P&G Employees Give Back to Help Our Communities Grow

P&G has had a longstanding partnership with international humanitarian aid and disaster relief organization Matthew 25: Ministries. Together we deliver supplies, including donated P&G personal care and cleaning products, to areas of great need, as well as providing supplies and Tide Loads of Hope laundry services to those who need it most following devastating natural disasters.

Cincinnati-based P&Gers have long been inspired to volunteer with Matthew 25: Ministries in their own backyard, where both organizations are headquartered. Among the first was Fred Pottschmidt, who began volunteering in 1993 as a parishioner of Founder Rev. Wendell Mettey’s church, just a few years after Matthew 25: Ministries was organized. “I wanted to do something where I knew I could make my mark,” says Pottschmidt, who retired from P&G in 2012.

Pottschmidt got his P&G colleagues on board some years later, organizing a once-monthly volunteer group, which has been going strong for more than a decade. P&Gers Donna and John Mulcahy often join the group on Saturdays to sort supplies or pack personal care kits that help people recover from disasters in times of need.

“It makes me feel like I’m doing something useful with my time,” says John, a Director/Principal Scientist. For Donna, a U.S./Canada Supplier Diversity Leader, she says “volunteering has been a great way to meet new friends” since relocating to Cincinnati in 2006. It also inspired her to start a P&G product donation program when she was working for the company as an expat in Singapore.

At the end of a volunteer shift, Pottschmidt says, “I leave here knowing I have made a positive impact on someone that I will never meet — but they’re grateful for what I’ve done.”

Cleaning Up the Ohio River

Nearly 100 employees from P&G’s hometown of Cincinnati joined forces with Living Lands & Waters and its founder, Chad Pregracke, a 2013 CNN Hero of the Year, to remove more than 11,000 pounds of trash from the banks of the Ohio River. This program marked the fifth time the organizations have come together to make a difference in our community and for the surrounding environment. Together, the team removed debris, including a freezer, an old Christmas tree, many tires, a disco ball and much more.

“I look forward to this event every year. While it is hard work, you can see the incredible difference we make at the end of the day. It makes me proud to be a P&G employee,” says Kate Brown, Product Supply Water Sustainability Leader.

Building Homes with Habitat for Humanity

P&G’s Sacramento Plant participated in a local Habitat for Humanity Build Day and brought its entire team to volunteer. The team organized into three groups to work on various activities for three different houses. They also worked with and met many other volunteers, including the Sacramento Habitat team and Habitat’s Board of Directors for the Greater Sacramento Area.

The 13-home development in need of volunteers was only two miles away from the plant. The team shared: “It was very touching and inspiring to see our efforts go to deserving families in our own community.”

A few members from the build team recently had the honor of attending the home dedication ceremonies where two of three homes they worked on were featured. After seeing its impact, the Sacramento Plant is excited to participate in its next home build.

Providing Supplies to Help #EndPeriodPoverty

Currently, 1 in 4 women in Greater Cincinnati struggle to afford period care supplies, and there is only one period bank in the community. As a cause that many of our employees are deeply passionate about, local P&G employees dedicated their time and packing talents to benefit the nonprofit, Tidal Babe Period Bank, to help end period poverty in the Greater Cincinnati area.

Tidal Babe Period Bank works directly with Greater Cincinnati social service agencies, hospitals, schools and obstetrics and gynecology offices to provide period supplies to people in need.

With a goal to complete 1,000 period kits in two hours, the team of P&Gers beat their target and packed 1,143 period kits that included over 20,000 donated Always pads. These period kits provided one month of period care for households in need in the Cincinnati community.

Through these Acts of Good by P&Gers across the country and many more, we’ve witnessed how seemingly small but consistent actions can make a really big impact. Learn more about the Acts of Good being done by our dedicated employees and our trusted brands here working with many of our long-time partners.

Together, we can do more good. Join us at P&G Good Everyday to multiply these Acts of Good and help more communities grow.