{"id":244,"date":"2015-04-30T03:12:34","date_gmt":"2015-04-30T03:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/challengedetroit.org\/blog\/jessicawang\/?p=244"},"modified":"2015-04-30T03:12:34","modified_gmt":"2015-04-30T03:12:34","slug":"april-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/april-2\/","title":{"rendered":"#MangoGivesBack"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seven months ago, I walked into my host company Mango Languages with an open mind, few expectations, and ideas. A lot of them.\u00a0Some were good, some were great, and many were mediocre at best.\u00a0\u00a0Lucky for me,\u00a0new ideas are welcome\u00a0at Mango. Whether\u00a0your ideas are good or great (less so for the mediocre ones),\u00a0as a\u00a0Mango you are encouraged to take initiative and embrace your entrepreneurial spirit. Lucky for me (again), when\u00a0the idea came to me to\u00a0increase Mango’s philanthropic efforts<\/strong>, I was told to go for it.<\/p>\n

Seven months later, we’ve donated 1 shelf, 1 table,\u00a03 Kindle Fires with preloaded Mango software, 5 filing cabinets, 13 office chairs, 51 chairs, 65 water bottles, 383 tote bags, $400, 507 pounds of food, 1,818 t-shirts, 2,733 pens, and 11,299 pencils.\u00a0Our donations have gone to support several incredible non-profits in the metro Detroit region, many of which I was introduced to through the Challenge Detroit network: Freedom House, Coalition on Temporary Shelter, Gleaners Food Bank, Michigan Urban Farming Initiative, Youth Energy Squad, Alternatives for Girls, Detroit Achievement Academy and Detroit Public Schools.\u00a0Pretty impressive stats\u00a0for a 65-person team!<\/p>\n

Recognizing\u00a0our potential for impact, I wanted to take my idea a step further. Having increased our philanthropy exponentially through donations, I now shifted my efforts to\u00a0engaging my coworkers through hands-on service.\u00a0On April 29th, my ideas came to fruition (pun intended) as we\u00a0launched\u00a0our\u00a0first ever Mango Community Day<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

The sun shone as we kicked off our day volunteering at Gleaners Food Bank<\/a>, sorting and distributing food donations in the warehouse.\u00a0Each year, Gleaners<\/span> provides<\/span> over 34 million pounds of emergency food<\/span> to 500+ partner soup kitchens, shelters and pantries in Southeastern Michigan.<\/p>\n

\"Mangos<\/a>

Mangos launch the day sorting food at Gleaners<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Marco<\/a>

Marco hauling\u00a0cereal<\/p><\/div>\n

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Next, we headed downtown for a delicious catered lunch at Colors<\/a>, a restaurant with great local food and an even greater social mission –\u00a0training returning and unemployed Detroiters with restaurant skills. Mangos were raving about the home-cooked\u00a0vegetarian lasagna for days afterwards!<\/p>\n

\"Downtown<\/a>

Downtown Detroit from atop a parking deck<\/p><\/div>\n

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\"About<\/a>

About to dig in at Colors<\/p><\/div>\n

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Following lunch, we were privileged to get a tour of the historic Carr Center<\/a>\u00a0(occupying the upper floors of the building\u00a0Colors is housed in) by executive director Oliver Ragsdale. The Carr Center is an art gallery, performance venue and community space focused on celebrating African American art and culture. Oliver shared stories of the Carr Center’s illustrious past, told us about its\u00a0current uses and community initiatives,\u00a0and even took us to the third floor where we got to see its breathtaking theater\u00a0built in 1895!<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The Carr Center is the only theater in Detroit that has windows!<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mangos<\/a>

Mangos at the Carr Center<\/p><\/div>\n

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After our tour, we headed over to the\u00a0Michigan Urban Farming Initiative (MUFI)<\/a>\u00a0for an afternoon of gardening activity.\u00a0MUFI seeks to empower communities through urban agriculture, as a platform to promote education, sustainability and community. Based in Detroit’s North End, they focus on grassroots projects and are 100% powered by volunteers (click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0to learn about their current projects).\u00a0At MUFI, Mangos helped out with sorting seeds, weeding, and hauling equipment.<\/p>\n

\"Works<\/a>

Works in progress at MUFI<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Beautiful<\/a>

Beautiful mint growing at MUFI<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Mangos<\/a>

Mangos sorting seeds in MUFI’s hoop house<\/p><\/div>\n

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All in all, we Mangos had an excellent day engaging with the community. Throughout the day, I was filled with gratitude for the opportunity to connect 1) my positive, open-minded coworkers with 2) mission-driven community initiatives in 3) the beautiful city I am proud to live in: Detroit. I am so lucky to work at a host company that supports my ideas and encourages me to take action.\u00a0Thanks to Mango, what\u00a0originated as a mere thought ended up blossoming into a fruitful\u00a0initiative, that I hope will continue far into the future. Here’s to\u00a0many more Mango Community Days to come!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seven months ago, I walked into my host company Mango Languages with an open mind, few expectations, and ideas. A lot of them.\u00a0Some were good, some were great, and many were mediocre at best.\u00a0\u00a0Lucky for me,\u00a0new ideas are welcome\u00a0at Mango. Whether\u00a0your ideas are good or great (less so for the mediocre ones),\u00a0as a\u00a0Mango you are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":185,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/185"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.challengedetroit.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}