Making a Difference: Accellix Gives Back with Third Annual Global Volunteer Day
Join us in celebrating Accellix’s annual Global Volunteer Day. This year’s event took place on May 15th in San Jose and Jerusalem. Volunteer Day is an opportunity to set aside our for-profit daily routines and focus on giving back. Our volunteer activities help tackle food security in our communities and we couldn’t be prouder of our global team!
Prioritizing Giving Back and Getting Together
“Volunteering helps us put aside our daily routines to support a great cause. Much like the impact that Accellix has on the C> field, Global Volunteer Day is meant to have an impact on members of our community that are in need.”
— Rey Mali, Chief Business Officer
Accellix Global Volunteer Day has been making a positive impact since 2022 and was inspired by the desire to deepen the connection within the Accellix team and with the broader community.
Most of the year, Accellix works diligently towards its mission to transform the status quo for quality control in the cell & gene therapy (C>) industry by simplifying and standardizing the cellular analysis process that is critical for bringing cell therapies to patients.
“Volunteering helps us put aside our daily routines to support a great cause. Much like the impact that Accellix has on the C> field, Global Volunteer Day is meant to have an impact on members of our community that are in need” said Rey Mali, Chief Business Officer at Accellix.
Supporting Food Security in San Jose
This year, the Accellix team in San Jose strengthened its support for food security in California by partnering with Second Harvest Food Bank for the third consecutive year.
“As individuals, most of us are fortunate enough not to experience the struggles that many in our community have an intimate knowledge of. Accellix felt that it was important to provide support for an organization that works tirelessly to end hunger in our area,” said Jennifer Bruno, the Office Manager for San Jose.
In 2022, we supported Second Harvest Food Bank by helping in one of their warehouse distribution centers. There, we packed boxes of food with healthy fruits and vegetables and palletized them for dispersal to several food distribution locations throughout the community. Amazingly, we packed over 22,500 pounds (about the weight of a school bus) of produce! The following year, we shifted our focus to the food distribution locations themselves, where we spent the day interacting with the community and working with other volunteers to give out boxes of food. It was truly inspiring to see the full impact of our volunteer time and experience the human connection as we helped to distribute hundreds of food boxes to people in need. It was very rewarding to come full circle and see how the food we helped pack the previous year was distributed to the community.
This year, we listened to our community partners and again volunteered where we were most needed: serving the community at two food distribution locations in San Jose. It has been an amazing partnership with Second Harvest Food Bank! Please consider supporting Second Harvest Food Bank with a donation or your time.
Helping farmers in Jerusalem
Combating food insecurity also has a strong tie to the volunteerism of the Accellix team in Jerusalem. The Accellix team started in 2022 by working with Pantry Packers based in Jerusalem that provides pantry staples like beans, rice, and lentils to families in need and hot meals to seniors. The Accellix team supported Pantry Packers by working in their industrial-style packing kitchen to pack bulk foods into family-sized packages that are then shipped to distribution centers across Israel. The next year, the Accellix team in Jerusalem continued devoting their time to food security by partnering with Latet, the largest NGO combating food insecurity and poverty in Israel. Latet programs serve over 95,000 families and 1,450 Holocaust survivors. The Accellix team volunteered in one of the Latet logistical centers, sorting and packing food items like canned vegetables, cooking oil, and rice that were destined for families in need.
In 2024, the Accellix team in Jerusalem took their volunteerism in a slightly different direction by helping farmers harvest food from their fields and greenhouses. Accellix volunteers went to Teshuva Farm in Moshav Shekef and helped pick greenhouse tomatoes. Farmers across the country are facing a shortage of workers to harvest produce and are relying on volunteers like the Accellix team.
Looking to future volunteering with Accellix
In both San Jose and Jerusalem, the Accellix team has made a real impact in the fight against food insecurity in the last three years and looks forward to continuing this initiative in the years to come.
“Giving back is a selfless act and yet a more rewarding act than any other pursuit. Our company’s Global Volunteer Day allows us to amplify the act of giving back by bringing our entire company in California and in Israel together”, said Nir Nimrodi, Accellix’s CEO and Executive Chairman.
We look forward to continuing volunteerism as individuals throughout the year and can’t wait to get together again as a company to serve our communities. Please consider volunteering in whatever way you can. You can make a difference.
Special Thanks
Special thanks to Nir Nimrodi, Rey Mali, Christian Aguilera-Sandoval, Julia Tinder, Efthalia Gerasimopoulos, Jennifer Bruno, and Deborah Kaufmann for contributing to this article.
