At ROAD iD, philanthropic impact isn’t just a number hanging on a wall. (Okay. It is literally hanging on a wall on the upper floor of the office. It gets updated monthly… assuming we remembered how addition works that day.)
But more importantly, it’s something we genuinely enjoy putting into action.
We donate a portion of EVERY order, which means when you shop with us, you help turn good intentions into real, tangible impact in Northern Kentucky (and quietly fund moments where a group of adults willingly scream about applesauce in a kitchen). And recently, we got to put that fund to work in a very real way.
Enter: Action Ministries and their Food for Thought program.
Our mission: pack 240 weekend food bags for kids at Arnett Elementary, helping fill the gap when school meals aren’t available. Because weekends shouldn’t mean going without. This is serious, meaningful work. Which is why we immediately made it competitive.
At first, things were calm. Respectful. Almost serene.
Bags were packed. Jokes were cracked. Coworkers who don’t cross paths often found themselves shoulder-to-shoulder over shelf-stable milk. Cereal spills were minimal. Morale was high.
And then the assembly lines materialized.
The office kitchen island was split into two opposing forces. Team One. Team Two. (It should be noted for the record that Team One somehow ended up with most of the Fulfillment Team. We noticed. It was an unfair advantage. We will never forget.)
Empty boxes were flung over shoulders in moments of triumph (Kristine, our Office Manager, explicitly approved this behavior; we are law-abiding citizens, after all).
Edward repeatedly yelled, “WHAT’S THE HOLD UP, TEAM TWO?!” at the slightest pause in brown paper bag movement, unleashing elite-level trash talk toward the opposing line. Remarkable bravado for a man whose primary responsibility was raisins.
Cries of “ORDERING, TWO BOXES CHEF BOYARDEE, ALL DAY!” and “HANDS! I NEED HANDS!” echoed through the office like a chaotic episode of The Bear (minus the cigarettes, plus applesauce and unresolved competitive tension).
But this wasn’t just chaos for chaos’ sake.
Each bag had to be packed with precision. Milk and cereal had to nest together like lifelong companions. Peanut butter crackers had to be laid perfectly flat. Applesauce cups required lids facing inward to avoid catastrophic punctures. Every item mattered. Every inch counted.
It was snack-based Tetris. On expert mode.
Then came the final and most dangerous phase: the tape guns.
Each bag had to be taped shut—tight, clean, and as flat as humanly possible. Those who do not normally wield tape guns stepped forward, eyes wide, fingers sticky, courage unmeasured. There was hesitation. There was growth. There was probably at least one person who said, “Wait, how do you reload this?”
And yet…
Against all odds. Against gravity. Against the laws of cereal physics. 240 perfectly packed, taped, pallet-ready bags emerged victorious.
Action Ministries’ Food for Thought program does incredibly important work, making sure kids at risk of hunger have access to food outside of school hours. We’re grateful to play a small role, and even more grateful to the Action Ministries team for trusting us with tape guns.
This is what Purpose Over Profit is all about. Every order helps turn purpose into action, teamwork into impact, and a mildly chaotic office kitchen into a force for good.
