louis Area Foodbank distributed 25 million pounds of food to those in the bi-state region last year.
Funds received from the United Way provided 14 truckloads of food to St. Louis Area Foodbank in 2011, says Casey Milton, product donations coordinator for the Foodbank, the bi-state region’s largest nonprofit food distribution center dedicated to those in need.
Those in need can include your neighbor, church community member, co-worker or childhood friend. “The majority of the people we serve are what we call ‘working poor’ — they are two-parent households with children,” Milton says. “Food provided by the Foodbank is a supplement to their income.”
“United Way agencies are doing many important things for St. Louis,” Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton says.
“The United Way is a very efficient organization that has an incredible record of bringing in money and having a very large fraction is deployed for the missions of its agencies. Ninety cents on every dollar raised for the United Way Campaign actually goes out to support our region.
“The United Way campaign means a lot to me as chancellor,” Wrighton says. “The services provided by United Way agencies help everyone in our community. There are about 13,000 employees at Washington University. A very significant fraction of that population, at one time or another, will be assisted by a United Way agency.”
Last year, the WUSTL community donated $725,019 to the United Way, which provided funds for:
- a month of after-school tutoring for 296 at-risk children;
- a month’s stay in a domestic violence shelter for 118 mothers and their children;
- job skills and training courses for 1,184 unemployed people to help them gain full-time employment;
- child abuse and neglect prevention education classes for 148 young parents;
- winter hats for 148 homeless people;
- and much, much more.
WUSTL offers employees two ways to contribute: online using the HRMS system and via pledge cards, which are being sent through campus mail.
To make a pledge online, visit hr.wustl.edu and use your WUSTL KEY to sign into HRMS Self Service. Click on Employee Self Service and select United Way Pledges. For assistance with passwords, call the Help Desk at (314) 935-5707.
The WUSTL campaign officially ends in late October, but the Office of Human Resources will accept pledges up until the end of the calendar year and beyond.
WUSTL’s drive coincides with the United Way’s own $72 million campaign, which is chaired by Greg Boyce, chairman and chief executive officer of Peabody Energy and member of the WUSTL Board of Trustees.
United Way-supported agencies serve a large, diverse population of more than one million people each year in 16 counties in Missouri and Illinois — approximately one of every three in the St. Louis area.
For more information about the United Way of Greater St. Louis, visit stl.unitedway.org.