Meals Per Hours brings hope to areas impacted by Hurricane Sandy #sponsored #mealsperhour

Toyota has partnered with the Food Bank For New York City to feed the people who were impacted by Hurricane Sandy. The program called  Meals Per Hour, brought together a team from the Toyota Production System Support Center (TSSC) to brainstorm on how increase the meals per hour so more people could be fed.

By looking at the current system and then tweaking it, the Toyota team was able to bring up the numbers of meals made from 25 per hour to 450 an hour. That is fantastic! Because of this, they were able to provide 250,000 emergency meals to people in need. It proved that by taking time and trying to seek a better solution, you can make a huge impact.

I try to do this in my life as well. I know that by trying to work more efficiently, I can do more with my time. I used to work at a homeless shelter and we used to also feed the needy. Our organization actually had a restaurant in our office building where we would feed our clients. Unfortunately, it only held 50-60 at one given time.

When Hurricane Jeanne hit South Florida, we knew that we had to feed not only our current clients but anyone who came to our door for a hot meal. Our space was not sufficient so, as a staff, we brainstormed and realized that it would be more efficient to set up the buffet line outside under tents instead of trying to feed people from our restaurant. We set up double tables in a long row so we had two feeding stations instead of one.  By deciding to change the location of the food and making the feeding line more efficient, we fed double the people. Again, a small change made a huge impact.

I am proud to be able to talk to you about this program. I am a supporter of any company or organization that tries to create better circumstances for people in need. It is important for all of us to be aware that you can make a difference in people's lives just by donating money, donating your time or spreading awareness. Small gestures can make a huge difference.

During the Toyota effort, a documentary by Supermarché was made to show what changes Toyota made and why these changes matter. It is pretty fascinating. You need to watch it. Not only because of how interesting it is but because for each video view, Toyota will also donate one meal to Food Bank For New York City, up to 1,000,000 meals by July 19. See, even from the comfort on your own home, you can make a difference. So what are you waiting for? Hit play.


Follow the participants on Twitter to keep updated on the Meals Per Hours Program.
And spread the word because that one click will feed someone in need!! 

@Toyota

 Hashtag: #MealsPerHour

 Supermarché Filmmakers: @henryandrel

Food Bank: @foodbank4nyc

Disclosure: “This post was written as part of my sponsored partnership with the Stiletto Media Blogger Network.”