From Gratitude to Generosity

By Janice V. Kapner, Executive Vice President and Chief Communications Officer

However you may have celebrated Thanksgiving this year, I hope you were able to spend the holiday with some degree of positivity and hope for brighter days in the future. Let’s face it — 2020 has been a beast… and we are not through it yet, so looking forward is critical! This year’s holiday season already feels different for everyone, with pared-down gatherings or no gatherings at all, plus feelings of isolation, significant economic strain, and even heavy hearts for ill or lost family and friends. Frankly, this year millions across the country may struggle to celebrate at all.

Even before this extraordinary year, as many as 34.5 million Americans didn’t know where their next meal would come from. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, that figure has skyrocketed, and as many as 50 million people could face food insecurity by the start of 2021 — including 17 million children. I’ll say it again, because it deserves to be reiterated: 17 million children and as many as 50 million people across the country face the prospect of no reliable access to food. Imagine navigating this global pandemic and not knowing where your next meal is coming from! Or how to feed your children! Pile that into the holiday season and it’s not a surprise that so many are struggling to find any holiday spirit this year. Plus, people facing hunger often struggle with other basic needs as well, things like housing, employment and health care. Those gaps, even without a pandemic, often lead to generations of food insecurity for families. It can create a vicious cycle.

So… more than one in five Americans at risk. Our neighbors. Our friends. Our family. It could be any of us at almost any moment. Our fellow citizens need our help, and I’m proud to work for a company that is stepping up to help.

T-Mobile is once again partnering with Feeding America® to support the food banks across the country that are working tirelessly to meet the increased need of this holiday season. On Nov. 13 we launched the #CaptureKindess campaign, which included our biggest donation goal to date — we aspire to give up to 15 million meals to support Feeding America’s® mission to end hunger this year. And we’re inviting customers, friends and employees to join us in helping to conquering hunger. I promise you, it’s easy!

Here’s how:

For every act of kindness shared on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram now through Dec. 4 with the hashtag #CaptureKindness, T-Mobile will donate $10 to Feeding America®, with a minimum donation of $100,000 — and a maximum of up to $1 million dollars. What sort of act of kindness? You’ll know it when you see it, but it can be big or small, planned or spontaneous… it really doesn’t matter. Just take a minute and be kind (or capture someone else being kind and inspiring you)! We are already seeing charitable donations, folks checking on elderly neighbors, paying for a stranger’s coffee… every good deed counts! With every dollar donated helping secure and distribute 10 meals, we can give up to 10 million meals supplied by Feeding America®.

And this week, we are taking things a step further! For every T-Mobile customer who clicks on the Feeding America® donation option in the T-Mobile Tuesdays app, we will donate $1, up to $500,000. It’s another chance to donate up to 5 million more meals!

And the goodness doesn’t stop there. Because T-Mobile employees are passionate about giving back to their communities, the T-Mobile Foundation is giving each of our fulltime employees $20 to contribute to the charity of their choice. AND T-Mobile Foundation will match employee donations 2:1 (up to $750,000) today through Dec. 31, 2020.

I understand people think that just one person can’t be the difference when it comes to deep and complex issues like hunger, especially when you stare at a number like 50 million. But that couldn’t be further from the truth!

I’m a movie lover, and during the holiday season I tend to pull out the classics… including It’s A Wonderful Life. Some themes run true throughout the years… and this movie captures the ripple effect we can each have in life… and that we can create in the world around us. Just as George Bailey’s guardian angel reminds him in the film, “Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives.”  It really is the little things that so often matter!

That’s what #CaptureKindness is all about. So, I hope you’ll get involved! The campaign runs through Dec. 4, 2020, which means there are only a few more days to help T-Mobile and Feeding America® deliver 15 million meals to Americans who need them most.

This year is like nothing we’ve seen in our lifetimes… so please take a moment to consider how you can help others this holiday season. I don’t want to sound cliché but believe it or not each of us really can make a difference. It just takes a few minutes of kindness from each of us — and maybe some encouragement to our family, friends and coworkers too. Let’s #CaptureKindness together!