There is no greater joy than donating time to help those in need, and Plexus is proud to give back to the communities that helped us grow over the past decade.”

Tarl Robinson, Plexus founder/CEO

Plexus Worldwide recognizes its employees and customers who gave time and money helping the less fortunate in 2019.

The Plexus employees contributed thousands of volunteer hours and donations to awareness campaigns benefiting nonprofits, according to a press release.

Employees volunteered more than 700 times in 2019, doing such things as refurbishing bicycles, packaging food boxes and organizing donated presents, the release said.

Plexus sponsored two service weeks with St. Mary’s Food Bank, in which more than half of its employees participated during each event, according to the release.

“There is no greater joy than donating time to help those in need, and Plexus is proud to give back to the communities that helped us grow over the past decade,” said Tarl Robinson, Plexus founder/CEO, in a prepared statement.

“To help all our employees understand the value of giving back, Plexus initiated a program that provides every employee with 16 hours of paid volunteer time a year and I am proud of how enthusiastically employees have embraced this new spirit of giving.”

In the Phoenix area, Plexus employees volunteered more than 2,360 hours to help nonprofits on two dozen campaigns, with hundreds more hours donated by employees in Canada and Australia, the release said.

Also, Plexus donated $500,000 in cash and in-kind donations to more than a dozen nonprofits including Cancer Support Community Arizona, The Salvation Army, and Phoenix Children’s Hospital.

Plexus’ Nourish One Initiative helps families in need by providing a donation for every bag sold from the Plexus Lean meal replacement product line, the release said of the one-for-one initiative, where one serving of Plexus Lean equals one meal for a child or family through Feeding America.

In 2019, Plexus contributed funding for more than six million meals to Feeding America and Mary’s Meals, an international organization dedicated to wiping out food insecurity.

“Our vision to spread health and happiness extends beyond our community to people across the country and around the globe and this initiative allows us to multiply our donations by giving Ambassadors and customers a way to get involved,” said Alec Clark, founder and president, in a prepared statement.

Plexus regularly provides in-kind donations to community nonprofits, including 1,735 school backpacks to Arizona Helping Hands and The Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

At year-end, Plexus donated 2,000 Breast Chek Kits, the company’s foundational product, to Esperanca, a Phoenix-based non-profit which will use the kits to educate women in low income and underserved communities.

“We are so thankful for the overwhelming support of our employees and we’re optimistic that our outreach in the community will continue to grow in 2020,” said Mary Ann Luciano, vice president of philanthropy, in a prepared statement.

In 2019, Plexus was also recognized for its commitment to community stewardship by organizations including Cancer Support Community Arizona, which selected Plexus as its “Corporate Partner of the Year.”

The company’s philanthropic efforts were also noted as one reason it was selected as the top honoree for the 2019 Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce Sterling Awards in the Big Business category.