The United Nations estimates that more than 1 billion people worldwide are affected by food insecurity — some of them in our own community. But Tewksbury’s Thermo Fisher Scientific showed that local employees can make an impact in the fight to end world hunger, both locally and globally.

The Tewksbury Thermo Fisher Scientific site, located in the Ames Pond area, recently held two employee volunteer events that resulted in more than 6,400 nutritious meal kits being assembled and packaged for Rise Against Hunger, a global organization working to end hunger, and 326 pounds of nonperishable foods delivered to the Merrimack Valley Food Bank, which supplies local food pantries and programs.

“We thought that holding these food events was especially appropriate for the month we celebrate Thanksgiving,” said Mike Bates, a staff scientist at the company and leader of the Tewksbury site’s Community Action Council. “Knowing there are so many people experiencing food insecurity during this holiday – and throughout the year — can be overwhelming. We wanted to do something to help the local Tewksbury community and beyond.”

Brian Peavey, a Quality Systems Engineer at Thermo Fisher Scientific, helped deliver 326 pounds of non-perishable foods donated by the employees of the company’s Tewksbury site to the Merrimack Valley Food Bank.

About 50 people assisted in the packing event, which consisted of an assembly line of folks scooping ingredients from bulk containers and funneling them into smaller bags, which were then weighed, sealed, labeled and packed into boxes. For the food drive, many folks dropped non-perishable items into bins located throughout the building.

“As you can imagine, the last couple of years have been challenging for so many,” said Debbie Callery, executive director of the Merrimack Valley Food Bank. “We have seen an increase in the number of people visiting food pantries over the last several months, which is concerning. We are grateful to the employees who work at the Thermo Fisher Scientific building in Tewksbury for thinking of us during this especially busy time of year and conducting a food drive on our behalf. The donation will help us to continue to assist the nearly 70,000 people a month that we serve.”

To learn more about these organizations and how you can help, visit Rise Against Hunger and the Merrimack Valley Food Bank.

About Thermo Fisher Scientific

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. is the world leader in serving science, with annual revenue exceeding $30 billion. Our Mission is to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. Whether our customers are accelerating life sciences research, solving complex analytical challenges, improving patient diagnostics and therapies or increasing productivity in their laboratories, we are here to support them. Our global team of more than 80,000 colleagues delivers an unrivaled combination of innovative technologies, purchasing convenience and pharmaceutical services through our industry-leading brands, including Thermo Scientific, Applied Biosystems, Invitrogen, Fisher Scientific, Unity Lab Services and Patheon. For more information, please visit http://www.thermofisher.com.