- July 15, 2026
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All Faiths Food Bank, the area's primary provider of hunger relief for Sarasota and DeSoto counties, had refrigerated vans on its wish list.
On July 15, staff from the food bank gathered at the headquarters of Boar's Head in Downtown Sarasota to celebrate that wish become reality.
The Circle of Friends fundraising campaign at Boar's Head, the national provider of deli meats and cheeses, raised more than $100,000 for the organization.
Staff overshot their target, allowing the food bank to acquire not one refrigerated van but two, a result Boar's Head chose to keep as a surprise for its employees to experience at the event.
All Faiths Food Bank's president and CEO Nelle Miller called the donation "an amazing gift for All Faiths Food Bank."
"The spirit and the corporate culture and the generosity of the entire company, from top down, down top, has been unbelievable," she said. "They are true partners."
She says the gift means the organization can reach populations it could not before.
She says approximately 43% of Sarasota's community could be considered food insecure at any given time, while DeSoto County, although it has a much smaller population, has a higher rate.
The refrigerated trucks already in use by the food bank have limitations that include access due to their size, with the need for driveways and loading docks.
Now, the organization does not need to send a semi-trailer truck to bring a pallet of food to a church to serve 20 families.
"This will enable us to work with smaller partners and agencies that we can't currently get to because they're just too many, and they're too small," Miller said. "So we'll be able to go to the church that only has 20 families, or we'll be able to go to a smaller social service agency that only has 50 neighbors working with it, so it will really allow us to penetrate parts of the community that we just can't."
The vans can be driven by existing staff, including those with regular licenses. If the loads exceed the weight allowed under a regular license, staff members just have to pass a medical exam.
Boar's Head's employee-led Circle of Friends campaign began in 2019 after the company's head of cybersecurity, Jay Koopman, died of brain cancer.
The campaign, originally established for the benefit of the Cancer Institute at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, now focuses on the areas of hunger relief, healthcare and education.
Staff raised over $1 million since its establishment, said Amanda Eyer, the company's director of internal communications and community relations.
"I would say it's 100%," she said when asked about employee participation. "Employees are fiercely engaged unless they're on leave or on vacation."
She said individual employees are usually engaged in multiple causes within the campaign.
This year's main fundraiser was an auction, for which employees volunteered to acquire items from throughout the community. Some obtained gift certificates, while others made laser-engraved wooden sculptures or baked goods.
The company held a raffle for paid time off, which gave away six weeks of vacation, and a competition featuring floors with displays that employees created from cans, including an etch-a-sketch featuring 1,400 cans.
"It's amazing," Eyer said of the results. "We're extremely proud of the impact that it's going to make in the community, and also how every single employee participated in one way or another, and sometimes we've got employees that are doing multiple things, and so it feels really rewarding to see all of that come together and pay off."
Last year they worked with Emma E. Booker Elementary, a local Title I school, and also overshot their goal, ultimately building two sensory rooms for the school instead of the one they planned.
They plan to work with All Faiths Food Bank again in 2027.
