Brookfield Properties honors shopping centers with Community Partner Awards

The Shoppes at Carlsbad teamed up to fight local hunger with “Together Tour: Feeding San Diego,” distributing some 166,000 pounds of food last year — equivalent to 138,000 meals — to 1,643 households and nearly 10,000 people. Now an ongoing effort, The Shoppes at Carlsbad staff makes sure the site is ready to go the third Wednesday of every month and often assist with distributing the food donated by local grocers and food distributors. According to The Shoppes at Carlsbad Senior General Manager Ramon Oseguera, his team has grown closer as a result. “Partnering with Feeding San Diego has given the team a sense of pride to be able to say that they work for a company that cares and encourages us to help the people that live where we do business,” he says.

In Mississippi — hard hit by the COVID-19 Delta variant surge — The Mall at Barnes Crossing in Tupelo opened a COVID-19 vaccination site that provided 283,981 residents with testing and life-saving vaccinations and infusions. According to The Mall at Barnes Crossing General Manager Jeff Snyder, Lee County and the State of Mississippi were looking to open several COVID-19 testing centers and were overwhelmed at the logistics involved in setting up multiple sites. Meanwhile, the emergency room was unable to treat COVID patients due to the spike in cases and needed a secondary space. “We had a vacant Sears box, so we answered the call,” recalls The Mall at Barnes Crossing General Manager Jeff Snyder. “At the time, our residents were having to travel over an hour away to get the infusion. Our partnership with North Mississippi Health Services was very instrumental in flattening the curve in our area by getting residents access to the infusions. It was a challenge but very rewarding for our team. There are many in our community who thank us regularly for the project.”

Last year, Willowbrook Mall, Deerbrook Mall and The Woodlands Mall in Texas and Riverchase Galleria in Alabama teamed up to help local foster children in need by hosting Heart Gallery, a traveling photographic and audio exhibit featuring displays of children looking for forever families. The initiative was instrumental in the adoption of 18 youth in the Houston and Birmingham metro markets.

According to Willowbrook Mall Senior General Manager Sandy LaClave, the initiative was a team-wide effort that involved extensive design and display work, but the results were worth it. “The first time BEAR [Be a Resource, a non-profit that supports the foster care system in Houston] called us to tell us they needed to take down a portrait because the child had been adopted, I think we all cried,” she said. “If that child was the only one, the program would have been worth all the effort. We are so excited that Brookfield Properties wants to make it available to all its retail properties.”