The Grazing Mind

Brian Allen from our Horizon sales team was on Denver’s 9News this morning to talk about WhiteWave’s sponsorship of the BolderBOULDER and the company’s training program for all employees in our Broomfield office. WhiteWave’s training program with Ric Rojas supports the health and wellness of Broomfield-based employees and is an example of how WhiteWave is working to become a different kind of food company.

The BolderBOULDER 10k is held on Memorial Day (this Monday!) and this year, WhiteWave has 80 employees registered to run the race.

Watch the video clip from 9News and learn more here: http://www.9news.com/rss/story.aspx?storyid=337108

In keeping with our goal to change the way the world eats for the better, WhiteWave is participating in the Community Food Share Compete to Beat Hunger Corporate Challenge. Community Food Share (CFS) is a hunger-relief organization in Boulder and Broomfield counties which helps feed one in six county residents who live at or below the poverty line.

This is WhiteWave’s ninth year participating in the Corporate Challenge to raise money for CFS and our fundraising tactics have evolved over the years into one week of grassroots fundraising events that build community and create a little friendly competition between departments at our Broomfield headquarters. Right now at our office, we have more than 20 fundraising events taking place ranging from hosting raffles and kickball games, to selling cupcakes, homemade lip balm and pie sales.

This is my first year being involved with Corporate Challenge and it’s a blast! Everyone is so creative with their fundraising event ideas which makes it easy to give generously to CFS. So far, we’ve raised over 50 percent of our fundraising goal and the challenge is not yet over. I’m confident that WhiteWave will meet our fundraising goal this year!

 We have hosted a variety of Spring-related events for our employees at our Broomfield offices in the recent weeks. First, our partners at Growing Gardens hosted a brown bag seminar on the fundamentals of Organic Gardening on Thursday, April 18. Connor Murphy from Growing Gardens explained the importance of selecting a site for your garden, irrigation and slope. If you’re planning to start your own garden, pay attention to the weeds you pull – they may be edible.

Second, Growing Gardens returned for their annual plant sale on May 1. Even though it was snowing here in Broomfield, the plant sale was a huge hit with our employees. Lauren Richardson from Growing Gardens had a variety of plants for sale including pansies, herbs like basil and thyme, and veggie plants like tomatoes and peppers.

And lastly to align with our Spring theme, compost from our friends at Eco-Cycle was delivered to WhiteWave Foods on April 24 in a big, green Eco-Cycle truck. EcoGro®, a Class I quality compost, is made from tree trimmings, food waste, yard waste, leaves, etc. A stable organic matter, it is a good source of nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, sulfur and other nutrients essential for plant growth. The compost was available at WhiteWave for 10 days for our employees to take home and put their gardening skills to practice. I loaded up two bags of compost for my new garden and can’t wait to watch my flowers, veggies and herbs grow. Now, if only I can keep the dog from eating my homegrown cherry tomatoes!

More than 150 kids came to WhiteWave’s Headquarters in Broomfield yesterday for Bring Your Kids to Work Day. Here are some pictures of our WhiteWave kiddos. We had such a great time with all of them.

Calling all naturally-minded Boulder/Denver area entrepreneurs. Learn from experts how to succeed with your business.

When: Saturday April 27, 9 AM – 5 PM

Where: New Hope Natural Media Conference Center – Pearl & 14th Streets in Boulder

What: Professionals in the industry provide real-world education that is hard to find anywhere else, presented in classroom style with robust Q&A designed to maximize interactivity and learning.

Who should attend:
- Brands in the ideation stage
- Early stage, basic distribution 1-25 locations
- Early mid-stage brands
- Founders and partners
- Marketing and sales people
 

Why – breakfast, lunch and education including:

Legal roundtable
Antonio Gallegos:  Greenberg Traurig, LLP – Food Safety

Rob Goldstein: Polsinelli – IP and what an early stage brand needs to know
Ted Laszlo: LaszloLaw – Business formulation and partnerships

Marketing / Positioning
What a company founder needs to know when it comes to building a brand.  What are the tools associated with brand building and how do companies think strategically about their brands?
Blake Waltrip: Chief Marketing and Sales Officer, Quinoa Corporation
Kristine Carey: Vice President, Marketing, MyChelle Dermaceuticals

Sales and Distribution: Brokers, Distributors, Direct Sales, Retailers
Fred Storck: Storck Strategic Sales Development
Tom Rich: Store Team Leader, Whole Foods Markets

Lessons from the entrepreneurial landscape
Kelly McCallister: Co-founder, Gluten Free Bistro
Julie Nirvelli: Founder, White Girl Salsa
Kerry Gilmartin: Founder, Bamboobies

More info and registration forms here: http://www.naturallyboulder.org/events/event-registration/

The 13^th Annual Growing Gardens Community Plant Sale is this Saturday, April 13 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at 1630 Hawthorne Ave. in Boulder.

Get a jump start on your early season garden with these cool weather, hardy plants:

 Vegetable Starts: Over 10 varieties of lettuce, spinach, braising mix, arugula, kale, chard, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage

Herb Starts: Sage, parsley, thyme, winter savory

Flower Starts: Pansies and violas

 All proceeds benefit Growing Gardens’ programming. Support your community and go and grow organic!

 Growing Gardens is a non-profit organization that raises awareness and provides opportunities for people to participate in urban agricultural programs. Find out more here: http://www.growinggardens.org/

Save the date for sales during the first three weekends in May for the rest of your organic gardening needs.

As many of you know, WhiteWave Foods has been a longtime supporter of Community Food Share (CFS), our local food bank and member of Feeding America. Community Food Share’s 25^th annual “Hunger Hurts the Whole Community” food drive takes place March 20-31 and if you live in the Boulder/Denver area, they need your help.

CFS is looking for friendly grocery store greeters to hand out bags and remind shoppers to donate food.  Shifts usually last two hours and greeters are needed in most of the grocery stores in Longmont, Lafayette and Louisville, Colorado. Just two hours of your valuable volunteer time can easily generate more than 200 pounds of food, which is enough food to feed a family of four for two weeks.

CFS has discovered that when it has greeters to engage people at the store, donations rise significantly. We have a group of WhiteWave employees already signed up to help our local food bank, and you can help too. Please consider volunteering as a store greeter – this can be a great family experience that can help the whole community!

Interested?  Contact Sue Ericson at sericson@communityfoodshare.org  or 303.652.3663 x202

Thanks for helping us help those in need in our local community.

At WhiteWave Foods, being involved in our communities and treading lightly on the environment are important to our team members.

Values in Action (VIA) is our employee program that promotes volunteerism, community involvement, and environmental events and initiatives. Employees can log VIA points when they do things like volunteer, carpool to work and even use the stairs instead of the elevators (and we all know stair climbing is good for the quads). When all of the VIA points are collected at the end of each year, our employees are rewarded with prizes such as gift cards to our delicious Wave Café. A couple of lucky dogs even went home recently with iPad Minis.

One of our core values that helps guide us in our daily work is “Share What We Do Well.”  This value inspires us to find innovative ways to make a difference in our local communities. We’re proud to report that in 2012, WhiteWave employees volunteered more than 13,500 hours (that’s 562 days!) supporting a variety of non-profit and industry organizations such as Community Food Share (CFS), which is part of the national Feeding America network. In fact, during our annual Impact Day, WhiteWave employees provided close to 1,100 hours of service in just one day – serving more than 200 families and organizing more than 12,000 pounds of food at our local food banks.

A few months into this new year, and we’re busy working towards beating our 2012 VIA goals and continuing to make a positive impact in our local communities. Check back later in the year to see our progress.

We just heard about Splick-it – a company based in Boulder, CO that provides restaurants with a mobile ordering and payment platform. One of the company’s core values is to improve the communities where it conducts business Another company value is to stamp out hunger.

Here is what we love about Splick-it. Last year they introduced their “Round Up”  feature allowing anyone who orders with Splick-it’s apps to round their purchases up to the nearest dollar with the difference going to charity.  Community Food Share (CFS), Boulder and Broomfield Counties’ food bank and a member of Feeding America (the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, with 200 member food banks nationwide) and Feeding Colorado (the five Colorado Feeding America food banks), was named the charity of choice for Splick-it Food Ordering apps. As a longtime supporter of CFS, WhiteWave Foods is excited about this app and we can’t wait to see how small contributions can help make a big impact on our local community.

If you’re in the Boulder or Denver area, you can visit select restaurants that are signed up with Splick-it and try the “Round Up” feature yourself. All you need to do is download the free Splick-it Food Ordering app in advance. Some of Splick-It’s current restaurants include: Illegal Pete’s, Tokyo Joe’s, Snarfs and the Brewing Market. 

Click here to read more about the cool things Splick-It is working on and how with a touch of a finger, you two can help feed a hungry person in Boulder County.

Thanks to all who donated to Community Food Share (our local food bank) last month. Two weeks before the deadline, CFS raised the $1 million it needed to receive a $2.5 million gift from an anonymous donor!

The $1 million raised, combined with the $2.5 million donation, will allow the food bank to pay off the initial loan it took out to buy its new space in Louisville. The new space is triple the size of Community Food Share’s current space, which means CFS will be able to house more fresh produce and frozen food, and therefore help even more families in need.

WhiteWave Foods is proud to be a longtime sponsor and supporter of Community Food Share.