Hallmark builds upon its lifelong support of ATH

Hallmark’s involvement with After the Harvest goes back to our roots. 

It began with Sally Luck, Director of Corporate Services at Hallmark, who also served as founding board president of ATH’s Board of Directors — and remained on the board for six years. 

Recently, Luck passed the baton to Emily Akins, who now serves as secretary of ATH’s Board of Directors. 

“I’ve been involved in food activism in Kansas City for a while, and I’ve also worked in sustainability,” Akins said. “My favorite thing about ATH is that it solves two problems with one solution. I love that it’s got such a deep impact, keeping high quality waste out of the landfill and redirecting it to people that need it and utilize it as nutrition. It’s a genius solution.”

Akins recently took on an additional role with ATH, serving on the marketing committee of our 2022 Amaizing Sweet Corn Glean-A-Thon & Festival. In addition to her help planning the event, Hallmark also sponsored the event and provided a volunteer team to help glean the sweet corn fields of Riverview Farm in Lawrence, Kan.

Community involvement is an important part of the company’s culture. 

“Caring is the ethos at Hallmark,” said Alison Manthei, National Community Impact Manager at Hallmark Corporate Foundation. “It’s what we try to infuse into everything. We’re creating products that we want to connect people to one another, but we take that a step further in our community involvement, and truly encourage – and I think help find the right fit for how that comes to life for each individual Hallmarker too.”

Every year, Hallmark employees participate in roughly a dozen community involvement activities organized by the company’s philanthropic division. Additionally, Hallmark connects people with opportunities to give back and connect its employees to boards and organizations they have special interest in.

“Last year, despite the fact that it was a pandemic year, we logged over 30,000 volunteer hours in the community, which is just incredible,” Manthei said. 

Hallmark formed a three-person team for the 2022 Amaizing Sweet Corn Glean-A-Thon, not only harvesting 613 pounds of fresh produce for donation, but personally delivering 200 pounds to our partner agencies. And naturally, Hallmark took home the award for Most Creative Team.