Heaven Hill Brands today presented the Food Literacy Project with a $13,765.33 donation benefitting efforts to support youth transforming their communities through food, farming, and the land. Philanthropy is an important part of Heaven Hill’s mission to improve the local communities by offering charitable support for education, cultural enrichment and health and wellbeing, as well as supporting employee-driven partnerships through the annual philanthropy project. To view the virtual donation announcement and check presentation, click here.
Each year Heaven Hill Brands is proud to host an employee-driven and collaborative fundraising project that benefits charities close to its employees’ hearts. The company looks to its employees to submit non-profit organizations to be considered as the recipient of a company-wide, employee-led fundraising effort, with matching funds from the company up to $5,000. Past recipients have included Feeding America, Portland Elementary, Flaget Memorial Hospital’s Project Hope, Ronald McDonald House, and Coalition for the Homeless.
For the fifth Annual Philanthropy Project, Heaven Hill chose the Food Literacy Project, which was submitted by Rachel Nally, Environmental and Sustainability Manager. The Food Literacy Project is extremely important to Rachel because having been raised in the suburbs, she did not have regular exposure to seeing food grow. Though her parents had a garden, she was lucky to spend some weekends at her grandparent’s rural home where they had a large kitchen garden, until they too moved to the suburbs. As small family farms and kitchen gardens rapidly disappear from the landscape, so does the knowledge of how to grow food, cook food, and care for the land, especially in urban and underserved areas.
“Food Literacy Project’s vision speaks loudly to our world today and resonated with employees across our company as we continue to address health, wealth and food disparities in both our city and our country,” said Rachel. “Now I have my own garden that feeds our family through a good part of the year, but in the early days I felt like I was re-learning everything I thought I knew about food. As small family farms and kitchen gardens rapidly disappear from the landscape, so does the knowledge of how to grow food, cook food, and care for the land, especially in urban and underserved areas.”
The Food Literacy Project is a nonprofit organization with a vision to create a healthy and equitable community where people and places thrive. Since 2005, the Food Literacy Project has been building resilience in our community, especially during this unsettling time, by engaging youth leaders to provide access to fresh and healthy food and caring for our neighbors.
“The Food Literacy Project is grateful to receive support from Heaven Hill Brands,” said Carol Gundersen, Founder and Executive Director of the Food Literacy Project. “The past year has been challenging for everyone. But for many in our community, struggle and uncertainty are persistent conditions. Social norms and unjust policies have limited access to healthcare, economic prosperity, and healthy food for far too many generations. The question is, how do we begin to erode these barriers and grow a community where we all can thrive?”
Carol said, “we believe in the power of young people to address the root causes of food insecurity and build our community’s capacity to become healthy, just, sustainable, and equitable.” She added, “I would like to thank all the employees at Heaven Hill for their commitment to helping our community GROW FORWARD.”
Through several fundraising initiatives between September and December 2020, Heaven Hill employees worked together to raise funds for the Food Literacy Project. Heaven Hill is proud of its employees’ commitment to giving back to the community and excited to see the impact this donation makes in the community.
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MEDIA CONTACT:
Lauren Cherry
Heaven Hill Brands
(502) 413-0217
lcherry@heavenhill.com