Philanthropy
We announced our Inspired Pathways program in 2020, which will provide the opportunity of a free two-year college education for the dependent children of our team members.
We know how important it is to support education, as well as initiatives that build better communities and help others.
From scholarship opportunities to volunteer efforts and donations, we are proud of our ongoing efforts. We are proud to report that we launched several new philanthropic initiatives in 2020: an Inspired Giving Spotlight Charities Campaign Program, our 10 Under 20 Food Heroes Awards program and our Inspired Pathways program. More information about these exciting new efforts can be found below.
Examples Of Our Efforts
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$250K+Donated
Inspired Giving Spotlight Charities Campaign Program
We launched our Inspired Giving Spotlight Charities Campaign Program in 2020. Our first campaign helped support education and equity. The featured organizations for the campaign were: Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS); the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund; and UNCF. Hormel Foods provided a donation of $100,000 split equally among the organizations. In addition, the company matched team member and retiree donations. In total, more than $250,000 was donated to these organizations through this effort. Some of the funds are being used to establish Hormel Foods scholarships with MANRRS and the UNCF. The company will hold several different spotlight charities campaigns each year through this program.
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Reading Program
Inspired Pathways
We announced our Inspired Pathways program in 2020, which will provide the opportunity of a free two-year college education to the dependent children of our team members, beginning with the 2021-2022 academic year. The program supports education and equity, and comes at a time when paying for college has become a hardship for many people.
“When you think about how a college education can change lives and start a ripple effect that will be felt for generations, that’s the change-maker Hormel Foods wants to be,” said Jim Snee, chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer of Hormel Foods. Additional information about this program can be found here and in the video below.
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10 Under 20 Food Heroes Awards Program
To recognize young heroes doing remarkable work to help others, and to inspire others to do the same, we launched our 10 Under 20 Food Heroes Awards program in 2020. Nine young people – most not old enough to drive – and an organization filled with preteens received high honors from Hormel Foods through this initiative. They were all recognized and shared their stories during the company’s first-ever Spirit Week virtual event. In addition to recognizing these heroes, the company provided grants of $5,000 to help them continue to do their work. Hormel Foods also provided a $10,000 grant to Joshua’s Heart Foundation, whose founder served as the program ambassador for this inaugural group of heroes. From hunger relief to food waste initiatives and more, we were proud to honor these young heroes and support their causes. Read more about our 10 Under 20 Food Heroes here.
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$20KAwarded In Scholarships
Hormel Heroes Scholarships
Hormel Foods created the Hormel Heroes Scholarship Program to support female students with military backgrounds who are pursuing careers in culinary arts or a program related to foodservice management. The program is administered by the National Restaurant Educational Foundation. In 2020, we awarded two $10,000 scholarships.
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16Undergrad Scholarships Awardedto children of Hormel Foods team members
Undergraduate College Scholarships
For the 54th consecutive year, Hormel Foods awarded 16 undergraduate college scholarships to children of full-time, retired and deceased team members of Hormel Foods and its subsidiaries. Hormel Foods has provided funds for the scholarship program since 1966, and recipients receive awards of $2,000 per year for four years. These students showed exemplary scholastic abilities and leadership qualities, outstanding standardized test scores and significant involvement in their schools and communities.
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57Scholarshipsawarded
Jennie-O Turkey Store Scholarships
Each year, our Jennie-O Turkey Store subsidiary awards continuing education scholarships in the amount of $1,000 and Golden Excellence Scholarships in the amount of $6,000 to selected children of team members. In 2020, Jennie-O Turkey Store awarded 50 students with $1,000 scholarships and two students with $6,000 scholarships.
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4K+Hoursvolunteered by Jennie-O Turkey Store team members
Team Member Volunteer Hours
Our team members support organizations in their communities, electing to help others through monetary donations as well as by volunteering their time and talents. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many in-person volunteer initiatives were not held; however, our Jennie-O Turkey Store team members were still able to help out and reported a total of more than 4,900 volunteer hours in 2020.* We are in the process of capturing this information for all our locations so we can include it in future reports.