Inglewood Mayor James Butts announced the “Committed to Serve” initiative in conjunction with the city’s trash hauler Consolidated/Republic Services. This comes at a time when Inglewood residents feel like not enough is being done for them during the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Besides having parking citations voided, that were issued last month, many have noticed that Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti received millions of dollars in private donations to provide FREE gift cards to residents, and the city of Hawthorne is providing free masks AND fuel cards to their residents.
Butts’ announcement details how Republic will donate $3 million to the Republic Services Charitable Foundation to fund long-term nonprofit partners that operate locally and serve local communities and small businesses. To date, they have used several local Inglewood restaurants and will continue to do so in the future.
Additionally, Republic has committed $20 million to support their frontline employees and their families, as well as small businesses that are the economic engines of local communities.
“This initiative is targeted economic stimulus at the local level, designed to benefit small business customers as well as local employees, their employers and our region.”; says Mayor Butts. CDS/Republic Services has a stable, predictable and resilient business model, and through prudent planning and hard work they are well-positioned to manage through this crisis. The City has a valuable partnership with this company and applauds their innovative efforts.
The program will last for two months. Key elements are: 1) a weekly meal for all frontline employees, a weekly dinner for frontline employees and their families, and; 2) bi-weekly $100 gift cards to all frontline employees (totaling $400 per employee over 2 months). All meals will be purchased from local small businesses to help support the Company’s business customers and to generate local taxes for the community.
The press release did not detail which nonprofits and/or local businesses would specifically benefit from Consolidated’s generosity or how many Inglewood residents the company employs. It is also unknown if Councilman Eloy Morales is still a paid consultant for a subsidiary of Consolidated/Republic Services.
Republic Services contact Dawn Harris was unavailable for comment.