2020 is almost in the history books, thank goodness! But while it has certainly been a challenging year on many levels, there still have been bright spots in the work we’ve done to help our clients navigate new challenges to their businesses and for their customers. Here are some of this year’s highlights as we look forward to 2021:
United Food Bank, which provides food assistance for people in need throughout the East Valley and eastern Arizona, stepped up in a big way to the challenge of meeting significantly higher levels of need due to COVID while maintaining a safe environment for the volunteers they cannot function without.
teamworks helped the organization tell its story to area residents looking for food assistance, to donors to help fund the rising costs of transporting millions of extra pounds of food, and to potential volunteers needed to fill the gaps left by the cancellations of corporate volunteer teams.
Click here to learn more about communicating in the midst of a pandemic.
Can you hold a parade in the midst of a pandemic? Most Phoenix area Veterans Parades were cancelled due to COVID. But, not the East Valley Veterans Parade! We came up with a creative way to honor active and retired military veterans and their families while keeping the community safe — by reversing the parade. Instead of spectators lining up to watch parade entries pass by, they became the parade themselves by the thousands, driving the parade route past stationary entries in their own decorated vehicles.
Click here to see what a great success this event was!
Small businesses like Tracy Dempsey Originals/TDO Wines were hit especially hard by the COVID-19 virus. This business in particular had to pivot quickly away from many of its existing business practices, including its in-person baking classes and wine tastings. teamworks worked with Tracy to develop new marketing and communication channels to not only keep this small business afloat, but to return it to a healthy operation.
Click here to learn how teamworks helped this small business pivot.
Feeding America’s Hunger Action Month took on even greater meaning in September of this year, with an increasing number of people needing food assistance in 2020. teamworks successfully announced a new partnership between Waste Not and the regional Starbucks locations throughout the entire Valley to capture fresh, unsold foods and distribute them to homeless clients of St. Vincent de Paul and other non-profit partners who provide food assistance. We also developed and placed an opinion piece by Executive Director Kate Thoene that highlighted some of the ways Waste Not was able to save pallets and truckloads of food that suddenly would not be used for major events and activities cancelled due to COVID. Click here to watch the FOX 10 segment.
In March, teamworks offered our media relations services to national nonprofit start-up Frontline Foods, which focused on raising funds to pay local restaurants to prepare and deliver meals to frontline workers. We placed both Frontline Foods, restaurant chefs, and local nurses on various news stations and in print, to share what this program meant to them. This October, Frontline Foods merged with World Central Kitchen and continues to work with local restaurants to provide meals for those in need.
