The Grazing Mind

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 hope you all had a great Mother’s Day. Check out the bulletin board in our Mother’s Room of our sweet WhiteWave babies.

 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!

Check out this great video to learn more about how WhiteWave has supported Community Food Share over the years.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wsho2F2YLHc

We wanted to share more photos of the great kids we had at WhiteWave’s headquarters in Broomfield last Thursday for Bring Your Kids to Work Day. The kids were so engaged, interested and sharp. We can’t wait to have them back next year!

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.

Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling joined business and government leaders in Mount Crawford, VA on Friday to celebrate WhiteWave’s expansion plans in Rockingham County. WhiteWave Foods is investing $69.8 million in a project to add a new warehouse facility and machinery to meet increased consumer demand for our Silk, Horizon Organic, International Delight and LAND O LAKES products. This new project will create 36 new jobs in Mount Crawford.

Read more here: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2013-04-18/whitewave-foods-to-expand-virginia-plant

Yesterday, The Denver Post published “The Denver Post Top Workplaces” – a list of the best places to work in the Denver metro area. More than 1,000 local companies were invited to participate and WhiteWave was ranked #14 of the 58 mid-sized companies that applied for the Denver Post’s 100 Best Places to Work for 2013.

The evaluation for the Top Workplaces program is based upon feedback from an employee survey that Colorado-based employees of WhiteWave Foods completed a few months ago. The survey asked our employees questions about engagement, organizational health and satisfaction. We are honored to have been selected for the award, particularly as the judges were our employees!

This award tells us we’re making progress toward achieving our goal of becoming the Earth’s favorite food company.  To thank our employees for participating in the survey and helping us make the list, we placed a flower and thank you note at each employee’s desk this morning. At WhiteWave, we believe each of our employees can make a difference in our future, and we value our diverse group of smart, passionate, hard-working people. One of our company values is “Individuals Matter” and this rings true today and every day.

Building strong relationships with our customers to ensure we are their “favorite” is a critical part of our mission to become the Earth’s Favorite Food Company.  That’s why we are incredibly proud that Walmart recently named WhiteWave Foods as their Supplier of the Year in the Dairy category for 2012. 

The Supplier of the Year award is Walmart’s highest form of recognition, and honors the accomplishments of a small group of top performing companies.  In presenting the award, Walmart cited our best-in-class product launches, in particular Iced Coffee, co-branded creamers and Silk PureAlmond as key accomplishments.   

It’s rewarding to be recognized for our efforts and we thank our employees for supporting all of our valued customers every day.

“A Little Taste of the Future.” That’s the name of WhiteWave’s first annual report as a publicly traded company, and we think it’s a perfect a fit for a company like ours—one that’s committed to changing how the world eats for the better.

The report highlights financial performance during the past year, as well as our vision for future growth and success. We’re committed to operating as a new kind of food company that combines the entrepreneurship, spirit, principles and practices of small food with the professionalism and resources of an established food and beverage leader.

 If you’re interested in learning more, you can find the full report on the WhiteWave website. We look forward to continuing to share news  of WhiteWave’s evolution and growth.