This holiday season, Amazon supported people experiencing homelessness in Salt Lake City by giving a $25,000 check and $5,000 of in-kind donations to Volunteers of America Utah.
Volunteers of America (VOA) has 10 facilities in the Salt Lake City area and two in Murray. The nonprofit aids the city’s homeless population by providing hot meals, transitional housing and rehabilitation programs.
[Read more: 2019 marked Amazon’s arrival in Utah. Here’s what it promised and what it’s delivered.]
Amazon officials gathered with VOA leaders last month at the Geraldine E. King Women’s Resource Center to present a giant ceremonial $25,000 check. Fulfillment and delivery employees, called “Amazonians” by Amazon’s Salt Lake operations manager Alex Higbee, stayed after the announcements to assist VOA volunteers in sorting and stocking the donated sleeping bags, coats and warm winter items.
“We are continuing to build relationships,” Higbee said after the event.
According to VOA Chief Development Officer Cathleen Sparrow, the gift from Amazon came at a time when donations are crucial for Salt Lake City’s homeless, during the cold winter months. Following their holiday donation drive, VOA Utah was still searching for in-kind donations such as hats, coats, scarves and gloves.
