Seneca Foods Tank

How workers from Seneca Foods raised funds for a water tank in Kenya

In 2017, Tom & Jenni Roth were invited to speak to employees at Seneca Foods in Rochester about the water crisis in Kenya. The job of Tom and Jenni was twofold: 1) to educate the employees about the water crisis and 2) to give the workers and invitation to help. Many of the workers at Seneca foods were seasonal workers from southern Texas. Others were immigrants from Somalia and other countries. Busying themselves for several months each year, working long, 12 hours days for six or even seven days a week, these employees had come to Seneca to make ends meet.

Nacho bar fundraiser for the Seneca Tank.

It would have been easy to expect few donations from these men and women who were working around the clock just to provide the basics for their own families. But that was simply not the case. As Tom and Jenni invited the group to donate, funds came pooling in. Ranging from pocket change to one dollar bills to larger donations, you could feel a sense of enthusiasm in the room as these workers gave up their hard-earned cash and rallied around to help. Some of the workers even took it a step further and organized their own fundraiser over a lunchtime nacho-bar.

Before long, these workers at Seneca Foods had done it - they had successfully raised the funds for our 11th water tank! On March 18th, 2018, this tank was commissioned at Gaitheri Primary, serving almost 400 students! Thanks to the generosity of the workers at Seneca, these students’ school experience would never be the same.

Scroll through the pictures below to see pictures of the Seneca Tank at Gaitheri Primary School in Kenya.