gap intelligence strives to do our very best to support the local community and those in need. Through our community outreach team, the 3Ts, we attempt to do just that. 3Ts stands for Time, Talent, and Treasure and is our way to give back to others. The committee’s goal is to inspire community impact through charitable opportunities. The team has recently faced some setbacks and therefore cancelled some events, such as our Drives for Rides golf tournament, directly benefiting the Emilio Nares Foundation (ENF). However, the 3Ts team sought out new opportunities– one initiative being Feeding the Frontlines. I interviewed the new Committee Chair (and my friend), Jen Osborn, to discuss what the team has done and is planning to do for the rest of 2020 and beyond.
Q: What are your current goals are as the new Committee Chair of 3Ts?
My number one goal is to push employees to utilize their values-led day. We encourage people to take one paid day off to help our local community. This can be done by volunteering at a food drive, volunteering at a local prison through Defy Ventures, or perhaps a virtual volunteer opportunity as social distancing is still a mandate. We hope that these opportunities will inspire people to do more.
Q: Tell me more about Feeding the Frontlines?
Feeding the Frontlines started with a conversation that I had with my best friend. She is a nurse at Scripps Hospital, currently working overnight shifts on the COVID-19 and ICU floors. I asked her what we can do as a community to help out the essential workers. She responded saying that hospital morale was low, but food always puts a smile on the faces of the staff. We then decided that we needed to bring in some food deliveries. Just as we gappers get so excited when we have Snack Attack every Wednesday in the office, we wanted to bring that joy to the workers as well.
The 3Ts connected with 3 local hospitals to make sure we met protocol and sanitation regulations: Scripps Mercy Hospital – Chula Vista, Scripps Mercy Hospital – Hillcrest, and UC San Diego Medical Center – Hillcrest. After that was done, we coordinated with two local taco shops: Don Pedro’s Taco Shop in Chula Vista and Las Brasas Taco Shop in San Diego.
We not only met our goal, but exceeded with flashing lights. Our goal was to not only feed these hospital staff members, but also to create awareness of support for the community. We did just that. Don Pedro’s went out of their way to schedule two more of their own food deliveries because they were so inspired by gap’s generosity. This made me so excited to see a snowball effect of generosity happening.
Q: What are the 3Ts’ plans for the rest of the year?
We knew our impact would be strained in the first half of this year due to stay at home orders and social distancing, but by shifting our focus to Feeding the Frontlines, we came out of the first half successful nonetheless.
For the second half of this year, we may not be able to host our regularly scheduled events such as the annual blood drive with the San Diego Blood Bank and our beach cleanup, but some events are still guaranteed to happen. In the final quarter of the year, we will launch a food drive in coordination with the San Diego Food Bank. We tested an online food drive along with the normal food drop off last year, and that proved to be a success, so we do not see anything standing on our path to triumph. We also hope to hold our regularly scheduled toy drive to support the local families, through ENF, around the holiday season to conclude the year.
I really appreciate Jen speaking to me about what the current goals for 3Ts. It is inspiring to see the team working so hard on community outreach programs during these hesitant times. It goes along with our gap culture motto: “Do great for each other, our clients, and our community.” I look forward to the rest of the year and putting smiles on others’ faces.
Feeling inspired? Want to help us Do Great for our Community? Head over to enfhope.org and make a donation.
