A Sunshine Summit Success!

Posted on August 13, 2019
by admin

The first annual, Brighten Your World Sunshine Team Summit was held in Des Moines on July 26-28 as Sunshine Team Members from across the U.S. gathered for more training and inspiration

Origins of the Sunshine Team

The Outreach Program Sunshine Team began in 2018 in preparation for the four 9/11 Day meal packaging events we managed for them in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix. On that day in 2018, more than 8,000 volunteers gathered in those four cities to package 1.7 million of our Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal meals! Those meals were then distributed by Feeding American food banks in the cities where we hosted the events.

Rays of Sunshine

Each of the Sunshine Team wore brightly colored yellow-gold polos for two reasons: 1. Yellow is our company apparel color. 2. We wanted to be easy to spot!

Our founders, Floyd Hammer and Kathy Hamilton, chose yellow for our company attire when they began Outreach in 2004. After watching children dying because of hunger-related reasons in Nkungi Village, Tanzania, they decided to wear yellow so they could be rays of sunshine in a dark time for the village.

An Engagement Proposal!

Donald Dawes, who was with us at Los Angeles in 2018 and has helped us in various events since then, chose a time during the summit to propose to the lovely Cara LaGore.

“I chose this time because we want our marriage to be a life of service,” Donald said. “Helping people is going to be a central part of our life together.”

“I couldn’t imagine a better time for Donald to propose to me than at the Sunshine Summit,” Cara said. “Serving people and making the world a better place is part of our core values so the symbolism of a summit was the perfect place to say Yes!”

And Beyond

Although the Sunshine Team started 2018 around 9/11 Day, many of the team members have continued to assist us in various events across the country. As we ramp up for another four 9/11 Day events in the cities this year, the team is going through even more training to help us on 9/11 and beyond!

The “beyond” part is exciting for us as an organization as we continue our national expansion. We package meals in all the U.S.states plus Canada and would like to add to our Sunshine Team.