Chobani

Yogurt giant Chobani has made it a practice to hire refugees to work at its manufacturing plants. As anti-immigrant rhetoric has soared, Chobani founder and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya reportedly received death threats for the practice (both of the company’s plants are in conservative areas), despite creating new jobs with solid benefits in communities that could use them. …

“As the founder of a yogurt company that takes in a billion pounds of milk each year, we depend on more than 1,000 dairy farms across America, and wolves are the least of their problems. Thanks to record-low milk prices, dropping dairy consumption rates, industry consolidation, global competition and unfair and untrue consumer fears that dairy causes everything from cancer to diabetes, America’s dairy farmers are facing their worst crisis since at least the Great Depression.” …

Chobani, LLC, maker of America’s #1 Greek Yogurt brand and the second largest overall yogurt manufacturer in the U.S., today is announcing a comprehensive, groundbreaking program to further its commitment to positive transformation of its milkshed—supporting the economic, environmental, and social impacts of its #1 ingredient: fresh milk from local farms. The Milk Matters™ program will encompass Chobani’s commitment to its milkshed as well as efforts to support greater transparency across dairy farms. …

Starting in April, Chobani’s Spring 2019 program will offers three representatives from each of eight companies four weeks of master classes and brand auditing at Chobani’s SoHo office in New York City, along with $25,000 in equity-free funding. …