As part of their annual employee engagement day, 12 Kaiser Permanente staff members and their families volunteered with FoCo Cafe earlier this year. Dawn Paepke, who helps coordinate their volunteer day each year heard about FoCo Cafe before its launch and was excited to engage Kaiser Permanente employees.
Jason Tacha, the Executive Director of Operations for Kaiser Permanente Northern Colorado was one of the employees who volunteered at FoCo Cafe, and he recently sat down with us to share more about his experience. “Actually, my wife and two children also volunteered with me,” mentioned Jason.
“It was really easy to get my family involved. Kaiser Permanente organizes our volunteer day once a year on Martin Luther King Day to encourage employees to engage with our community. My daughters had school off that day, and they were excited to come along and volunteer,” Jason explained.
Jason has two daughters, ages 10 and 12 who volunteered with him and his wife at the cafe. “They were able to do a variety of different volunteer activities including washing windows and helping to serve in the cafe. My wife and I helped serve food and wash dishes,” he said.
FoCo Cafe was a natural fit for the Kaiser Permanente employee volunteer day, as the company focuses on a few core values—overall healthy lifestyles, eating well, staying active, living well, and giving back to the community. Similar to the Kaiser Permanente company focus, it is easy to see that FoCo Cafe has a central focus and commitment to local and healthy food. FoCo Cafe understands the importance of gluten-free options, non-GMO foods, and supporting local agriculture. “Volunteering at FoCo Cafe was a natural fit because both Kaiser Permanente and FoCo Café have such a strong emphasis on supporting the overall wellbeing of our community and community members,” explained Pamela Sunderman, Integrated Marketing Communications Consultant for Kaiser Permanente.
“I definitely recommend other companies and organizations throughout the region get involved in volunteer work throughout the community.” In one day, Kaiser Permanente had an immense impact throughout the community. FoCo Cafe was just one stop in a series of volunteer activities the company employees engaged in on Martin Luther King Day. “This year some of our other volunteer activities included a blood drive and making emergency kits,” explained Sunderman. In previous years Kaiser has helped put together assistance kits for those experiencing homelessness in Larimer County, and other similar projects.
“Volunteering at the cafe fit in with our previous work not only because we were supporting a local organization, but also because we were able to engage with feeding our community of varying economic and social backgrounds,” said Jason.
To get your company involved with FoCo Cafe, contact info@fococafe.org. To learn more about Kaiser Permanente and their community involvement, visit KP.org/Thrive.