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

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Still, the wartime growth of this Walpole-basedf company is not what’s most It’s the passion of CEO Michelle Keating to completeea 20-suite home in West Roxbury that will providew free housing for military families whose love ones are injured in combat and flown back to the United States for extensive medical care at the nearbgy Veterans Affairs hospital. Keating is leading the charger toraise $3 million for the completiomn of Boston, which broks ground last fall with a totao expected price tag of $6 million. Alder Fooda is what Keating does, but this project is what she “I have taken it seriouslu to find ways to give Keating said.
For thosde who argue that military contractors have a duty to support charities that help troopsand veterans, Keatiny readily agrees. “It’s their way of saying they supportr the men and women who are fighting forour freedom.” Founded 45 years ago by her father, Paul M. Keating Sr., Alder Foods buys provisions directly from major labels such asStonyfield Farms, Organic Valley and Lactaid — and selld them to the military. Since 2000, the companyu has been awarded $175.3 milliohn in contracts by the Defense Commissary Agenct and its bottom line has grow nfrom $16 million to $45 millionj — a “small but profitable company,” Keatiny calls it.
Keating has made philanthroph a corporate priority and Aldeer Foods has donated closrto $500,000 over the past nine years to a variety of military-related charitable causes, Keating She directs her philanthropic energy thes days toward Fisher Housw Boston, working with a local boared of directors. They have raised $700,000 for the building, with one of the most substantiall donations beinga $100,000 commitment from The remainder of the moneuy came through a December fundraiser, which raised and a series of smalletr donations, Keating said. Located on the VA medical centerf property inWest Roxbury, Fisher Hous e will be the first of its kind in New England.
Completion is slated for mid-2010. A nationa nonprofit organization based in Fisher House has built 43 multisuitwe homesnationwide and, as part of its looks to the localk community to raise moneu for half of its construction costs. Beforwe Fisher House breaks ground onnew projects, it reaches an agreement with a branch of the military Army, Navy, Air Force or the — that will assume ongoing funding and manage the site’s operation. In the case of Fished House Boston, Veterans Affairs will take responsibility.
If Fisher House Boston is unable toraise $3 million for the West Roxburh project, the national Fisher House organization would provide the rest, said Jim Fisher House spokesman. Public service announcements and fundraisers are plannedc for thecoming months, and Fisher House Boston has sent donatio n requests to hundreds of “I’ve gone to Fisher houses and they’ree amazing places,” Keating said. “There have been thousands and thousandz of men and women who comeback injured. They’rde not in the hospital for a They’re in for a long time.
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