When you think about company-supported charitable effort, you probably think of giving blood, maybe a Christmas call for donations, and no more, but this is simply no longer true. As an example, Adaptive Marketing has offered employees opportunities to get involved in everything from tennis shoe recycling campaigns to tree planting days. Once all the information — location, time, date, type, et cetera — had been announced it became very simple for employees to settle how much time they could give and how they’d be using it. Making sure volunteers have their say in what activities are available is also important. Employees of Adaptive Marketing, the company who developed the financial benefits program Shopping Essentials (MVQ*SHOPESSNTLS), choose from among a selection of local events. Previous and current projects have included work in areas as diverse as education for children and young adults, green programs, and events supporting performance art. The result is that Adaptive Marketing volunteers are presented with the chance to explore useful avenues in volunteer work and have fun joining in the process.

If businesses encourage their staff to get involved at a local school, it is frequently for a specific event or a regularly scheduled, ongoing undertaking. What this means is if you can only find some hours for a Saturday morning spent litter picking in the park or the public library’s used-book sale, you still have a chance to contribute.

Extending a helping hand is a long-standing tradition at many firms. Goodwill comes from the projects undertaken by Adaptive Marketing’s staffers through these company-supported projects. Another aspect is, one of the benefits of volunteer work is feeling better about yourself — a positive feeling that enriches the entire firm. Encouraging your staffers to find the time to volunteer can be its own reward.

A January 2008 news broadcast in Washington showed video from a hidden camera of an animal rights group that revealed a shocking scene of ailing cows at a California slaughterhouse that provides meat for school lunches. The video was obtained after an undercover investigation that lasted for six weeks.

In the video, a sick cow is shown while being dragged by a chain. The cow was then rolled, poked, lifted, and prodded using a forklift.

The treatment of cows shown in the video is a form of abuse and should be prohibited especially since the meat from these cows is used for school lunches, a federally assisted meal program that promotes not only nutritionally balanced meals but also the fact that giving is good. Past findings indicated that Westland Meat Company, the identified slaughterhouse, has delivered beef to schools in 36 states. More than 100,000 schools and childcare facilities nationwide receive meat through the lunch program. The gravity of the event raised issues concerning health and animal abuse. People were quick to react on the thought of the kind of food used to feed the children. Giving is good, but if the act entails inhumane ways, it scores a big negative in the SPCA’s (Society for the Prevention of cruelty to Animals) list. The SPCA aims to increase awareness on the abuse of animals on a global scale, as well as to educate and encourage positive practices in pet parenting, and globally promote spay and neuter programs while keeping in mind the goal of eliminating the need to euthanize animals.