History:

In late 2008, Subaru of America, Inc. launched Subaru’s “Share the Love” campaign, a holiday sales event focused on giving back. For every vehicle sold or leased between November 24, 2008 and January 2, 2009 Subaru donated $250 to the consumer's choice of five major charities, one of which was MOWAA. At the end of the campaign, Subaru presented MOWAA, which ranked second among the charities selected by buyers, with a check for $1.1 million dollars. A year later, MOWAA was once again selected by Subaru as one of the five featured charities for the “Share the Love” event. At the end of the 2009 campaign, Subaru presented MOWAA, again ranked second among the charities, with a check for $1.13 million dollars.

For the third consecutive year, MOWAA was invited to participate in Subaru’s annual “Share the Love” event, held between November 20, 2010 and January 3, 2011. Once again, MOWAA came in second place and received $1.1 million dollars for participating in the campaign. Subaru’s commercial for the 2010 campaign can be viewed below.

Impact:

The 2008 and 2009 “Share the Love” campaigns enabled MOWAA to divide Subaru’s large donations among each of its so-called four pillars. A strong emphasis was placed on our Meals On Wheels Leadership Academy and our National Campaign for Community Impact, which directly benefits MOWAA Member programs through financial grants, scholarships and educational opportunities. The success of the campaign allowed MOWAA to award over 130 Subaru “Share the Love” Scholarships, permitting MOWAA Members, who otherwise could not attend the 2009 MOWAA Annual Conference in San Diego, California, to do so. In addition, MOWAA established the “Subaru Institute for Leadership Development” at our Meals On Wheels Leadership Academy to provide MOWAA Members with ongoing leadership training and professional development opportunities.

MOWAA distributed another portion of the Subaru funds to local MOWAA Member programs in the form of Subaru “Share the Love” Holiday Meal grants of $1,000 each to help serve nutritious meals to homebound seniors in need during the 2009 holiday season. These $1,000 grants allowed each of the 122 local programs receiving them to serve approximately 200 additional meals in the month of December to their senior clients that translated to approximately24,400 meals nationwide. The grant program also fostered positive relationships between the MOWAA Member programs and their local Subaru dealerships, as they worked together to host fundraising and volunteer events in their local communities.

As a part of Subaru’s 2010 “Share the Love” campaign, MOWAA created the Subaru “Share the Love” grant program, which gave MOWAA Member programs an opportunity to receive cash grants for sharing a story with their local media networks about how their program has “Shared the Love” with seniors in their community. Over 140 programs received grants, totaling nearly $150,000. MOWAA’s Member programs also secured over 200 press hits in their local media outlets and drew close to 9,000 readers to their stories on the MOWAA Member Blog. These press hits contributed significantly to raising public awareness about the important work local Meals On Wheels perform everyday. If you are interested in reading some of these stories, you may read them here.

“I never realized that there were so many seniors in our area who needed help with meals. Helping to get the meals delivered has really opened my eyes. I want to get my whole family involved, including my children. It’s important for them to see that there are people in need right where we live.”

Julio Ventureira
Subaru employee

“Your generosity allowed our program to provide larger portion sizes for the holiday meals for the 600 clients who depend on us as well as to purchase additional side dish items for our clients to enjoy. Our clients enjoyed a high quality, comforting holiday meal because of Subaru’s help.”

Charlyn Ocker, President & CEO
Meals For The Elderly
Houston, TX