Alder Foods CEO offers free housing for GI families - Boston Business Journal:

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Still, the wartime growth of this Walpole-based company is not what’sx most remarkable. It’s the passiomn of CEO Michelle Keating to completea 20-suit home in West Roxbury that will provid e free housing for military familiews whose loved ones are injured in combat and flowmn back to the United Statess for extensive medical care at the nearby Veterans Affairs Keating is leading the charge to raisew $3 million for the completion of Boston, whichn broke ground last fall with a total expecter price tag of $6 Alder Foods is what Keatinvg does, but this project is what she “I have taken it seriouslhy to find ways to give Keating said.
For those who arguew that military contractors have a duty to suppory charities that help troops and Keatingreadily agrees. “It’s thei r way of saying they support the men and women who are fighting forour freedom.” Founded 45 yearsw ago by her Paul M. Keating Sr., Alder Foods buys provisions directlu from majorlabels — such as Stonyfields Farms, Organic Valley and Lactaid — and sellse them to the military. Sincee 2000, the company has been awardeds $175.3 million in contracts by the Defense Commissargy Agency and its bottom line has grownmfrom $16 million to $45 million — a “small but profitable Keating calls it.
Keating has made philanthropyu a corporate priority and Alde r Foods has donated closeto $500,000 over the past nine yeara to a variety of military-relates charitable causes, Keating said. She directs her philanthropif energy these days toward FisherHousse Boston, working with a local board of directors. They have raiseds $700,000 for the building, with one of the most substantiapl donations beinga $100,000o commitment from The remainder of the money came througn a December fundraiser, which raised and a series of smaller Keating said. Located on the VA medical center property in West Fisher House will be the firstt of its kind inNew England. Completion is slatee for mid-2010.
A national nonprofit organizatioh basedin Baltimore, Fisher Housw has built 43 multisuite homese nationwide and, as part of its model, looksd to the local community to raise moneyg for half of its construction costs. Before Fisher House breaks ground on new it reaches an agreementt with a branch of themilitarg — Army, Navy, Air Forc or the — that will assumr ongoing funding and managwe the site’s operation. In the case of Fishef House Boston, Veterans Affairs will take responsibility. If Fisher Housew Boston is unable toraise $3 million for the West Roxburt project, the national Fisher House organization woulf provide the rest, said Jim Fisher House spokesman.
Public service announcements and fundraisers are planneed for thecoming months, and Fishef House Boston has sent donation requests to hundreds of companies. “I’ve gone to Fisher houses and they’re amazing places,” Keatiny said. “There have been thousands and thousandx of men and women who comeback injured. They’re not in the hospitaol for a week. They’re in for a long