[ad_1]
Welcome to service calls. The purpose of this regular function is to highlight some of the most commendable examples of altruism and sustainability in the travel retail industry by companies that go beyond the call of duty.
More than a century ago, in a small Pennsylvania town in the United States, a social enterprise was created, producing chocolate that is now sold in duty free shops around the world. The pioneering social entrepreneur, Milton Hershey, created a selfless empire based on the principle of "doing well by doing well".
When you hear the name Hershey, you automatically think of chocolate bars made in America for Americans. Most Americans would know that they are manufactured in the city of Hershey, Pennsylvania. A lesser known fact is that chocolate does not bear the name of the city of Hershey; The city is named after the founder of the Hershey chocolate company, Milton S. Hershey.
Jim George, a retired corporate veteran, is founder and chairman of the board All All Hershey.
During a visit to the company's headquarters organized by Steve Bentz, Managing Director of World Travel Retail at Hershey, I was greeted by retired company veteran Jim George, founder and Chairman of All About Hershey, which is an encyclopedia on the history and heritage of society. and Jeff King, Senior Director, Sustainability and CSR, and Suzanne Jones, Vice President of The Hershey Experience, which operates the company's retail stores.
Formerly known as Derry Church, Pennsylvania, Hershey is now known as "the sweetest place on the planet." When you arrive by car, the first attraction to welcome visitors is the original building, with its high chimneys, bearing the name of the company Hershey. It soon becomes clear that the entire city is centered around the brand: the Milton Hershey School, the Hershey Hotel, the Hershey Chocolate World, the Hershey Story Museum … even the street lights take the form of Kisses from Hershey.
This emphasis on brand and society is not only due to the fact that most of the city's property is owned and operated by Hershey-related businesses and by trust, but also as a tribute to men. and to his inheritance.
High chimneys on behalf of The Hershey Company welcome visitors to "The World's Sweetest Place".
Hershey's CSR projects, as reported by Jeff King, encompbad a variety of national and international activities; as part of environmental initiatives, work towards sustainable cocoa production programs and farmers' livelihoods in supply markets, and initiatives to support employees in society and communities
Indeed, the company Hershey is based on philanthropy and on a model of social economy.
When Jim Hershey opened his original chocolate factory in 1905, explains Jim George, he explained from the beginning his innovative vision of running a clean, green and healthy business. The actual origin of the company dates back several years earlier, a few years earlier, in 1894, and a full story is available on the Hershey Archives website: https://hersheyarchives.org.
In the late 1800s, at the time of the industrial revolution, Milton Hershey had already launched several companies without success and, at the age of 30, had gone bankrupt twice.
But with the successful launch of The Lancaster Caramel Company, from which he will create The Hershey Chocolate Company, he was determined to make the company a social business, focusing on corporate social responsibility decades before same as the term is even invented. His corporate strategy was focused on helping his employees, the local community, children from disadvantaged backgrounds and people in need in general.
The Hershey Street Lamps are shaped like Hershey's Kisses.
While other entrepreneurs of the time lived lavish lifestyles and took advantage of their earnings, Milton Hershey focused on building a model city for his employees. Where previously there were no public services available to the city's inhabitants, as early as 1905, Milton Hershey undertook to build affordable housing for his employees, as well as water systems, a system of transportation, an education system and schools.
George explains how Hershey laid the foundation for his legacy by funding the education of the underprivileged more than a century ago. In 1909, he and his wife Catherine [or Kitty, as she was known], founded the Hershey Industrial School for Orphans. George died prematurely in 1915, and three years later, Milton Hershey decided not to wait for his death to pbad on his fortune. He created a trust fund and donated his entire estate to the school, creating the Milton Hershey School Trust.
The Trust has become the owner and beneficiary not only of the Hershey Chocolate Company, but also of all of its other non-chocolate related badets and activities, including large lots around the city, utility companies and holding companies. Foreign. The donation was made public only five years later.
Milton S. Hershey, founder of the Hershey chocolate company. Photo: mhskids.org.
Today, the school continues to flourish, providing education and a family environment to more than 2,000 students each year, all from disadvantaged backgrounds. The school's annual budget is funded exclusively by the company's dividends, as well as by profits from other divisions of the Hershey Trust entities.
They do not receive donations from other companies, institutions or people. When you ask them how you can support the school, the answer is always friendly: "buy a Hershey's bar".
Milton Hershey died in 1945 at the age of 88 without any children, but his legacy lives on and social businesses continue to thrive. In the 1970s, girls were admitted to school, which is expected to increase from 2,100 students to 2,300 over the next few years.
Students come from all over the United States, from homes with social and financial needs. Children live together in houses with between eight and twelve children of the same bad and age group. Caregivers are full-time employees of the Milton Hershey School, employed as "housekeepers", to take care of their extended family before and after clbades and to maintain the household during the day.
Brandy and Adam Powell photographed in front of their Hershey souvenir cabinet at home.
Brandy and Adam Powell, for example, take care of nine girls aged 8 to 12 years old. They all live with the Powells and their two children. They eat together, help each other to do their homework and housework. The girls sleep in bedrooms two by two and the family has their own housing in the house provided by the school. Every day, parents drop off and pick up kids at Milton Hershey School, as ordinary parents. Children receive food, clothing, medical care, dental care and, most importantly, respect, support and love.
The campus of Milton Hershey School. Photo: mhskids.org.
One of the most remarkable stories, says Jim George, concerns the $ 50 million phone call and the origin of the Milton S Hershey Medical Center at Penn State University. This has left a deep and lasting impact on the city.
In the early 1960s, when business was booming, Hershey Trust management at the time was faced with the dilemma of having too much money to reinvest in the School Trust and badociated organizations. The CEO of The Hershey Trust Company, at the time, telephoned the President of Penn State University to ask how long it would take to create a faculty of medicine. The agreement has been accepted and the Hershey Trust has announced the necessary funds provided that the school is named after Milton Hershey and that she is based in Hershey, Pennsylvania. This donation was a one-time donation and the medical center, which serves the surrounding community, is now autonomous.
Hershey's CSR commitments are not limited to Hershey itself. The director of sustainability and CSR, Jeff King, said the company aimed to involve employees and consumers, with clear key performance indicators for both groups as well as for recipient projects.
The role of director of sustainability and CSR for a company founded as an organization focused on social goals, with CSR at the base, is not an easy task. King succeeded in carrying the torch by launching Hershey's "promise of shared goodness" around four key areas.
These include Shared Future, investing in children, future success and healthy eating; and Shared Planet, which focuses on the company's carbon footprint, both in terms of manufacturing emissions and waste management, as well as the impact of its cocoa purchases on the environment. .
The promise of Hershey's shared goodness (click to enlarge).
A third area, Shared Business, focuses on sustainability, transparency and targeted activities through partnerships, whether in the consumer market or in the source markets. Finally, in shared communities, Hershey invests in its employees, maintains a culture of volunteerism and ensures that everyone living and working in the community is cared for.
The company's employees spend more than 130,000 hours a year volunteering – a policy that is not imposed but is widely applied by staff, all of whom seem to share Hershey's philanthropic DNA.
One of the most recent projects is "Nourishing Minds," which encompbades all aspects of Hershey's Shared Goodness Promise ethics. In countries like Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana, where Hershey sources raw materials, cocoa beans, children are facing serious nutrition problems.
In 2015, King decided to tackle the problem by developing ViVi, a nutritional snack based on local peanuts, which allows children to meet their daily nutritional needs. The Hershey Company supplies more than 50,000 children with the ViVi snack enriched with peanut butter vitamins, not only as a one-time gift, but once a day. The snack supplement provides children with 30% of their daily vitamin requirements and has helped reduce anemia by 43% in Ghana, according to King.
The project, part of Hershey's "Cocoa For Good" program, also helps maintain local communities as the company works with more than 7,500 local farmers to find peanuts for snacking. The product is not marketed anywhere. it's a pure philanthropic product provided for free by Hershey. The company's Nourishing Minds program is also being implemented in the United States through "Feeding America", where one in five children is "food insecure".
Cocoa For Good aims to combat poverty, create more environmentally friendly production methods as part of the company's Responsible Sourcing program, and support young adults at risk through education programs. 'education. With the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other NGOs, Hershey has begun to invest in the future of its agricultural workers through business skills and training to diversify the business. 39; agriculture.
Adopt a long-term vision: Jeff King, Director, Sustainable Development and CSR.
Hershey's Cocoa For Good program has so far trained more than 49,000 farmers in good farming practices and alternative income generation once the cocoa growing season is over. Other community-based psychosocial skills programs are designed to help cocoa-producing communities become more self-reliant and self-reliant.
Hershey's philanthropic work is significant, both financially and geographically, with projects in China and Africa, as well as close to Canada. Millions of dollars in donations are made each year for causes ranging from children's welfare and education to women's empowerment, to long-term investments in sustainable agriculture.
Kindness, service to others and shared happiness are the values that are ubiquitous in the projects and the men of the company, and that its founder expresses best: "The value of our good is not measured at this time. that she does to the one who is concerned. "
Source link
