Jeff and Kim's Story
Kim First and Jeff Appelbaum give both their personal and professional time supporting Feeding America while running their California-based international consulting firm, The Agency Worldwide. They believe in the value of giving nationally and locally through the Los Angeles Food Bank and have encouraged their children, employees and colleagues to join the fight against hunger.
As Jeff says: “For me, hunger-relief is something that my family has been involved with for a long time. I remember that my grandmother used to volunteer at the downtown Sacramento Food Closet – growing up and seeing homeless and hungry people and hearing her talk about why she volunteered is something that always stuck with me.”
Jeff and Kim reflect this sentiment in their own giving and by involving their children and their employees. "We connected to Feeding America because it allowed us to educate our children on philanthropy and giving back to the community. When we first found out about the organization, it was about supporting initiatives like the BackPack Program, which is something our children can understand and even relate to when you are going to get their school supplies and talking about education. The ability to involve our children is one of the aspects that attracted us to the organization.
We support the Los Angeles Food Bank and volunteer there along with our employees at The Agency. They were excited and interested in helping out at the food bank. It’s a reminder that we are so fortunate, and it is also very satisfying to provide our time and help with the cause. Volunteering is something tangible and something you can wrap your arms around.
We give nationally to Feeding America because we want to also make a difference on a larger scale. The fact that we can help fight hunger like that via our company is something that’s very exciting for us. That most of our contribution goes to helping others is also a big piece of how we make the decision to support an organization. We know the resources directly support the programs that are important to us and that we believe in. We can help so many people in our community and around the country through Feeding America and the network food banks – that’s what we connected with."
Supporting Feeding America is a natural extension of The Agency Worldwide’s mission to partner with organizations committed to the betterment of the quality of life.