Danone
carers
We encourage employees to give time to the community during work hours while trusting them to deliver business objectives. On average, we invest 64 business hours per employee to the community, per year.
The Danone Carers community programme was set-up following extensive appraisal of our local community needs so we could fully appreciate how we were best placed to help. Here are just a few examples of the kind of things we like to get involved in:
Fareshare
FareShare is a national charity tackling two of the most urgent issues that face the UK - food waste and food poverty.
Current estimates reveal 350,000 tonnes of perfectly edible food, unspoilt and within its use by date, is thrown away every year in the UK. This is ‘surplus’ as opposed to ‘waste’. On the other hand an estimated 4 million people are classed as living in food poverty and suffering from a shortage of proper food.
Uniquely, FareShare addresses these issues using volunteers who collect food from Danone and other organisations and ensure it is re-distributed to charities and voluntary group. Meals are then served to the homeless and other disadvantaged groups.
Danone Children's Day
A day for children to come first
Every year, Danone devote a day to organising an event for disadvantaged children. Traditionally, this sees our employees run a Christmas party for foster children or alternatively taking children on a day trip.
Jen helped decorate the venue for the Ealing Foster Care Association Christmas Party and organise activities. She said: “I did the face-painting. The children’s joy when we finished and took a picture of them was wonderful. After what some of them have been through, a day like that meant the world to them.”
Michelle helped take 30 children to the London Aquarium and on a surprise trip to the London Eye. She said: “The aquarium was so much fun and it was really nice to see the kids’ excitement when they found out they were going on the London Eye.”
St Saviour's School
With the proceeds from the sales of spare office water samples, Danone Waters UK supports St Saviour’s school in Ealing by funding their basketball kit, equipment and lessons.
Departmental Initiatives in Danone Dairy UK
Danone employees demonstrate key teamwork, planning and communication skills while working in the community:
Supply Chain & Operations
For the birds … creating homes to roost for BCTV a charity that runs conservation projects across the country:
Danone’s logistical wizards turned their hand to building and installing around 40 bird boxes at a nature reserve in Richmond.
Tracy, from the team, says: “The box building was hilarious and the boys got competitive. First of all it was a race to see who could build the first box, and then it was who could build the most.”
Sales
Thinking on their feet for skin cancer!
While on a development course, our Sales department were set a surprise charity challenge. Split into three teams, they were dropped off in Bournemouth and tasked with raising £3,000 for Sunshade the skin cancer charity.
Creativity and buckets to the fore they put legs on the line for sponsored waxings, held raffles and offered massages. One team even managed to set up a phone line to the Ealing head office so passers-by could donate by credit card. The total raised was £5,930.
Finance and IT
Teamwork breaks new ground
Members of our Finance and IT teams paved the way to success at Deen City Farm in Merton. They spent a day helping to lay a 30-metre paved walkway across the fields to allow wheelchair and pram access for visitors.
Organiser Nazish says: “It was very hard work but we had a real sense of achievement. We all had our own roles, whether it was filling wheelbarrows with sand, or laying the bricks. We had to rely on each other to get the job done.”
Human Resources
Getting children back to nature
Our HR team got back to nature when they took 26 children from Lark Hall primary school in Clapham to the London Wetland Centre.
The children were from under-privileged families and didn’t go on trips very often. They enjoyed the wide open spaces and excitedly took part in bird watching and pond dipping.
Field Sales
‘How does your garden grows…’
Budding gardeners from Ellen Wilkinson School for Girls get some green-fingered help from our Field Sales team. Employees visit the school once a month and help children design and plant herbs, flowers and vegetable patches.