Care packages instead of Christmas presents?

For many years now, we at F7 have refrained from sending Christmas presents to our customers. Instead, in recent years we have always tried to set up a campaign for a good cause. Last year, we supported a whole range of charities with donations, which was a lot of fun for everyone (read my colleague Denise's contribution here). This year, due to Putin's war of aggression on Ukraine, the direction was clear for us: Can we somehow support Ukraine?!

The "Humanitarian Aid Ukraine"

A tweet brought a campaign by DHL to my attention. The "Humanitarian Aid Ukraine" is an alliance between DHL and the Ukrainian postal service Ukrposhta. With this campaign, everyone has the opportunity to send aid packages weighing up to 20kg to Ukraine free of charge - and completely free of shipping costs! The Ukrainian post office then forwards the relief supplies to where they are currently most urgently needed. Click here for the campaign: Humanitarian Aid Ukraine.

The "good initiative" of F7

I presented this "good initiative" in our next Lean Coffee and the response was mostly positive. So we found our F7 action for this Christmas surprisingly quickly.

What is a shopping trolley doing in our agency?

When I came into the office on Wednesday morning, I was astonished. So we've been stealing shopping trolleys from our neighbourhood supermarket lately? In the middle of the corridor of F7 there was a large shopping trolley with numerous products of daily life and in our conference room there was a cheerful hustle and bustle of good-humoured colleagues sorting products on the conference table. So the beginning was made, even if there were still many products missing, that was clear to everyone. And don't worry, dear reader, the shopping trolley found its way back to the supermarket, it was just practical to "borrow" it for a short time for transport :-)

After packing a first test package, we decided how many packages we wanted to send, which was 20. In the following days, the ordered shipping boxes arrived and the remaining products were also purchased. The packing line in the conference room was configured and a fun journey around the table began. One package after the other was filled and sealed.

And the logistics work perfectly

In the last step, we then warned our DHL shop around the corner that we wanted to flood its small area with parcels. But the DHL colleague reacted calmly and even provided us with a packing trolley, which we were allowed to use for the transport. After two trips from the office to the DHL shop, our campaign this year was practically complete - and thus almost 250 kilograms of relief goods on their way to Ukraine.

All of us at F7 hope that our aid packages can provide some support in Ukraine. Of course, it would be even better if there were no more war in Ukraine at all. In any case, we can highly recommend this great campaign by DHL. I'm looking forward to seeing what we come up with for Christmas 2023.

_{The content of our packages: baby wipes, biscuits, canned herring, canned tomatoes, canned tuna, chocolate, disinfectant, dog & cat food, FFP2 masks, flour, gingerbread, margarine, oat flakes, panty liners, pasta, plaster, rice, salt, soap, sugar, tea, toothbrushes, toothpaste, vegetable broth.}