When CoreGiving Day started five years ago, the event involved about 1,000 employee volunteers across 11 companies owned by Blackstone. The number of participants has since expanded to more than 3,500 employees across 30 of the investment giant's firms.
That's largely because of Luke Petherbridge, the chief executive of Link Logistics, the last-mile logistics arm of Blackstone. He co-founded the annual drive five years ago to help alleviate childhood hunger. The latest event supported hunger relief efforts in 90 cities across North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific, including Australia, Petherbridge's home country.
“One in five children get nervous when they have a day off school because that's their main meal and they don't know where their next meal is coming from," Petherbridge told CoStar News in an interview. “Their nourishment is not ideal, and that means learning and being able to be their best self is a challenge — not just in certain ZIP codes, almost everywhere.”
Link Logistics is one of the largest owners of last-mile industrial buildings in the U.S. with a footprint of 500 million square feet. Petherbridge, who took the helm as CEO in 2020, helped CoreGiving raise $4.6 million last year in partnerships with roughly 90 organizations across 25 states, enough to fund over 22 million meals.
At this month's CoreGiving Day, the CEO and other Link employees packed 34,368 meal boxes at the Greater Chicago Food Depository in the morning hours, with volunteers bringing the total to about 54,368 meals packed during the Oct. 9 event.
“Some of the volunteers there told me that the need today is greater than during the COVID pandemic, which was really startling,” Petherbridge said. "That feels like something we want to solve as a country, and we're happy to help."
Link Logistics secured over $400,000 in contributions that covered 2 million meals for those in need prior to this year's event. Sponsors CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield, Eastdil Secured, JLL and Newmark kicked in another $500,000, helping generate an additional 2.5 million meals, Petherbridge said.