BAKERSFIELD, Calif. — For more than a century, Bolthouse Farms has delivered fresh, healthy nutritious food to people across North America including their employees, local communities, customers and consumers. Amid the global pandemic, the company has amplified its giving efforts donating more than $4 million in fresh carrots, beverages, dressings and monetary donations in the last year. Driven by its mission of Plants Powering People, the company’s efforts started with taking care of its employees in the early days of COVID-19, and has now expanded to partnerships with local community non-profits as well as national organizations like Feeding America and other food banks nationwide to support those impacted by the pandemic.
“We believe that charitable giving begins at home. Through the last several months in particular, taking care of our employees’ health and well-being has been our highest priority and being able to provide fresh food to our employees who work so hard to keep Americans fed and nourished was just the beginning,” said Bill Levisay, President, Bolthouse Farms. “Our long-term commitment to food banks became even more important during the pandemic and guided our giving efforts toward these organizations in our local communities and across North America to deliver healthy, fresh food to those in need during these challenging times.”
At the start of the pandemic, Bolthouse Farms moved quickly to purchase food and other essentials for its employees and their families to ensure they had healthy, nutritious food and to help remove the stress of grocery shopping after work hours. The company also gave employees its own carrots, dressings and beverages. Bolthouse then extended its efforts to those in the communities in which it operates and around the country, asking employees to join their efforts, resulting in total donations of more than $4 million.
Product donations consisted of nearly 200,000 cases of juices, smoothies, protein shakes and dressings and more than two-and-a-half million pounds of fresh carrots and other produce. Additionally, employee programs generated more than $60,000 in monetary donations for Feeding America, which included a company dollar-for-dollar match and an additional personal dollar-for-dollar match from Bolthouse Farms CEO Jeff Dunn.
As part of the donations, Bolthouse Farms donated a full truckload of carrots – the equivalent of 25,000 meals – to each of the food banks in the communities surrounding its facilities in its hometown of Bakersfield, Calif. as well as in the Los Angeles, Hodgkins, Ill., and Prosser, Wash. areas where the company has offices or facilities. The donation in Bakersfield was made to CAPK Food Bank which is one of 15 organizations within the Community Action Partnership of Kern. The organization has more than 200 distribution sites and serves approximately 150,000 clients per month in Kern County, Calif.
“We’re thankful to have a mission-driven company like Bolthouse Farms located in our area,” said Maureen Andrew, spokesperson, CAPK Food Bank Food Solicitor. “They are an extremely important donor in our community and their support and generous donations have made a meaningful impact on our community – our clients having access to healthy foods is critical in times of need.”
Other local organizations supported with product donations included:
- Bakersfield Homeless Center
- Cuyama Valley Family Resource Center
- Feeding America (National, Eastern Wisconsin, West Michigan)
- Food Bank of Eastern Michigan
- Gleaners Community Food Bank (Bakersfield, Indiana, Golden Empire)
- Greater Chicago Food Depository
- Los Angeles Unified School District
- Los Angeles Regional Food Bank
- Mercy Hospital, Bakersfield
- Northern Illinois Food Bank
- Second Harvest Central Florida
- Shriners Hospital for Children
- The Food Bank for Central & Northeast Missouri
- The Salvation Army
- Mission of Kern County
- Ronald McDonald House (National & Bakersfield)
- CityServe Bakersfield
*Photos available upon request
About Bolthouse Farms
For more than a century, Bolthouse Farms has been known as the innovation leader in growing and distributing carrots and high-quality, innovative branded products. Employing more than 2,200 people and headquartered in Bakersfield in California’s fertile San Joaquin Valley, Bolthouse Farms is one of the largest carrot growers and distributors in the U.S. Guided by its vision – Plants Powering People – the Company produces and sells super-premium juices, smoothies, café beverages, protein shakes, functional beverages and premium refrigerated dressings, all under the Bolthouse Farms® brand name. Visit Bolthouse Farms or follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.
