Category Archives: Charity

L&P Employees Volunteer at Safe Harbor’s ReSource Warehouse

In November, several L&P employees from our Home Furniture, Flooring, and Hanes businesses came together to volunteer at Safe Harbor’s ReSource Warehouse in Hickory, North Carolina.

Safe Harbor is a nonprofit organization that provides programs and services to help meet the needs of women and their children. ReSource Warehouse — Safe Harbor’s thrift store — provides job experience to Safe Harbor program participants. All proceeds from the thrift store support Safe Harbor’s services, such as providing temporary or long-term housing and a one-year sobriety program.

Photos of our volunteers — Tanya Caine, Brandon Phothichack, Chris Bolich, Tammy Watts, Julia Powers, Breanna Wagster, Samantha Howell, and Samantha’s daughter, Alexandra Simmons — in action at Safe Harbor.

Our group of volunteers put our four L&P values — Put People First, Do the Right Thing, Do Great Work Together, and Take Ownership and Raise the Bar — into action when they met to make a positive impact on others’ lives. “We took pride in what we were doing for our community,” shared Samantha Howell, Vice President of Human Resources. “We swept, organized, cleaned, were creative, assisted shoppers, and encouraged workers. We embraced responsibility and made a difference.”

Our volunteers contributed more than 32 hours of work and also collected and made donations to Safe Harbor. While volunteering in the ReSource Warehouse, they styled mannequins and helped shoppers find items. They also offered encouraging words to adolescents doing community service and were inspired by the testimony of a Safe Harbor resident who will be sober at Thanksgiving with her children for the first time.

“We got to know each other a little better, help those in need, and proudly represent L&P,” continued Samantha. “We had a great time giving back to our community and look forward to our next volunteering adventure!”

We are grateful to our volunteers for lifting up their communities and living our L&P values!

L&P Employees Give Back: Watered Gardens

Last year, Tammy Trent, our Chief Accounting Officer, asked the Corporate Accounting and Accounts Payable teams to select local charities to join their quarterly meetings to share their missions and how they support the local community. One organization the team heard from was Watered Gardens — a nonprofit located in Joplin, Missouri, that serves the needs of individuals and families by providing shelter, food, and other services.

After learning about Watered Gardens, a group of our employees quickly formed to donate to and serve the nonprofit each month. Kim Hickey, Senior Business Analyst, volunteered to coordinate and create a sign-up schedule for preparing and serving dinner at the outreach center and donating food supplies or money for food.

“I enjoy being part of the volunteer team because serving dinner is a simple way to make an impact on the lives of people struggling in our community,” said Kim Hickey. “We are bringing them a tangible form of comfort and an encouraging smile. It’s also a great way to get to know the other volunteers.”

The group tends to look different each month, but there are many L&P employees who frequently sign up, including members from the Internal Audit and Accounts Payable teams. When it’s their time to volunteer, some employees bring family members with them.

We are grateful to our employees for giving back to their communities and doing great work together!

Our employees who regularly volunteer for Watered Gardens

How Giving Helps You

You know that giving benefits others, but did you know it’s also good for you?

When we donate, volunteer, or give gifts, we’re doing some good for others and ourselves. Here are three things we learned about the personal benefits of giving:

  • Giving helps your health. When we give, our brains release feel-good hormones, which make us feel happier. Giving can also lower blood pressure and cortisol levels, which are responsible for making us feel anxious or stressed.
  • Giving enhances positivity. When we are generous, our perception of others becomes more positive, causing us to feel closer and more connected to others. Giving can also increase gratitude and help us feel connected to a bigger picture beyond ourselves, which can help cultivate meaning in life.
  • Giving strengthens your circles. Generosity is contagious. When we give, we also inspire others — both near and far to us — to give. Since we’re all parts of multiple circles or communities, it’s no surprise that, when we invest in the places where we live, work, and play, we’re also investing in ourselves.

References

Brower, Tracy, PhD. “Giving Is Good—For Others, but Also for You.” Forbes, 28 Nov. 2021, www.forbes.com/sites/tracybrower/2021/11/28/giving-is-good-for-others-but-also-for-you/?sh=7aa5caf623a1. Accessed 6 July 2023.

“Five Reasons to Give to Charity.” Charities Aid Foundation, www.cafonline.org/my-personal-giving/long-term-giving/resource-centre/five-reasons-to-give-to-charity. Accessed 6 July 2023.

Suttie, Jill, and Jason Marsh. “5 Ways Giving Is Good for You.” The Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley, 13 Dec. 2010, greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/5_ways_giving_is_good_for_you. Accessed 7 July 2023.

“Why Giving Is Good for Your Health.” Cleveland Clinic, 7 Dec. 2022, health.clevelandclinic.org/why-giving-is-good-for-your-health. Accessed 6 July 2023.

Giving Back Starts at Home: We Rise

Giving back starts at home with We Rise—an employee and company-funded program that has helped satisfy the emergency needs of L&P employees in the aftermath of catastrophic events and natural disasters since 2011.

We Rise exists due to the generosity of our people. In 2022, our employees donated more than $50,000 to aid 13 employees in rebuilding from flooding, hurricanes, and other disasters. L&P further supported those employees with donations of mattresses for impacted family members. This year, We Rise supported several employees after a tornado went through Tupelo, Mississippi.

We are inspired by and grateful to our employees for putting people first and doing great work together through We Rise!

How We Give Back

At L&P, we foster a culture of giving and are committed to investing in the communities where we live and work.

Since 2001, L&P has donated more than 10 million dollars to our communities and supported more than 350 organizations. With a core value of putting people first, we prioritize giving with three main goals:

  • Inspiring Our Future. We support programs that are inclusive and create pathways to a better future through education, including science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs; scholarship programs; technical vocational; college access and career-readiness programs; and community-based arts and music programming.
  • Elevating Our Communities. We give to organizations that strengthen the fabric of our communities, preserve and protect resources, and aid those facing financial hardship and instability, including programs that address homelessness and hunger, support economic mobility, and protect victims of violence.
  • Helping Communities in Crisis. We seek to assist in disaster relief and humanitarian work around the world with financial or in-kind contributions to those in need.

We also see our employees frequently giving their own time and resources to address local needs and build a brighter future for neighborhoods around the world.

Throughout August, we’ll continue to highlight how we give back to our communities. Stay tuned!

Hanes Team Supports Local Habitat for Humanity

Team members from Hanes Industries in Conover, North Carolina, spent their Earth Day giving back to the local community by volunteering for Catawba Valley Habitat for Humanity.

The mission of Habitat Catawba Valley is to help homebuyers build a safe and affordable place to call home. The need for Habitat for Humanity in local communities is greater than ever. The current real estate market makes homeownership difficult for many, especially those whose income falls below the area’s median.

Team Members from Hanes Industries – Conover, Catawba Habitat for Humanity, and the future homeowners.

“Our goal is to put hardworking families into a home, breaking the cycle of renting and unlocking a new type of generational wealth through homeownership,” says Phillip Stepp, Digital Marketing Manager for Catawba Valley Habitat for Humanity. “We achieve this with help from the local community through monetary donations, donations of items to ReStore (a retail store that sells gently used furniture and home accessories), and the hard work from our volunteers and homebuyers.”

The Hanes volunteers visited a neighborhood that is getting a much-needed makeover and assisted in the construction of two different home projects. The team even had the opportunity to work alongside the future homeowners and share their personal stories.

“I volunteered because I understand how it feels to need a helping hand,” says Brandon Phothichack, a team member from Hanes. “I’ve struggled, and I’ve known people who have struggled, and I’ve worked with people who were in the program at Habitat and have succeeded in achieving their dreams of owning.”

Thank you to our Hanes team for giving back to their community and living out our values of putting people first and doing great work together!

L&P Supports United Way in the NYSE’s Global Giving Campaign

L&P is honored to support the United Way in the New York Stock Exchange’s (NYSE) Global Giving Campaign!

As a global manufacturer, Leggett & Platt is committed to investing in the communities where we live and work. The United Way shares our goals of advancing education, financial stability, and health around the world. We proudly support those initiatives, with corporate gifts multiplying our employees’ long-standing generosity to the organization.

A commemorative ornament will hang on the holiday tree in front of the NYSE entrance until the end of the year. Check it out below!

LEG Global Giving Campaign Ornament 2022 Photo Credit: NYSE

L&P Hosts Thanksgiving Food Drive

L&P recently hosted a Thanksgiving Food Drive to help those in need, collecting non-perishable food and pantry items at the corporate headquarters in Carthage, Missouri.

In addition to a financial donation from L&P, our employees donated many items during the food drive, including more than 100 cans of green beans! These donations will go to three non-profits in Southwest Missouri: Pressing Toward the Goal Ministries, the Carthage Crisis Center, and Carthage Crosslines Ministry.

Tracy Phillips, L&P Accounts Payable Coordinator and co-founder of Pressing Toward the Goal Ministries, said, “We are so grateful for everything that Leggett & Platt has done to partner with the ministry in helping take care of those in need. I just wanted to sincerely thank you from the bottom of our hearts!”

We are proud of our employees for working together and giving hope where it’s needed most!

United Way Spotlight: Carthage Crosslines

Leggett & Platt fosters a culture of giving, encouraging our employees to Do Some Good. Throughout the course of our local United Way campaign, we will shine a spotlight on several of the incredible agencies that United Way serves in our community. Times may be difficult, but we have witnessed communities rising to meet these hard moments. If in a position to give this year, we encourage you to support your local agency, too.

In September 1984, local churches formed Carthage Crosslines Ministry to create a central distribution point where neighbors in need could receive food and clothing.

“The mission of Crosslines is: where lines of compassion and concern cross lines of denominations with the community to meet lines of human need,” said Toni Smith, Executive Director.

In the 38 years since its inception, Crosslines has expanded its ministry. In addition to its appointment-only food pantry, it provides household items and financial assistance for rent and utilities to those experiencing hardship.

“Crosslines makes every effort to assist with all basic needs,” said Smith. “We provide food, clothing, shoes, hygiene products, diapers, small household items, linens, and even birthday and Christmas gifts.”

Crosslines relies heavily on the community’s support for its success ­­– from food and clothing drives to volunteer support and monetary donations.

“Quite frankly, Crosslines could not continue to operate without the funding we receive from Carthage Area United Way (CAUW),” said Smith. “This helps pay our utilities, provides gasoline for our volunteer’s vehicles so they can pick up food donations – so many incidentals. It helps to know that we can count on CAUW.”

Visit Carthage Crosslines Ministry to learn more or volunteer.

United Way Spotlight: Jasper County CASA

Leggett & Platt fosters a culture of giving, encouraging our employees to Do Some Good. Throughout the course of our local United Way campaign, we will shine a spotlight on several of the incredible agencies that United Way serves in our community. Times may be difficult, but we have witnessed communities rising to meet these hard moments. If in a position to give this year, we encourage you to support your local agency, too.

Jasper County CASA’s mission is to change a child’s story, and its volunteers are doing just that. CASA stands for court-appointed special advocates, a group of citizens who ensure regular contact, support, and advocacy for children in our community who have experienced abuse and neglect.

“The most critical work of CASA is to show up and speak up for the child,” said Kelly Hartley, Development Coordinator for Jasper County CASA. “The greatest factor for children who overcome serious hardship is the presence of at least one stable and committed adult. CASAs provide consistent, loving support and may be the only responsible adult presence in the child’s life.”

Swearing in ceremony of advocates.

Jasper County CASA currently has over 90 volunteers serving approximately 200 children. Their vision is for each of the more than 400 children in foster care in Jasper County to have a court-appointed special advocate by 2024.

“When people support United Way, the funding helps provide recruitment, training, and retention of volunteer advocates,” said Hartley. “The trained advocates then show up for kids in foster care. For the first time in a child’s life, a responsible adult shows up at school, the foster home, supervised parent visits, football games, or birthday parties.”

CASA aims to ensure each child receives the best possible chance at a safe, permanent home and spends less time in the foster care system.

“Our advocates give each child a voice by making recommendations to the court based on the child’s best interest,” said Hartley. “The advocates give information gathered from those involved, especially the child. CASAs are positively impacting the lives of these children by showing up and speaking on their behalf. And we couldn’t do it without the support of United Way.”

Jasper County CASA