10. GIVING BACK & COMMUNITY
A Founding Belief
Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen once asked:
Why can’t business seek to make positive contributions to society — even if a particular decision isn’t based on the least-cost solution? Why can’t companies contribute to the health of the communities where they do business?
— from Values-Driven Business: How to Change the World, Make Money, and Have Fun by Ben & Jerry’s cofounder Ben Cohen and Mal Warwick (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2006)
Jerry Greenfield, our other co-founder, put it even more succinctly:
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. As you give, you receive. Or, to put it in a more “businesslike” way: one hand washes the other.
— from Ben & Jerry’s Double-Dip: How to Run a Values-Led Business and Make Money, Too (Simon & Schuster, 1998)
These thoughts have inspired us over the years to think carefully about the many communities where we have a presence — and the meaningful ways we can make a contribution to their quality of life. Involvement in the support of local projects and programs — big and small — is not only good business, it’s an indispensable component in our three-part mission to make a superior product, prosper economically in sustainable ways and recognize the role that business can play in building a better world.
In that spirit, here are some of our community-based program highlights for 2008:
Community Action Teams
Ben & Jerry’s Community Action Teams (CATs) are employee-directed groups at each of our Vermont sites that make small grants to local community organizations, and organize annual community service projects. CAT grants are in the $100-$1,000 range, and support schools and after-school programs, community recreational programs, arts groups, local conservation projects, and more.
2008 CAT Projects:
- South Burlington — 45 employees participated in a day of work at the Food Works Farm and the Vermont Foodbank.
- St. Albans — 240 employees participated in projects to benefit Camp Abnaki, United Way International, and The Humane Society.
- Waterbury — 96 employees participated in a project to benefit the Lamoille Area Recreation Center and Thatcher Brooks Natural Playground Project.
- Waterbury Mini-CAT — 32 employees participated in projects to benefit the Waterbury Food Shelf, Vermont Foodbank, and the Worcester Volunteer Fire Department.
Other Community Service
Individual Service — Our employees are also encouraged and supported in taking on individual service projects. South Burlington employees have a paid community service benefit that totals 40 hours per year. Salaried workers in our manufacturing plants who do community service on their personal time are given up to three days of additional community service time off on a day-for-day matching basis. Here are the totals of individual volunteer hours contributed under these programs:
- South Burlington — 529 hours
- St. Albans — 1,118 hours
- Waterbury — 1,378 hours
Global Brand Meeting — 65 participants in our global brand meeting completed a 6-hour service project at Vermont’s Camp DREAM in May, building infrastructure to serve children from low-income housing projects. We also made a cash donation to the camp totaling $10,000.
Global Franchise Community Gathering — In line with a longstanding Ben & Jerry’s tradition, we kicked off this annual event with a day-long community service project renovating a primary school in a low-income neighborhood in Puerto Morelos, just south of Cancun, Mexico.
Community Involvement,
at Home and Around the World
Both in our Vermont home and globally, Ben & Jerry’s sponsors all kinds of charitable activities in local communities. Here’s a sampling:
At Home:
- We sponsored the Lake Champlain Dragon Boat Festival, held on August 3 at the Burlington, Vermont waterfront. The event raises awareness and funds to find a cure for breast cancer.
- We sponsored dozens of local Vermont organizations working in the arts, education, and the environment, with cash support for events and activities totaling $83,000.
- Our corporate office sponsored over two-dozen community events in Vermont, ranging from a Sustainable Living Expo to the Burlington Book Festival. At many of these events, our Scoop Truck doled out free ice cream just for the fun of it. All together, we donated over 400 gallons of ice cream and hundreds of hours of staff time at these community events.
- We gave away ice cream totaling $39,900 to various organizations throughout the U.S. and Canada. We also gave away 10,000 free Ben & Jerry’s pint coupons to support the work of over 1,500 nonprofits outside the state of Vermont. Closer to home, we donated over 1,000 gallons of ice cream to Vermont nonprofits through both our manufacturing plants and Vermont’s Finest (our in-state distributor). On top of the Company’s donations, our scoop shop owners gave away thousands of gallons of ice cream to support the work of nonprofit organizations in their local markets. To spur themselves on to even greater heights of generosity and community involvement, the Franchise Advisory Council decided to set aside $40,000 out of their system-wide marketing budget to fund a unique Matching Bulk Program that reimburses individual scoop shops for half of the cost of ice cream donated to nonprofit organizations.
- We discontinued our ‘Factory Seconds’ program in 2008. In previous years, this program sold Vermont-produced ice cream that didn’t meet first quality standards at a discount in mom-and-pop stores in Vermont. The program also paid a contribution towards local charities designated by participating stores. New production procedures in our plants have virtually eliminated our supply of ‘factory seconds,’ so we don’t have the ice cream to run the program anymore. We regret the loss of revenue for local charities.
Around the World (a few snippets):
- We made a one-time contribution of $20,000 to the El Guabo banana cooperative in coastal Ecuador for the purchase of buying a Bobcat loader. El Guabo — with its more than 350 producers — is a supplier of Fairtrade banana puree to our European business and is considered a model for how agri-business can contribute both financially and equitably. The Bobcat was a critical need, particularly in the aftermath of severe flooding in the area in early 2008.
- We put on our annual Sundae on the Common Festival in London, U.K., to the delight of tens of thousands of people who enjoyed live music, free ice cream, and all sorts of wacky events. We also purchased carbon offsets through MyClimate for all emissions associated with the event, totaling €25,000. These offsets supported the development of renewable wind energy in Madagascar.
- We donated €20,000 to Reseau Cocagne in France, a nonprofit that supports sustainable organic food production throughout the country that employs disenfranchised workers. Reseau Cocagne manages 115 gardens (both vegetable and flower) in France, and employs 3,000 workers, 450 managers, and 1,200 volunteers.
For more info on our involvement in other countries around the world, please see our “Country Capsules.”
