"Packing 1 million meals is a monumental milestone and as a global airline we are thrilled to partner with Rise Against Hunger to make an impact in communities in need across the world," said Jake Cefolia, United's senior vice president of worldwide sales. "Our annual sales conference brought together more than 800 United team members from 53 countries, providing us with an incredible opportunity for an impactful service project."
During the packing event, United employees assembled 100,000 meals to reach the goal of 1 million meals packed by the airline in partnership with Rise Against Hunger. The meal packs included enriched rice, soy protein, dried vegetables and 23 essential vitamins and nutrients to provide a comprehensive array of micronutrients. The airline plans to continue engaging even more employees with Rise Against Hunger throughout the year, with plans to pack a minimum of ninety thousand more meals by the end of 2019.
"United Airlines and their employees have been an integral part of our movement to end world hunger," said Kate Day, interim CEO & President, Rise Against Hunger. "Through financial commitment and bringing together over 4,000 global employees to package 1 million meals, United has helped nourish the lives of 10,000 people in critical need for a full year in communities across South and Central America, Africa and Asia."
As the official airline partner of Rise Against Hunger, United employees have been packing meals for the organization since 2017. Employees from around the world have spent more than five thousand hours volunteering through meal packing and meal distribution events. Countries of impact have included Nicaragua, India, Zambia, Haiti, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Honduras among others.
Every customer. Every flight. Every day.
In 2019, United is focusing more than ever on its commitment to its customers, looking at every aspect of its business to ensure that the carrier keeps customers' best interests at the heart of its service. In addition to today's announcement, United recently announced that luxury skincare line Sunday Riley will make products exclusively for United customers to experience in amenity kits, released a re-imagined version of the most downloaded app in the airline industry, introduced ConnectionSaver, a new tool dedicated to improving the experience for customers connecting from one United flight to the next and made DIRECTV free for every passenger on 211 aircraft, offering more than 100 channels on seat back monitors on more than 30,000 seats.