Black Hills Energy employees in Council Bluffs, Iowa, recently led a food drive that brought in more than 1,300 pounds of food for their food insecure neighbors.

Iowa Ambassadors organized the event, with food donations going to the Food Bank for the Heartland. Ambassadors are Black Hills Energy employees who opt to develop their leadership skills through community involvement.

A friendly competition made things more interesting. Employees at the Council Bluffs facility of Iowa Gas were split into three teams. They used a point system based on food items that are in high demand at the food pantry. Bonus points were awarded if certain food items came in as a set; for example, in the breakfast category, cereal was worth 3 points, pancake mix worth 2 points and canned fruit worth 2 points, but if the three items came in together they counted for 10 points.

Teams could either collect food items to donate or collect money to purchase food items for donation. The winning team blew away the competition with their smart buy: their strategy provided 976 food items worth 2,231 points!

Did you know 41 percent of food collected for the food insecure comes from corporate donations? In all, the Council Bluffs crew collected 1,392 items that weighed 1,362 pounds and will provide 1,135 meals to community members in need.

While competition is fun, the good we are able to accomplish together was the most important part of this project. Well done team!

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