Cargill Workers: 'Nourishing the World'

Instead of sitting around a boardroom with his team members,
 President of Cargill’s Foodservice North America division, Mike Luker decided to put his team to work during their annual sales meeting.

“We pride ourselves with Cargill’s mission statement, ‘Nourishing the World’ so I decided we should not just recite it but ‘do’ something about it,” said Luker. 

Minnetonka-based Cargill Inc., joined forces with Kids Against 
Hunger (KAH), a local nonprofit whose mission is to feed children through out the world. 

“I have a soft place in my heart for kids who go to bed hungry,” said Luker. “Cargill is involved in many charities, but this one is really special to me.”

In 2010, Anderson said, KAH sent 25 million meals to Haiti to help feed children there after storms devastated the area. And with loughty goals again this year, the group turned to a partner that could not only help donate the supplies but also the man power.  

For two weeks, over 1000 Cargill employees, like Luker’s team, volunteered their time packaging meals while at work. 

“We are not just sending over food, but it’s a high protein and vitamin packed nutritious meal, created by a Cargill food scientist. Each meal consists of rice, soy, dehydrated vegetables and a vitamin powder,” said , KAH packaging director. 

Anderson estimated that more than 2000 volunteers hours were put in by employees. The result—over 500-thousand meals were packaged for hungry children. 

“We are half way to meeting our goal [and] Cargill also donated all the soy, and paid for the food and supplies.” Anderson said, “We couldn’t have gotten this far without their physical and financial 
help.” 

The majority of these meals will go the orphans and families 
living in poverty in Honduras, Niagara, and Guatemala. Anderson also said at least 10 percent will stay to help local families.

“Five hundred thousand meals will feed more than 100 children 
one meal a day for a year,” said Anderson.

Luker and his team thoroughly enjoyed doing something that will make a difference in a child’s life. 

“We all travel so much, and we enjoy giving back but it can be difficult with our schedules,” he said. “This turned out to not only be a great team building exercise, but we discussed business at hand while making meals for hungry children in need.”