At Bonduelle, our thoughts are with those all over the world who have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. During this difficult time, our values continue to drive us as we prioritize the support and safety of our employees, our customers and our communities. As an essential business, we are mindful that our work is now more important than ever, and we are committed to taking the necessary steps that will allow us to continue delivering on our promise to help feed millions of North Americans.
As a food manufacturer, and part of the critical infrastructure services maintaining North America’s food supply, we take our responsibility very seriously. We are continually working to minimize the risk of COVID-19 exposure for our dedicated employees, who are truly doing hero’s work. We are extremely proud of their continued commitment and dedication and are grateful to them and everyone who keeps our critical industry going. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have implemented steps beyond our standard cleaning and sanitation practices to better protect our employees and help stop the spread of the virus. These steps have continued to evolve in accordance with current best practices and updated federal and regional guidance.
We are providing face masks for employees to wear during their shifts and on their way to and from work.
More frequent cleaning of shared spaces (e.g., breakrooms and restrooms). Cleaning of manufacturing areas already follows more stringent federal regulations for food manufacturing sites.
Each employee and any visitors or inspectors undergo daily temperature screening when entering our plants.
We have canceled all international and domestic business travel by employees.
We remind all employees to stay home if they are not feeling well and notify us immediately if they have symptoms of COVID-19 or suspect they’ve been exposed.
We remind employees every day about best hygiene practices, such as regular hand washing and use of hand sanitizer.
We have increased the frequency with which we clean the shared spaces of our facilities (e.g., breakrooms and restrooms). The cleaning of our manufacturing areas already follows the more stringent cleaning/sanitation requirements set by federal regulators for food manufacturing sites.
Our manufacturing areas are restricted to only those employees who require access to perform essential business functions.To reduce the number and variation of possible contacts, our manufacturing employees stay in their teams, reducing the number of people working together and keeping the group consistent.
We have also marked our shared spaces to remind employees to maintain social distancing and put up simple barriers to separate employees where possible.
We have enabled as many employees as possible to work from home.
As we navigate new challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, we are deeply appreciative of our customers’ continued flexibility and partnership. We understand the importance of helping our customers keep products accessible and are working tirelessly to support them in meeting consumer needs.
We take our commitment to delivering food to our customers very seriously. In conjunction with our Bonduelle colleagues around the globe who have experienced this pandemic in its different phases, we continue to develop and implement service and supply continuity plans to respond to major events or acceleration in illnesses that may impact access to labor, raw materials, packaging or production line time and transportation.
We have faced many challenges during this unprecedented time, and we want to extend our thanks to our customers and their employees for their continued partnership, patience and commitment to the essential work of keeping food available to consumers.
Since March, Bonduelle Fresh Americas has tripled our typical donation quantities and increased the number of organizations we partner with in California, New Jersey and Georgia to provide food to those in need. We have delivered more than $250,000 of in-kind donations – roughly 420,000 pounds of food, including Bistro bowls and fresh produce – to nonprofit organizations benefiting local schools, food pantries, hospitals and first responders. In addition, our frozen U.S. facilities donated more than 100,000 pounds of vegetables in the surrounding communities.
We have made donations to more than 30 organizations located near both our facilities, which are in one of the hardest-hit regions of the U.S.
We have donated more than 100,000 pounds of food to organizations all over Southern California, including:
• 100,000 meals & snacks to the Los Angeles Unified School District
• More than 50,000 meals, snacks and bags of fresh produce to the Children’s Network and East San Gabriel Valley Coalition
We have donated approximately $30,000 in product to the community near our Jackson, Ga., facility.
We donated almost 75,000 pounds of frozen vegetables to Foodlink, a Rochester-based nonprofit organization.
We donated 20 pallets of frozen vegetables to Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, as well as made donations to the local fire department in Lebanon, Penn.
We’re pleased to share that
we’re officially recognized as a
B Corp™ Certified company.
