Nutricia North America, an organization that focuses on medical nutrition, honoured us recently with a donation from their annual Peak2Peak challenge.
Sabina Pampena, Specialty Territory and Key Account Manager at Nutricia North America, spoke to us about their Peak2Peak initiative and why they chose to support food allergy awareness and education.
Can you tell us a little bit about Nutricia?
Nutricia is a world- wide organization that specializes in different areas of medical nutrition. Our biggest portfolio of products is in specialized pediatrics. This product line was developed for both children and infants with cow’s milk allergy, multiple food allergies, or related disorders like Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EOE), Food Protein-Induced Enterocolitis Syndrome (FPIES) and other conditions that require specialized nutrition. We are very involved in food allergy, so that’s why we selected Food Allergy Canada for the Peak2Peak Challenge.
What’s the Peak2Peak Challenge?
Every year we do a North American company-wide event called the Peak2Peak Challenge, which is a combination of a fitness challenge and a healthy competition via our internal social media platform. The goal of the Challenge is to raise money and give back to the community.
This year the challenge lasted 45 days and we virtually climbed five mountains. As we’re a North American company with offices in the US and Canada, our Canadian employees selected to make the donation to Food Allergy Canada. In the US, we donated to the Children Medical Nutrition Alliance.
The entire North American organization was asked to participate on a voluntary basis and we had a high rate of participation. There were weekly challenges, and everyone had to complete one challenge to move onto the next mountain. To track our daily progress, we used Fitbits to track the steps we took in order to move to the next challenge. Our team was really motivated and successfully completed the challenge, raising $15,000 for North America. Some of the funds were raised externally, however a large chunk was provided internally by the company as per our climbing successes.
The challenge not only raised funds but allowed us as a company to actively participate while getting active. We were able to post our company successes on our company Facebook page daily which kept everyone motivated and engaged and provided community and team spirit.
Why did the Canadian Nutricia office decide to donate to Food Allergy Canada?
We donated to Food Allergy Canada because you are what our reason for being is. A lot of us have children or close family members who have food allergies and we also support customers with food allergies every day. A lot of us are dietitians so we understand the dynamics of food allergies and how much it impacts families.
Is Nutricia actively involved in supporting the food allergy community in other ways?
Yes, we have products as well as resources that we have developed for the families of the patients who have food allergies, and we call it “footsteps”. We have resources such as how to explain food allergies to families and grandparents, and tips for when your child is invited to a birthday party. We have videos with parents sharing stories about their experiences. We also have recipes and work with different chefs to be innovative with our products. We provide people with the resources they need to help live an allergy-safe life.
Thank you, Sabina and Nutricia’s Canadian office, for selecting Food Allergy Canada as your charity of choice! This is a great example of how a team can “climb mountains” and give back to causes that are important!
Find out how your organization can fundraise for Food Allergy Canada.
Tags: corporate giving, Donation, ways to give