BAKERSFIELD, CA - Bolthouse Farms continues to invest in both its people and its communities, donating more than $4 million worth of fresh carrots, beverages, dressings, and money in the last year. Driven by its mission of Plants Powering People, the company's efforts started with taking care of its employees in the early days of COVID-19, and has now expanded to partnerships with local community non-profits as well as national organizations like Feeding America and other food banks nationwide.
"We believe that charitable giving begins at home. Through the last several months in particular, taking care of our employees' health and well-being has been our highest priority and being able to provide fresh food to our employees who work so hard to keep Americans fed and nourished was just the beginning," said Bill Levisay, President, Bolthouse Farms. "Our long-term commitment to food banks became even more important during the pandemic and guided our giving efforts toward these organizations in our local communities and across North America to deliver healthy, fresh food to those in need during these challenging times."
At the beginning of the pandemic, Bolthouse moved quickly to help its employees, purchasing food and other essentials for them to ease stress. The company also gave employees its own carrots, dressings, and beverages. Bolthouse then extended its efforts to those in the communities in which it operates and around the country, asking employees to join its efforts, resulting in total donations of more than $4 million, a press release noted.
Product donations consisted of nearly 200,000 cases of juices, smoothies, protein shakes, and dressings, as well as more than two-and-a-half million pounds of fresh carrots and other produce. Additionally, employee programs generated more than $60,000 in monetary donations for Feeding America, which included a company dollar-for-dollar match and an additional personal dollar-for-dollar match from Bolthouse Farms CEO Jeff Dunn.
As part of the donations, Bolthouse Farms donated a full truckload of carrots to each of the food banks in the communities of Bakersfield, California; Los Angeles, California; and Hodgkins, Illinois.
The donation in Bakersfield was made to CAPK Food Bank, an organization that has more than 200 distribution sites and serves approximately 150,000 clients per month in Kern County.
"We're thankful to have a mission-driven company like Bolthouse Farms located in our area," said Maureen Andrew, spokesperson, CAPK Food Bank Food Solicitor. "They are an extremely important donor in our community and their support and generous donations have made a meaningful impact on our community – our clients having access to healthy foods is critical in times of need."
Other local organizations supported with product donations include the following:
- Bakersfield Homeless Center
- Cuyama Valley Family Resource Center
- Feeding America (National, Eastern Wisconsin, West Michigan)
- Food Bank of Eastern Michigan
- Gleaners Community Food Bank (Bakersfield, Indiana, Golden Empire)
- Greater Chicago Food Depository
- Los Angeles Unified School District
- Los Angeles Regional Food Bank
- Mercy Hospital, Bakersfield
- Northern Illinois Food Bank
- Second Harvest Central Florida
- Shriners Hospital for Children
- The Food Bank for Central & Northeast Missouri
- The Salvation Army
- Mission of Kern County
- Ronald McDonald House (National & Bakersfield)
- CityServe Bakersfield
Thank you to Bolthouse for being a premier example of what the produce industry is all about!
