By Katie Lutz
Since the company’s founding nearly 160 years ago, General Mills has been guided by the belief that “doing good and good business go hand-in-hand.” Since 2019, with the help of its philanthropic partners, General Mills has enabled more than 42.6 billion meals worldwide to alleviate hunger.
As the director of global impact at General Mills, Nicola Dixon leads teams responsible for advancing key social and environmental impact initiatives, including the company’s sustainability reporting and its global philanthropy aligned to three focus areas: increasing food security, regenerating ecosystems, and strengthening hometown communities.
Dixon recently shared insights into General Mills’ food security programming and why they continue to partner with The Global FoodBanking Network (GFN) to help advance their mission.
GFN: What initiatives or programs does General Mills currently have to support food banks and food insecurity?
ND: We have always been grounded in the belief that every person and every household should be food secure and free from hunger. By collaborating with food banking partners across the globe and strategically aligning our philanthropy, we’re working to ensure communities have reliable and equitable access to a wide range of food.
Through our company giving and other engagements for impact, we work to support a variety of important food access strategies and programs, such as helping food banks grow their capacity and food recovery capabilities, expanding the reach of school meal programs, donating General Mills food, and encouraging employee volunteerism with food banks to make an even greater impact.
GFN: How does General Mills collaborate with The Global FoodBanking Network to address food insecurity on a global scale?
ND: We’ve been partnering with GFN for nearly 15 years. Since 2011, General Mills has donated more than $9.5 million to help advance the organization’s mission around the world. Over the last two calendar years, we donated more than 1.5 million kilograms of food to GFN member food banks in Australia, Brazil, Canada, and the U.K., in addition to our financial support.
I am also proud of the unique work we’re doing in partnership with Foodbank Australia. Since 2020, we’ve run what we call the Collaborative Supply Program at our Rooty Hill plant just west of Sydney where donated ingredients and packaging from suppliers combined and our own donated production line time and labor enable us to make Latina Fresh products (pasta meals) for donation to Foodbank Australia every month.
GFN: What value do you see in General Mills sponsoring and engaging with the GFN Global Summit? Why do you continue to prioritize this support each year?
ND: We’re honored to be a lead sponsor of this year’s Global Summit in Sydney, Australia, which is bringing together leaders across business, governments, and NGOs to share best practices and help find solutions to minimize hunger and improve food security. We all know that no single company or organization can tackle this challenge alone. It takes all of us coming together to create meaningful change.
As the only global gathering focused on food banking, surplus food recovery and the vital importance of cross-sector collaboration to reduce food waste and end hunger, the GFN Global Summit is a unique and vital forum for our company to be part of and learn from.
GFN: What opportunities does General Mills see for further collaboration with GFN to enhance food access and nutrition for vulnerable populations?
There is a tremendous opportunity for all of us in the GFN community or attending the Global Summit to glean new insights, ideas and learning from one another, which can enable us to bring about even greater social and environmental impact. Innovative thinking and solutions can come from any individual or company, big or small. The culture of learning and mutual support at the GFN Global Summit is truly second to none.
All of us at General Mills could not be more grateful for our partnership with The Global FoodBanking Network and its members. Together we’ve been able to make an outsized impact over the past 15 years, strengthening food banking across the globe, supporting more sustainable food systems and enabling billions of meals for neighbors in need.
