Irvine, CA – April 23, 2020 – Our Eenhoorn credo is WE DO AWESOME. We are in a unique position to make an impact on our residents’ lives just by the nature of our business; we work where our customers live. In these uncertain times, as we navigate how to react to seemingly constant “bad news,” we are reminded that our credo still holds true.

The Inn at Woodbridge is a 120-unit affordable independent living community for seniors ages 62 and better. Many of our residents have a very tight budget and some face food uncertainty in good times and even more so during these times. We decided to start a food bank with local partners including a non-profit called Helping Hand Worldwide to open our clubhouse every other week so our residents can enjoy each other’s company while receiving complimentary food items. Since the clubhouse had to be closed recently out of concern for resident safety, the normal food bank operation could not be held. Angeline Schroeder, the AWESOME property manager for this Community, was concerned for her residents, so she marshaled some help and turned our in-person food bank into a “no-contact” food bank where we provided packages of food to be dropped off at all residents’ doors. Angeline even added some flowers as a special touch.

In addition to the obvious goals of meeting resident needs, another primary goal for Eenhoorn is to bolster our efforts to operate with sustainability in mind. By administering this food bank program on site, we are eliminating large amounts of food waste in the process of serving our residents. A long-time champion of environmentally savvy efforts for its properties, Eenhoorn is aiming for regular food distribution as a tangible way for residents to reduce their carbon footprint by eliminating good food from going to waste prematurely. This program is inspiring similar efforts at other properties throughout the Eenhoorn portfolio and we are encouraging this resourceful approach across the board.

We anticipate this program will encourage residents to seriously consider other Sustainability initiatives we are working on, including reduction of water and energy consumption through best practices and changes in product use. One of our more simple and effective Sustainability measures was achieved by installing a filtered water dispenser in our clubhouse to encourage the use of reusable containers in lieu of plastic bottles. Barriers to participating in Sustainability Initiatives often involve a lack of knowledge on which efforts have the greatest impact, potentially leading to an overwhelming feeling of not knowing where to start. We are demonstrating through our practices that even participating in a free food distribution has real effects on the natural environment in which we are all global citizens. This is bigger than us. By taking simple steps, we can have major impacts as a community and we hope our ideas and influence are an inspiration to others.