Comcast employees step up support for local Camp Out for Hunger food drive

Our employees embody our company’s value of improving the communities where we live and work. They demonstrate this year-round from company-led initiatives such as Comcast Cares Day to employee-driven volunteer projects. No matter what, one common theme is clear: When there’s a call to help a community, colleague or cause in need, our employees step up to answer that call.

One local initiative our employees enjoy participating in each year is the Preston & Steve Show’s Camp Out for Hunger, the largest single-location food drive in the country. This food drive, which just marked its 21st year, benefits Philabundance, a nonprofit food bank that serves Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley.

Comcast has a long-term advertising partnership with WMMR’s Preston & Steve Show, the number one morning radio show in Philadelphia. Through this relationship we have developed many unique ties to Camp Out for Hunger over the past five years including:

• Xfinity Live! hosts the Camp Out for Hunger, where the radio team broadcasts from a large tent in the parking lot, encouraging the public to watch their live broadcasts while dropping off donations (or purchase goods to donate on-site through ACME).
• A week-long event of this size, including daily live broadcasts, would not be possible without connectivity powered by Comcast Business; services that are offered complementary. Our technicians put a lot of work into ensuring their show runs smoothly.
• Xfinity is a contributing sponsor of the Camp Out for Hunger.
• All food donations benefit Philabundance, a Community Impact partner of ours.
• Comcast Spectacor, NBC Sports Philadelphia, NBC10 and Xfinity Live! patrons and talent participate during the food drive.

As a company, we are proud to contribute to this initiative in these areas alone; however, we wanted to do more. We wanted to do our part in reducing the number of people who deal with food insecurity every day.

For the past few years, Freedom employees have set up collection bins at tech ops facilities, call centers, warehouse and office locations throughout the region. In 2016 and 2017, employees donated more than 10,000 pounds of food each year.

But this year, 15 Xfinity-branded trucks delivered the generous donations from employees across the region. Camp Out for Hunger volunteers helped unload truck after truck and in the end, we exceeded our goal donating 16,000 pounds – or 8 tons – of food. Our biggest year yet was also Camp Out for Hunger’s biggest year yet. Overall, they collected 1.82 million pounds – or 913 tons – of food for Philabundance.

“I am incredibly proud of our employees who selflessly answer the call to give back time and time again,” said Jim Samaha, senior vice president for Comcast’s Freedom Region. “It’s our collective strength that makes our team really special – and that includes giving back to the communities in which we live and work.”

We are already looking forward to making a bigger impact in 2019!

Employees from across the region, including one of the many CommOps teams pictured here, rallied together to help Preston & Steve in their Camp Out for Hunger mission to feed our neighbors in need.

Comcasters, including many technicians, who helped deliver our 16,000 pound food donation to Philabundance – pictured backstage during Camp Out for Hunger 2018.

Freedom Region’s own Robert Jones, VP of Technical Operations, joined Jennifer Bilotta, VP of Public Relations, for a live interview on 93.3 WMMR’s Preston & Steve show to announce our donation total – 16,000 pounds (8 tons) of food! They also talked about how our employees stepped up to bring in all this food and more. We also gave Xfinity Mobile hats to the crowd.