It's a well-established policy with this reporter that if you're a tech firm doing something good to "give back to the community," as the saying goes, we'll give you a bit of a shout-out here. 

 

To that end, then, a tip of the hat to Tahitian Noni International, whose sales and service operators have been raising money to help Community Action Services of Provo, Utah, which offers local food bank services for Utah, Wasatch, and Summit counties. 

Many groups do special projects to help people in need around Christmas, so in October they tend to stock up, "leaving donations in October far short of what food banks need," according to Tahitian Noni officials.

What is "noni," you ask? We didn't know either, but according to What Is Noni? it's a natural white fruit about the size as a potato which "has a bitter taste and doesn’t smell good."

 

But it's useful as a dietary supplement, evidently, and TNI was founded to "introduce the benefits of noni to the world outside Tahiti," according to company officials. The company itself was founded by two food research scientists in 1995. 

 

Headquartered in Provo, it has manufacturing facilities in the United States, Germany, Tahiti, Japan, and China and sales offices in more than 30 countries worldwide.

So the sales and service agents at Tahitian Noni International have been holding special activities for the last three months to benefit the local charity. August was their "money war" spare change challenge, company officials say, "where they gathered over a thousand dollars in mostly quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies."

 

In September, company officials raised an additional $1,000 by holding seven separate fundraising lunches at Tahitian Noni International Corporate Headquarters. October was "toilet paper" month, where they had more than 1,000 rolls of toilet paper donated to the cause.

And it worked. The money raised purchased 120 jars of peanut butter, 1,752 cans of food such as vegetables, fruits, soups, tuna and beans, 90 gallons of powdered milk, 90 quarts of juice, 117 boxes of cereal and 152 boxes of macaroni and cheese.

 

Hey, toss in a few cases of beer and ramen noodles and you have a college student's yearly diet. As well as the 1,037 rolls of toilet paper.

All of the articles were delivered to Community Action Services in Provo, but the company isn’t done yet: "Sales and service agents are now looking at how they can help during the upcoming holiday season, as well."

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