November 2, 2011

Cargill partners with Feeding America to improve food safety

Cargill is helping Feeding America to further enhance its food safety practices, the group announced on October 31 (Mon).

"The people we serve deserve safe, high quality food. All of our food banks adhere to the same stringent standards as grocers, food manufacturers and restaurants, but we strive to be best in class," said Vicki Escarra, president and chief executive officer of Feeding America. "Cargill is a leader in food safety and a long time supporter of Feeding America. Our partnership is a key to helping us achieve our food safety goals."

Cargill recently donated US$3 million to Feeding America, half of which will go toward implementing rigorous food safety enhancements. This includes training Feeding America's 200 member food banks on best practices and working with a third party organisation to audit the network for food safety excellence. In 2007, Cargill provided initial funding for Feeding America to create its national food safety program. With its most recent grant, Cargill will continue to provide expertise on food safety.

"Food safety is an important public health issue that presents complex challenges for hunger relief organisations," said Mike Robach, who leads Cargill's food safety efforts. "Cargill is working to continuously improve food safety, and we welcome the opportunity to share our knowledge. We applaud Feeding America's leadership in this area."

Another US$500,000 will support increasing the capacity and efficiency of Feeding America's food sourcing program, which secured more than one billion pounds of food from food manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers last year.

In addition to supporting food safety and sourcing enhancements, US$1 million of Cargill's grant will support Hunger-Free Minnesota. The initiative is a state-wide collaboration in Cargill's headquarters community for corporate and community organisations to work together to close Minnesota's gap of 100 million meals, annually and sustainably, by the end of 2014. It is the goal of Feeding America that Hunger-Free Minnesota will serve as a pilot for other states to replicate.