Thermo King Americas' IT team earns award from MATTER

The MATTERbox Madness results are in, the champions crowned, and Thermo King Americas’ IT team is at the top of the ranks! This dedicated group recently earned the MATTERbox Madness 2022 “Furthest Distance Award” for not only participating in a competition to support a great cause but doing it from 13 different states AND Puerto Rico. 

For the last eight years, MATTER, a Minnesota-based nonprofit organization, has focused on leveraging healthcare, education, and agriculture to make a difference for neighbors and families in need. One of MATTER'S goals is to expand access to healthy food for families in innovative and nontraditional ways. To help meet that goal, the organization hosts an annual MATTERbox Madness competition where employees from various organizations compete to pack nutritious snacks for children. The snack packs give children access to healthy food items during the summer months when they aren’t in school. 

Supporting the local community

This year, Thermo King employees were looking for ways to team build and support their local communities simultaneously, and the MATTERbox Madness competition caught the eye of Dominic Hand, vice president of IT, Thermo King Americas.

“I was introduced to this event from someone in my network who previously partnered with MATTER. When I heard that the competition aligned with our goals—while also providing an opportunity for friendly competition with other companies in the community, my team decided to give it a shot. And we had a lot of fun with it,” shared Dominic Hand. “The competition was a hybrid event, which fit well with our future of work—some employees competed onsite in Minneapolis and others participated from their homes around our strategic business unit. MATTER sent the needed materials directly to the participants.”

The packing event was held in real-time—with participants packing the snack packs simultaneously while connected by video through Microsoft Teams.

Participants from the United States and Puerto Rico

“We had 34 participants who spanned 13 states plus Arecibo, divided into seven teams for an additional internal competition,” added Dominic Hand. 

This year’s competition resulted in 10,000 healthy snack pack donations to organizations and local communities in the thirteen states and Puerto Rico where they were packed. Participating in this volunteer activity supports our goal of logging 500,000 employee volunteer hours as part of our 2030 sustainability commitments. 

Congratulations to the team for earning this award, and more importantly, for making a difference in your communities!