Superior Optimization marked its 20th anniversary by helping out at the West Texas Food Bank.
On Wednesday afternoon, around 30 employees from the company came out to the West Texas Food Bank in Odessa to help hand out food in the distribution line.
“There’s not a lot of companies that make it 20 years,” Superior Optimization Executive Chairman and co-founder Don Bennett said. “There are not a lot of companies that make it five years. To have that kind of longevity and dedication, we have people here who have been with us since the beginning, to have that kind of dedication is indicative of the great people in the Permian Basin. It’s all about them rather than me.”
A presentation was held Wednesday afternoon at the West Texas Food Bank. Superior Optimization made a donation which will help the West Texas Food Bank provide 10,000 meals.
The company provides automation, automation engineering, electrical and instrumentation/control and technology solutions to multiple industries throughout Texas and the Gulf Coast region.
Superior Optimization and the West Texas Food Bank go back a ways.
Bennett donated the anchor gift for the 2012 capital campaign that helped the West Texas Food Bank build its facilities in Odessa and Midland.
“I met Don Bennett a little over 11 years ago and to be honest, he was my first large donor of the West Texas food bank,” West Texas Food Bank CEO Libby Campbell said. “He was our anchor gift donor who started the original campaign to build the two state of the art facilities that we have here in Odessa and Midland. They were both in the same campaign. Don was the first donor that truly at a large level believed in our dreams of building the facilities that we have today. … Without him and that faith in us and our dreams, I don’t know where we’d be. We couldn’t do it without Don’s belief. It’s been amazing to watch the growth we’ve had and see Don still believe in us and he’s been a huge influence in our community.”
For Bennett, giving back to the community has always been important.
“We’re trying to give back to the community and realizing that it could be us in the food lines,” Bennett said.
That volunteer work from Superior Optimization began Tuesday night when a team volunteered in the evening to help put the boxes together at the West Texas Food Bank before being distributed Wednesday.
Superior Optimization Director of Operations Drew Bicknell was one of the many employees out at the West Texas Food Bank helping out Tuesday and Wednesday.
“Last night we started with building some of the pantry boxes, I think we did about 600 boxes last night which will go to 600 families,” Bicknell said. “(Wednesday), we’re handing out those boxes and some other produce to other families as well.”
Superior Optimization CEO Jesse Pletts also talked about the relationship between his company and the West Texas Food Bank.
“We thought what better way to participate in the community than by coming out here and teaming up with West Texas Food Bank,” Pletts said. “Our company has a longstanding relationship with West Texas food bank. It was a natural opportunity for us to come out here and celebrate our anniversary by giving back to the community.”
Ever since the new West Texas Food Bank facilities were built, Campbell says the number of people the organization has fed has increased. The need will increase with inflation rising.
“Since we’ve been here, we used to do 6.4 million pounds of food, but now we’re able to serve 13.4 million pounds of food to the 19 counties that we’re serving,” said Campbell. “Our need is definitely going up as inflation rises. We’re seeing over 400 families at this location once a week and 300 at the Midland location once a week. Without corporate partners, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do every day.”
To help out at the West Texas Food Bank or to donate, go to wtxfoodbank.org.
