Stronger Together: Brands Supporting Their Community
Let’s be honest. The world is a dark place right now, and it can be a challenge to remain optimistic. But, if we’ve learned one thing over the past month of social distancing, it’s that in times of panic and concern it’s more important than ever for us to band together and support our community.
This week, we want to shed a light on some of the great philanthropic initiatives that we have seen over the past month. The food & beverage industry is in a seemingly fortunate position, and it has been incredible to see so many brands utilizing their resources to support their communities.
We love our clients
We don’t say it enough, but we are truly fortunate to be able to work with a group of incredible brands. Each and every one of our clients is truly incredible, and we are thrilled to see many of them reprioritizing their resources to help those in need. We would like to highlight three brands that we believe are going above and beyond to lend a helping hand.
On March 12th, Goya Foods donated 18,225 meals through the Food Education Fund to the students and families of six public high schools in New York City. They have since continued to donate meals across the country to local food banks, food pantries and soup kitchens including Catholic Charities of New York and Newark, The Sisters of Life, The Food Bank of New Jersey, City Harvest, The Houston Food Bank, and Feeding South Florida.
Red Gold recently donated hundreds of empty bottles to Eskenazi Health who were partnering with local distributors and brewers to produce hand sanitizer.
Through April 20th, Stryve is donating 50% of their profits through online sales to Feeding America’s COVID-19 Response Fund. They also have donated their biltong products to nurses and doctors across the country who are fighting on the front lines to keep America safe and healthy.
Brewing Together
As many of us know, one of the first products to sell-out nationwide was hand sanitizers. Although some of the larger producers of this necessary product were quick to ramp up their production, the demand for it continued to overwhelm the supply chain. However, an unlikely (but seemingly obvious) hero came to lend a much-needed hand. Many beer and liquor brands across the nation have shifted their breweries and distilleries to producing hand sanitizers.
Molson Coors craft breweries across the nation have shifted their production facilities to creating and packaging hand sanitizer, as well as canned water, and many other necessary resources. Paul Verdu, Vice President of Tenth and Black said, “Craft brewers were built beer by beer in their hometowns and they are all about community. Doing the right thing to lift up our communities, including our retailer and distributor partners, to lend a hand to the very people who helped establish these businesses isn’t a heavy lift for our craft brewers because that’s who they are as people and that’s what their businesses are all about.”
In Southern California, the heart of craft breweries and distilleries, many brands within the San Diego Distillers Guild have started producing hand sanitizer to sell at their store-fronts and/or to donate to local non-profits.
What can you do?
Recently on our podcast, Beyond the Shelf, we spoke with Jess Saba of Good Point PR. She walked us through the many ways brands have been reacting to the ongoing pandemic. During these trying times, she recommends the following to brands interested in supporting their community:
- Convert resources to assist emergency response.
- If possible, make resource donations to non-profits.
- Volunteer or provide skilled labor.
- If possible, make monetary donations to or fundraise for non-profit organizations.
- Marketing is not your focus. Think about how your company’s actions are providing value to the community.
To learn more about what brands should be doing during this unfortunate time, listen to our interview with Jess Saba here.
If you know of any companies that are using their resources to support their community, please let us know by tagging us @chefsbest on all social media platforms. We would love to give them a shout-out!
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