Peco Teams Up with Together We Foster to Support Families in Crisis

For the past two years, Peco team members at the Pocahontas complex have volunteered at Together We Foster, a northeast Arkansas organization that supports anyone involved in the foster care reunification process. This includes foster children, their foster parents and their biological families, as well as families with open Protective Service Cases with the local Department of Human Services.

“It’s part of our social responsibility to care for our communities,” says April Hall, sustainability supervisor at the Pocahontas complex. “At Together We Foster, they are trying to take care of everyone. So, when we help them, they help so many others, and I just feel like it all comes together.”

At Peco Foods, sustainability is not just about taking responsibility for the company’s effects on the environment. Peco team members strive to have a positive impact on their community, too.

“Yes, we do sustainability from a traditional sense with things like recycling, wastewater treatment and water reuse, but how we approach sustainability is multifaceted,” says Brad Shelton, plant manager at the Pocahontas complex.

This center is fueled entirely by volunteers and includes a visitation center, a clothing closet and a Manna Meals freezer – which contains easy-to-cook frozen meals that families can pick up when needed.

Teams from Peco have volunteered with Together We Foster’s Pocahontas location to help organize the clothing closet, which offers free clothes to families in need, and they have helped clean and sanitize the visitation room and kitchen. Peco has also donated items for silent auctions and other fundraisers to support Together We Foster, along with sponsoring the organization’s annual gala.

“To have the support of companies like Peco has been amazing, and not just financially,” says Debra Lyles Benedict, a Together We Foster board member who runs the family resource center at the organization’s Pocahontas location.

“All of our board members, except for our executive director, work a fulltime job outside of this, and so we donate our after-hours time to these centers,” Benedict explains.

When Peco team members come in to help clean and organize the center, it frees up time for Benedict and the board to focus on the families they serve.

“We don’t have the resources to hire help, so having their support has helped a lot,” Benedict adds.

One Peco team member has gone above and beyond. After volunteering at Together We Foster with a team from Peco, Stephanie Pitcher decided to serve on her own. She’s prepared baked goods and purchased items to be auctioned at the organization’s fundraiser. When Peco gave team members free chicken for the holidays, Pitcher donated her portion to Together We Foster for its Manna Meals freezer and encouraged others in the Pocahontas production department to do the same.

“She’s a huge supporter, and she’s been a huge asset to me,” Benedict says of Pitcher.

Pitcher also has made volunteering a family affair. She and her 17-year-old daughter have helped wrap over 50 holiday gifts for Together We Foster families.

Pitcher, who’s worked with Peco Foods for three years, is grateful that Peco helped connect her to Together We Foster and feels that giving back to this organization is a way for her to serve her entire community. “Those kids need extra love and attention, and I also like to help the parents get on their feet by doing what I do,” Pitcher says. “They just need a little extra push. And if I can help them be a better parent, then it’s worth it.”