Marathon Petroleum Corp: Maintenance team rallies refinery for food bank fundraiser

As Maintenance Supervisor Mike Simmons put it: “We just wanted to do something to help the food bank.” This simple idea turned into a fundraising effort at Marathon Petroleum Corp.’s (MPC) Salt Lake City refinery that linked the Maintenance Department with contractors, vendors, other employees and the refinery’s leadership team. The end result was a donation that enabled the Utah Food Bank to provide 62,000 meals.

Simmons and the 10 members of his team initially planned to raise money by selling tickets for box lunches at the refinery. To enhance their effort, they added a raffle, which involved getting prizes donated from Marathon business units and several contractors and vendors. Among the 77 prizes were a barbeque grill, wireless Bluetooth® speakers, coolers, amusement park passes, drill sets and sporting event tickets. The refinery’s leadership team donated all the food, so more of the proceeds would go to the food bank, and Maintenance Department employees worked a grill to serve up smoked sausage and hot dogs.

“We ended up selling about 350 box lunches that day,” Simmons said. “It was an incredible example of teamwork and rallying around a cause. I work with a bunch of really great people.”

In all, the lunch and raffle raised $7,200. Some employees who made monetary donations then paired their efforts with Marathon’s Matching Gifts Program, earning a dollar-for-dollar match from MPC. The final contribution equates to approximately 62,000 meals for the food bank.

The Utah Food Bank is based in Salt Lake City yet distributes food through a network of 230 partner agencies across all 29 counties of the state. The food bank’s website indicates individual contributions from the community are its largest single source of funding.