This morning, employees of the Fishers-based Meyer Najem Corporation filled a pick-up truck and a bus with nonperishable food items. There destinations: two organizations serving homeless and others needing help during these tough economic times.

During the company’s four-week food collection period, 75 employees found themselves on four teams and engaged in friendly competition. Daily progress reports were e-mailed by the company’s philanthropy committee members. Progress was publicly charted, and contributions from each employee were personally shared and commended by the company’s principals, who offered a company match to encourage participation.

“We started our company on the foundation of teamwork,” said principal Karl Meyer, “and we recognize that our team extends beyond our building and employees. Our company’s success comes not just from us, but also from the communities and people we serve.”

One hundred percent of the company’s employees participated, donating on average more than 60 cans per person. Employees chose to give their items to Warm and Fill, Evangelize, Renew, also known as WAFER, because it feeds downtown Indianapolis homeless and provides hot meals on Thursdays. They also selected Food Rescue because of the agency’s work to collect and distribute food to Hamilton County food banks.

“Food Rescue is known to collect around $65,000 in retail food that would just go to waste if they did not ‘rescue it’,” noted the company’s other principal, Anthony Najem. “We’re so proud to have the opportunity to participate in their good works.” Najem and Meyer attribute the food-drive success to having fun and being part of a winning team. “On Friday,” noted Meyer, “some teams were sand-bagging their cans so they could out do their competitors. One team would bring in a ‘final load’, while another team would be lurking around the corner with their donations.” “When the coast was clear,” chimed in Najem, “the first team would fire back with another load of cans ranging from 200 to 600 at a time! But the reality is, as you can imagine, everyone was a winner in this food-drive event.” Established in 1987, Meyer Najem provides construction and renovation services to clients through its Fishers office location. They built their business based on work in the healthcare industry and expanded expertise to include award-winning fitness centers, historical renovations, commercial offices, schools, and religious institutions. Continually Meyer Najem’s high performance to build value and build solutions resonates throughout the industry. And as a result, Meyer Najem is the proud recipient of the highly acclaimed Pillar Award, Business of the Year—in both 2007 and 2008.

Not just recognized for excellence in construction, the company received the 2005 Outstanding Small Business Award from Indiana’s Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals during National Philanthropy Week. It’s fitting that as 2008 National Philanthropy Week concludes, Meyer Najem continues its winning tradition of giving.