When Taneesha Greaves, a retail manager for Sodexo at the Keeyask generating station construction camp in Northern Manitoba, helped organize a sandwich-making event, she didn’t think it would lead to an award.
“I was kind of thrown into it last-minute,” says Greaves, whose post-secondary major was nutritional sciences. Not long after starting work with Sodexo at Keeyask in November 2018, she was given the task of helping organize a food drive for Sodexo’s Stop Hunger Foundation, a charitable organization. “We had, I think, over 70 volunteers contribute to sandwich-making and the food drive. We were able to round up about 700 sandwiches and meals which were donated to Wapanohk School in Thompson as well as the Thomson Homeless Shelter.”
For those efforts, and for her work in organizing another food drive that collected 550 kilograms of non-perishable items as well as a putting on a nutrition education and physical activity summer camp last August, Greaves was one of three Sodexo employees in Canada to receive Hero of Everyday Life awards from Stop Hunger in January. Jennifer Merrett in Ottawa and Trudy MacKenzie in Sherbrooke, Quebec were the other award recipients.
“It’s very exciting and honouring to get the award from Sodexo but a huge shout out and thank you to my team at Keeyask – retail, wellness and everyone else that was involved in the planning and execution of events,” said Greaves, who accepted her award at a gala in Burlington, Ontario. “We had lots of people involved in every single event and I think we were able to make a pretty big impact and learn a lot throughout the year so my name might be on the award but it was absolutely a team effort.”
More rewarding than being recognized for her efforts, which helped feed 1,700 children, is having the chance to contribute to the region where the Keeyask camp is located, Greaves said.
“I think the best part of it all was being able to go into the communities specifically and not just run these initiatives on the back end and say, ‘Here you go,’” she says. “As much as we want to make a difference to any given community, the communities also make a difference on us as a business and as people and as a team.”
As part of the award, Greaves received a grant of $2,000 to be donated to the charity of her choice. She chose Canadian Feed the Children, which helps alleviate hunger among kids in Canada and abroad.
“That’s what I’m all about and would love to continue to contribute to,” Greaves said.
