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Green Thumbs at Corporate Office Support Local Families in Need of Food

It began with 100 small tomato plants. Here you see Scott Marquardt, president of MTC, and other staff roll up their sleeves to get the MTC corporate garden planted in early summer.

A few months later and the harvest is underway.

“It felt wonderful,” says MTC’s Dale Bradshaw, “to be a part of something like that; to where you realize that what you’re doing is going to help someone else in need.”

The fresh tomatoes are all going to the Bountiful Food Pantry in Northern Utah.

Becky Johnston, who helped organize the garden for MTC, says staff were grateful to participate in the service project.

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Delivering Tomatoes to Bountiful Food Pantry

“We’re a company that cares, and so, it’s very meaningful that we’re recognizing that after COVID particularly, there’s so many people without food. And this is a great way to help.”

Week after week, corporate staff watered, weeded, and tended to the garden so it would produce as much produce as possible. Each week they delivered more produce to the food pantry.

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MTC Corporate Office – Garden Project

Rebekah Leon is the director of operations at the Bountiful Food Pantry. She gladly received the latest batch of tomatoes and explained how their clients will benefit.

“We’ll weigh those [tomatoes], and we’ll get these to our clients today. So, they’ll take them home today.”

So far, the MTC garden has produced nearly 250 pounds of tomatoes.

“We really appreciate it,” says Rebekah, “because giving people healthy options is really important. A lot of times we get canned foods, which we love, but it’s really nice to be able to give people fresh food that they can have health options.”

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MTC Corporate Office – Garden Project

MTC turned 40 years this year, and to celebrate, it gladly took on a different service project each quarter. Fighting hunger was part of the second quarter project. And it’s making a difference. Rebekah explains.

“We have a lot of low-income neighborhoods. We have a lot of section-8 housing. We have a lot of communities with people who are elderly. We have communities with people who have transportation issues.”

The Bountiful Food Pantry provides two million pounds of food to local families per year. Some 700 families use the food pantry every month.

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Rebekah Leon, Bountiful Food Pantry

“We are so grateful to MTC, and we will probably be calling you for other things in the future.”