Jasmine Jirele mobilizes her workforce to bring economic stability not only to customers but to those in need in their community.

At Allianz Life, our mission is to secure your future. This does not stop at retirement planning for our customers. We also help secure the future of our employees and the broader community in the Twin Cities (Minnesota) by focusing our efforts on reducing barriers to economic inclusion.

We bring this to life through our commitment to the Midway neighborhood in St. Paul, which has only grown stronger in the years since our investment in Allianz Field, home of the Minnesota United Football Club (MNUFC). By partnering with both the soccer team and area nonprofit partners, we work together to support the community around the stadium.

One of our long-standing Midway-area nonprofit partners is Keystone Community Services. Keystone is an organization that works to strengthen the capacity of individuals and families to improve their quality of life through food services and both senior and youth programming. Every year, we team up with MNUFC to raise the visibility of Keystone and the need for food in our community.

One Friday each month during the summer, Allianz Life employees join forces with MNUFC and Keystone to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to community members to help make ends meet. What started as a small food distribution event outside the stadium in 2019 has since grown exponentially to a much more impactful effort, and we just recently wrapped up our sixth summer of Free Farmers Markets at Allianz Field. Since the beginning of this partnership, hundreds of Allianz volunteers have helped to distribute more than 500,000 pounds of food to 12,000 area households.

By partnering with local organizations like Keystone, we are helping improve financial stability through access to fundamental necessities, like food, for our neighbors in need. This effort serves the immediate needs of many and reinforces our commitment to being more than a name on Allianz Field by deeply investing in and supporting the neighborhood around the stadium.

But this work is also impactful for our employees. The Free Farmers Markets are one of our most-anticipated employee volunteer opportunities, where employees connect with each other and make a positive impact.

Our partnership with Keystone doesn’t stop there. We recognize that not everyone is able to go offsite to donate their time, so we also bring employees and community partners together right on our campus every year for another volunteer opportunity that supports Keystone. In this annual event called Allianz Impact Day, more than 250 employees come together to pack hygiene kits to help more people in our community access basic needs.

Our commitment to the Midway neighborhood extends beyond Keystone. More than 50% of our charitable contributions each year support organizations located in or serving the Midway area, ensuring tens of thousands of people have opportunities to build financial security through access to basic needs, gainful employment and financial education.

In addition to our nonprofit support, last year we celebrated the opening of an affordable housing complex just two blocks from Allianz Field in the Midway neighborhood. This 55-unit building is just one of our local affordable-housing investments and is part our larger commitment to housing accessibility and affordability across the Twin Cities and around the country. Since 2009, we have committed $2.6 billion to the creation of affordable housing across the U.S, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, including 1,500 units right here in our hometown.

Our partnership with Keystone and other organizations in the Midway align with our values of integrity, caring, excellence and respect, as well as our commitment to being a socially responsible company. Together with our employees and community partners, we are securing the futures of many and building a stronger community for generations to come.

Jasmine Jirele is president and CEO of Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America (Allianz Life). With more than 25 years in the financial services industry, she has broad experience in financial services strategy, marketing, product and operations. We have honored her as a Social Capital CEO in our feature articles “Family Is the Backbone of Business: CEOs Who Support Our Most Important Institution” and “Authentic CEOs: Antidote to the Counterfeit Culture.”