General Mills’s In-House Volunteer Project Spins Off Into a Charity

Partners in Food Solutions, which began as a volunteer project at General Mills, works with food processors to help feed people in the developing world. Partners in Food Solutions, which began as a volunteer project at General Mills, works with food processors to help feed people in the developing world.

July 24, 2011 | Read Time: 2 minutes

Like many companies in The Chronicle’s survey of giving by large U.S. corporations, General Mills increased its giving in 2010 and expects its cash giving to be flat next year.

But also, like many of its peers, the Minneapolis company is aggressively increasing its volunteering footprint. It has put so much weight behind one in-house volunteer effort in particular that it spun off this year to become a stand-alone charity called Partners in Food Solutions.

The program started in 2009 as a volunteer project created by a small group of the food manufacturer’s engineers and food scientists who wanted to package meals and donate them to schools in Malawi. The project drew so many additional volunteers that it reached its one-million meal goal in three months, rather than the three years originally anticipated.

General Mills employees work on the projects during their off hours, according to the company. During the General Mills budget year that ended in May, workers logged 12,000 hours on Partners in Food Solutions Projects, time the company values at up to $1.2-million.

Other Companies Helping

Organizers of the volunteer program decided they could reach even more people if they offered their expertise to food processors in Africa and recruited scientists from other companies to help feed people and build markets, said Peter Erickson, a General Mills senior vice president who helps direct the effort.

Realizing that other companies’ workers probably wouldn’t volunteer on a General Mills project, they turned Partners in Food Solutions into an independent charity earlier this year. The agribusiness giant Cargill and the Dutch manufacturing firm DSM have agreed to help provide volunteers and dollars.

Mr. Erickson said the effort could be copied in other developing countries beyond Africa and could grow to include thousands of volunteers. He calls the approach “technical philanthropy” and hopes other corporations take note.

“Think of it as a start-up company,” he says. “We think our model is pretty unique.”