After canceling employee lunches, Lockheed Martin buys 39,000 meals for the needy
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics employees aren’t getting treated to their traditional end-of-year company lunch celebrations, because of the pandemic.
But the Fort Worth company, which is best known for manufacturing the F-35 stealth fighter aircraft, is taking the money it would have spent on employee lunches and instead providing 39,000 meals for the needy.
“Because of the pandemic, we knew that bringing employees together in large gatherings is not a wise choice, so we made the decision to do the right thing — support the communities where we live and work,” said Kenneth Ross, company spokesman.
The meals will not be delivered during Thanksgiving week because the organizations that will help Lockheed Martin deliver the food say they already have plenty of help during that time. Instead, Lockheed Martin’s food donations will be delivered this week, and the weeks after Thanksgiving — likely through mid-December.
Lockheed Martin’s meals will include easy-to-prepare edibles such as salads and sandwiches, Ross said.
Organizations teaming up with Lockheed Martin to deliver the meals include:
▪ Boys & Girls Club of Fort Worth, 10,000 meals.
▪ Presbyterian Night Shelter, 16,000 meals.
▪ Ronald McDonald House, 1,200 meals.
▪ Salvation Army, 4,000 meals.
▪ Union Gospel Mission, 4,000 meals.
▪ When We Love, 4,000 meals.
“The sack lunches that are provided by Lockheed Martin will make a significant difference for the Presbyterian Night Shelter because we will use these each day to serve lunch to our homeless guests staying at the shelter,” Toby Owen, chief executive officer at Presbyterian Night Shelter, said in an email.
The shelter provides about 500 to 650 meals a day, he said.
Lockheed Martin didn’t provide a cost estimate of the donated meals. The money was redirected after company officials realized they couldn’t hold traditional employee lunches, at a time when gatherings are discouraged because of the spread of COVID.
About 20,500 people work for Lockheed Martin in North Texas, including the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics facility headquartered in Fort Worth and the missile and fire control plant in Grand Prairie. (Lockheed Martin’s corporate headquarters is in Bethesda, Md.)
At the Fort Worth plant, about half of the employees are working from home, Ross said.
In addition to making good use of the company’s food funds, Lockheed Martin also was interested in offering a hand to Compass Group, its contracted food service provider. Compass Group operates a cafe and other catering services at the Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth campus, but demand for on-site meals is way down because so many workers are doing their jobs at home.
This story was originally published November 18, 2020 at 5:30 AM.
