Philanthropy

Smithfield Foods, Inc. is pleased to announce a $15,000 donation to the Sullivan County Exposition Center & Fairgrounds to support the construction of an outdoor amphitheater overlooking Lake Cowgill that will be utilized for events throughout the year.

In the 166 years since its founding, Wells Fargo has proved to be much more than a financial services company. It’s an institution that has invested billions in communities all across the U.S., promoted diversity and inclusion initiatives both big and small and led the industry in reducing its own environmental impact. We recently spoke to Campbell about how Wells Fargo chooses its philanthropy projects, what it’s doing to increase access to affordable housing and how it is reducing its carbon footprint.

To help brighten the darkest moments of patients’ cancer treatment journeys, LLS created the Light The Night campaign. A series of fundraising walks across the country, Light The Night benefits research to find blood cancer cures and improve the quality of life for patients and their families.

Carolyn Bloodworth is an effective team builder who works tirelessly to meet the basic needs of Michigan residents through Consumers Energy Foundation and Consumers Energy employee volunteers. Throughout her tenure as director of Corporate Giving at Consumers Energy, she has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for our communities in Michigan.

Whole Kids Foundation announced today that it has awarded Bee Hive Grants to two schools in Washington, D.C. with money raised from the inaugural Give Bees a Chance campaign held this summer. Grant recipients include District of Columbia International School and Hearst Elementary School. Each school will receive support for an educational bee hive on campus, providing students with learning opportunities around science, ecology, nutrition, business and agriculture learning opportunities.

Two years ago, the sustainability business community elected me to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Stakeholder Council (SC). Thank you, it has been an honor to represent you. I recently traveled to Amsterdam to attend the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Council. I thought our readers might like to hear some of what we discussed and learned.

Children are born innovators. They experiment and create marvelous new things. Ask any parent how the constant “why” questions, from their children, have changed how they see the world.

I’m particularly cognizant of this today as we launch our 2018 Corporate Social Responsibility Report. This is a big change from the first CSR Report that I stewarded and co-authored in 2005. Like any first-generation product, there was a great room for improvement. However, every year as we meet a goal and work towards the next, as we expand existing partnerships and establish new ones, as we uncover new ways our technology can be leveraged to benefit our world, we have a stronger story to tell. Here are highlights of where we’ve come, and where we are going.

Gdansk, Poland – Arrow Electronics employees in Gdansk, Poland, participated in the Noble Gift, a holiday campaign that provides aid to families in need nationwide. Through the campaign, the office sponsored a family for the holidays who lost everything in a fire, and gathered donations for their “wish list.” After raising the funds, employees shopped for and wrapped the items to be delivered to the family, which included clothing, kitchen items, a new stove, bedding, food and more.

As a child, Tim Rios remembers going food shopping with his parents. He and his siblings weren't allowed to enter certain aisles in the supermarket because the adults didn't want their children to get tempted by unhealthy snacks and especially food the family couldn't afford. "My parents worried all the time about getting enough healthy food on the table," Rios, whose family came to the U.S. from Mexico in the early ‘80s, says. "When I got married, for the first year, I would ask my wife for her permission to open a bag of chips."