Each year, Levi Strauss & Co. employees across the globe give both time and money to the causes they care about.
In 2021, employees donated more than $1.5 million in 36 countries to support over 1,200 community organizations like Doctors Without Borders, San Francisco-Marin Food Bank, Direct Relief, World Wildlife Fund, Homeless Prenatal Program and our very own Red Tab Foundation. What’s more impressive? Most employees managed to give back while navigating an evolving pandemic.
Helping Our Communities Recover
After volunteering shifted almost exclusively to virtual opportunities in 2020, COVID-19 continued creating obstacles for volunteers throughout 2021. And yet despite these obstacles, employees still rolled up their jeans to help nonprofits recover and transition to a new reality. Collectively, corporate, retail and distribution employees clocked 12,871 hours (or about one and a half years!) of volunteer service, doubling the total 2020 volunteer hours. They helped the elderly in Prague, animal shelters in Hong Kong, children in Brussels and communities suffering food insecurity in Sao Paulo, Milan, San Francisco, Warsaw and beyond.
In the United States, Store Manager Tanya Kaawa led the charge to join Hawaii Food Bank’s effort to distribute over 25,000 meals. “Hunger and food insecurity skyrocketed in Hawaii because of the pandemic, and I wanted to help, so I organized not just my colleagues at my Levi’s store but other mall employees to volunteer at our local food bank, packing and distributing meals,” Tanya said.
Meanwhile in Asia, Stanley Hung, accounting manager in the finance organization, tapped colleagues to join him in a volunteering event with the Rescue Centre for Abandoned Pets (RCAP) out of Hong Kong. “My team and I were always active in our community pre-pandemic, and this year we wanted to continue giving back to our community in Hong Kong,” Stanley said. “Navigating the pandemic was a challenge, but after a few months of planning and delays, we were able to support our much-needed local animal shelter.”
In Europe, community ambassadors from 13 cities organized volunteer projects to help local organizations serve their clients while navigating health measures and pandemic restrictions. “How I make an impact is by being conscious of my community, by trying to help people as much as I can and leading by example, said Victoria Baquerizo Lozano, a paralegal based in our Brussels office. “That’s why as soon as it was possible, I got my team together to volunteer in Brussels.”
Bernadette Tabangcura, a community ambassador from the Philippines, made a point to rally global ambassadors to do their part locally. “Each one of us has a role to play in terms of encouraging each other in supporting issues that matter to us,” she said. “As long as you take that first step, that will make a difference.”
