Chuck Gordon, CEO and Co-Founder of SpareFoot, courtesy photo by SpareFoot
The company has so far brought in more than 800 food items such as cans and other non-perishable goods, which is about four times as much as its goal from last year.
“There has been a major focus this year on monetary donations after speaking with the food bank and learning that for every $1.00 donated they could turn that into 3.5 pounds of food with their different partnerships,” said David Berns, one of the food drives organizers. “Our monetary donations are currently $3,125 which the Capital Area Food Bank will be able to turn into 10,937.5 pounds of food.”
So far, the most popular canned goods donated are corn and green beans.
“I think most people are choosing things they have at their Holiday dinners themselves,” Berns said.
This is the second year SpareFoot has been doing a food drive during the holidays.
In addition to SpareFoot, several other Austin startups joined the CANpaign and are collecting can goods for the Capital Area Food Bank. The other companies include Main Street Hub, The Zebra, BuildASign.com, Digital Union, UnLtd USA, WP Engine, Pingboard and Net Impact Austin.
The team at SpareFoot that raises the most donations gets to decide who at SpareFoot gets to wear a turkey costume for a day.
“With our mantra of work hard, play hard in mind we set to work thinking of some fun ways to make our food drive special this year and ended up with the idea of dividing the company into teams and letting the winning team pick a co-worker to wear a lovely Turkey costume for a day,” Berns said. On Friday at midnight when the final donations are taken, the company will decide who gets to wear the suit, he said.
