As part of our tradition of giving back to the communities in which we live and practice, Best & Flanagan celebrated Do Some Good Day on October 4. This year’s fundraising and volunteer efforts were in support of two organizations dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty for families and young people, and those struggling with homelessness making transitions into stable housing.
Urban Ventures primarily serves south Minneapolis, with a mission of ending urban poverty. Urban Ventures provides resources for persons in need in many areas. They strive to determine “opportunity gaps in academics, nutrition, physical activity, parenting resources, and more—all with the overarching goal to prepare and send every youth in our neighborhood to college or postsecondary education.” On the nutrition front, they grow their own food at an urban farm and then provide fresh produce to the community. Our volunteers helped to prepare various garden beds by stomping down the soil, shoveling, and adding topsoil for planting. It was physical labor but a beautiful day!
The Link was founded by former Minnesota Vikings players, Jim Marshall and Oscar Reed, to help youth who are struggling with poverty, homelessness, or at risk of involvement in the juvenile justice system. They have 28 programs that provide supportive housing, intensive case management services, and skills development to empower youth and young families to overcome the impacts of poverty and social injustice. Our volunteers prepared a healthy meal in their community kitchen and packed individual servings that were labeled and frozen for the youth and young families who need access to such meals each month.
Additionally, dozens of individual donors at the firm purchased over 200 household and pantry items as part of a resource drive supporting The Link. Even more volunteers packed these items into household kits and delivered them in time for a weekend full of move-ins. By Monday, October 9, all of the meals we prepared and the items we collected had been distributed to the youth in our community.
For this year’s Do Some Good Day, our monetary and in-kind contributions totaled more than $3,000. We are proud to partner with and support the work these organizations are doing and contribute to their efforts directly impacting our communities.
