So, I’m here in New Orleans with 8 other Clif people—all of us here to work with In Good Company, a labor force comprised of employees from like-minded companies who volunteer their time to make positive change in the world. This time we around, we've partnered with a bunch of other great folks to build a community garden and a home in neighborhood that's making a comeback after Hurricane Katrina. Having never been to the Big Easy before, I was pretty excited to get underway. In the Oakland airport, having spotted my Clif Bar T shirt, belt buckle and…

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Last night, Mark, Cassie, Thao and I dug deep in our closets, pulled out a few business accessories and donned our best “business casual” attire to take a field trip to Cal Prep Academy. Don't we look just dapper? We had the illustrious honor of serving on a judging panel for BUILD’s second showcase of the academic year. BUILD is a four-year program that teaches students about real-world entrepreneurial skills. This means that they get to come up with a business plan and hone their idea with the potential to take it all the way to production. 6 teams presented…

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Last week, the marketing department ventured out of the office for a day of volunteering at the Alameda County Food Bank, an organization that provides food assistance for over 40,000 low-income residents each week. Yup, 40,000! Aside from providing non-perishables, the food bank does a stellar job at making sure recipients get their fruits and veggies, too. Every week, they outsource quite a bit of fresh produce to member agencies to distribute to the local residents, which is where we came in. We worked our way through crates of fresh carrots—bagging, tying and boxing over 15,000 pounds of them! Needless…

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Last week, Caron gave us a sneak peak at her “upcoming” trip to New Orleans as part of In Good Company. Well, the group's been in the Big Easy for just about four days now and work is well underway. The 28 worker bees have been putting their best foot forward with some restoration efforts and amid all their hard work they’ve still managed to document it all. Here’s a snippet from an entry that appeared on their blog yesterday: Some of us are here because we want to give back of ourselves after receiving so much. Others are here…

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I will be in New Orleans in 156 hours, not like I’m counting. I can nearly smell the fried food, hear the jazz bands, see the unpronounceable street signs and feel the effusive hugs. I can’t wait! So, last year I fell in love with New Orleans. It was one of “those” that started as a crush and turned into a love. Something I was ready to commit to. I was fortunate to work alongside 10 Clif Bar employees in Musician’s Village (you can see photos from the trip here) . We partnered with Habitat for Humanity and learned how…

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