Hormel Foods Corporation (NYSE: HRL), a Fortune 500 global branded food company, today announced the launch of its 16th annual Global Impact Report. The report, available online at https://www.hormelfoods.com/global-impact/ , contains detailed information about the company’s progress toward its corporate responsibility and environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals in fiscal 2021.
“For over 130 years, we’ve been making a difference, with our people, in our communities and with our products,” said Jim Snee, chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer of Hormel Foods. “We do this by producing high-quality, safe, affordable and convenient food products while being an unwavering steward of the environment. We are on a mission with Our Food Journey™ — one that compels us to do our part every day to make the world a better place and to continue to raise the bar on our ESG efforts.”
Hormel Foods continues to be recognized as a leading corporate citizen. In 2021, the company was named one of America’s Most Responsible Companies by Newsweek magazine, one of the 50 Best Companies to Sell For by Selling Power, a Best for Vets Employer by Military Times and one of the World’s Top Female-Friendly Companies by Forbes. The company also received several Impact Awards from Progressive Grocer for its educational support and food security programs.
Some highlights of the company’s 2021 progress include:
- The company launched its updated set of corporate responsibility and ESG goals – its 20 By 30 Challenge. Through the updated goal set, the company is striving to achieve 20 qualitative and quantitative goals and commitments by the end of 2030. The goals were based on a key topics assessment process that helped the company identify and prioritize the issues most relevant to the business and its stakeholders. The goals also support the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
- The company initiated or completed several renewable energy wind and solar projects and is on track to have an approved science-based target for the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2023.
- The company assessed several regenerative agriculture projects, and its Applegate subsidiary launched the Applegate Naturals® Do Good Dog™ hot dog made with beef raised on verified regenerative U.S. grasslands.
- To ensure the company’s high standards for animal care are met, more than 2,300 audits were conducted. In addition, the company continued its antibiotic stewardship work and published its first Antibiotic Stewardship Report. The report provides comprehensive, detailed and transparent information about the company’s antibiotic stewardship program and metrics from some of the farms in its supply chain.
- The company launched over 400 new retail and foodservice items and achieved its goal to generate 15% of sales from innovative new items.* In addition, the company focused on efforts to reduce added sugars and sodium in its products and continued its clean-label initiative.
- As part of its efforts to support equity in education, the company pioneered a groundbreaking college degree program, Inspired Pathways, for the dependent children of its team members. The 2021-2022 academic year was the first year of this program that provided support to over 150 students. This included many first-generation college students.
- In alignment with the company’s Safety First culture, safety training was conducted for an average of over 15,000 team members every month and approximately 1,000 safety assessments were completed each month companywide.
- The company contributed more than $8.5 million in cash and products to help others. This includes $6.6 million in hunger-relief donations (or more than 8.4 million individual meals**), a donation of 2.1 million cans of SPAMMY® (a shelf-stable poultry product to help prevent childhood malnutrition in Guatemala) and more than $960,000 to support educational institutions and the company’s Inspired Pathways program students.
“Feeding people is an awesome responsibility; one that we take seriously,” Snee said. “As a global branded food company, we understand the responsibility that comes with our size and scale, not only for consumers, employees and shareholders, but also to our customers and communities. Our 20,000 inspired team members are committed to Our Food Journey™, and we are confident we can continue to be a force for positive change in the world.”
The 2021 Hormel Foods Global Impact Report follows the Global Reporting Initiative’s standards and is developed in accordance with the core option. The content index of the report also includes references to the corresponding UN Sustainable Development Goals. To view the entire report, please visit https://www.hormelfoods.com/global-impact/ . A downloadable PDF will be available in the coming weeks.
*Based on net sales for new items launched within the previous three years and the projected sales for items scheduled to launch in the next two years, divided by total reported sales for the year.
**Using the Feeding America estimates of $1 donated = 10 meals and 1.2 pounds donated = one meal.
