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Page 1: Corporate Social Responsibility Report...with our business needs and opportunities. We didn’t ... Ventura Foods’ 2019 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report covers activities

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2019Corporate Social

Responsibility Report

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About Ventura Foods

CEO Message

About This Report

CSR Strategy and Governance

Our Values at Work

Products

People

Planet

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4

5

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Table of Contents

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Foodservice and food manufacturing customers count on Ventura Foods to help them delight their customers in the U.S., Canada and more than 60 other countries around the world.

From dressings, sauces and mayonnaises crafted with high-quality ingredients that deliver flavor on the plate to shortening,

frying oils, and margarines proven to drive high-performance in the world’s most demanding kitchens, Ventura Foods is continually creating the flavors and custom food solutions that our customers value. We bring the same passion for innovation and quality commitment to our retail brands, including Marie’s® dressings, LouAna® oils, Dean’s® dips, and Gold n’ Soft® spreads.

Ventura Foods is a privately held joint venture of CHS, Inc. and Mitsui & Co. Our company is headquartered in Brea, CA with operations across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, the Philippines, and Singapore.

About Ventura Foods

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Welcome to Ventura Foods 2019 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report. Each year, on behalf of our team, I have the privilege of sharing my perspective on the progress we’ve made along our CSR journey.

We’re four years into our corporate strategy to Grow, Strengthen and Diversify in our pursuit to be the most agile food company. About a year ago, we recommitted to a CSR approach that was aligned with our business needs and opportunities. We didn’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves and make commitments we couldn’t keep; and, likewise, we didn’t want to take any pressure off our efforts to make a meaningful difference in the Products, People and Planet pillars of our CSR strategy. I’m pleased to share that I believe we made the right decisions and are seeing the right improvements. At Ventura Foods, our Corporate Social Responsibility work is closely aligned with our business strategy, which is exactly how it should be.

Fortunately, we have great leaders at every level of the company to whom our CSR commitments are a priority. They never once lost sight of the importance of this work.

Within this year’s report, we’ve included a lot of information about our work. I’d like to call to your attention a few highlights:

Our food safety work continued to educate, engage and empower all employees to deliver with great commitment and ownership against this mission- critical priority.

Our new Marie’s® Market Reserve™ dressings— leveraging our team’s insights, culinary, and research and development expertise—are being well received by retailers and consumers.

Our operations-based learning and development programs are seeing participation levels in the high 90 percentiles.

We demonstrated community leadership during our first ever company-wide giving campaign, one of many initiatives our company leads to help prevent and relieve hunger in our communities. Through our employees’ generosity, which our company matched dollar for dollar, we donated the equivalent of more than 155,000 meals to food banks where we live and work.

On behalf of our team who lives our CSR commitments every day, thank you for your interest in our work.

CHRIS FURMANPresident and CEO

A Message from Our CEO

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This is Ventura Foods’ fourth annual CSR Report. We intend to continue publishing an annual Report to provide information on our efforts to address our CSR strategy.

This year’s CSR Report was again informed by the Global Reporting Initiative’s universal standards, as well as its economic, social and environmental standards. In addition, we conducted a materiality survey of employees, customers and suppliers to better understand the sustainability issues that our stakeholders believe to be material to our business. We also reviewed the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals to best understand where our efforts contribute to these important 2030 global priorities.

A Certified Internal Auditor from our Internal Auditing team reviewed and guaranteed the accuracy of the information presented in this Report.

About This Report

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Ventura Foods’ 2019 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report covers activities from April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019, the company’s 2019 fiscal year (FY2019).

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Ventura Foods’ CSR strategy is built around the three pillars of Products, People and Planet. Our company exists to produce superior products that exceed customers’ expectations. These products are responsibly produced with a commitment to quality by the outstanding people of Ventura Foods. And across our operations, we work to minimize our impact on our planet.

Our work in the Products, People and Planet pillars contribute to the following United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals:

Goal 2

Goal 3

Goal 8

Goal 12

Goal 13

Goal 15

Goal 17

Although everyone at Ventura Foods contributes in some way to our CSR work, the governance around this strategy demonstrates our company’s commitments at the highest levels.

The Corporate Responsibility Committee of our Board of Directors, comprised of representatives from our owners – CHS Inc. and Mitsui & Co. – meets quarterly and regularly reviews our progress. Within our operations, Ventura Foods’ President/CEO, and his Executive Leadership Team are accountable for delivering on our CSR strategy. These leaders have identified CSR Champions within the company responsible for the specific aspects of the CSR initiatives discussed in this Report.

Many of our Products, People and Planet priorities are cross-functional, so we also regularly engage two teams of company leaders to ensure awareness, understanding and alignment:

CSR Strategy and Governance

Ventura Foods’ CSR strategy is built around the three pillars of Products, People and Planet.

Zero Hunger

Good Health and Well-Being

Decent Work and Economic Growth

Responsible Consumption and Production

Climate Action

Life on Land

Partnerships for the Goals

United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals

The Ventura Leadership Council comprised of approximately 70 of our top leaders; and

Our company’s top 200 leaders who attend our bi-annual National Meeting.

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We believe that Ventura Foods’ values of integrity, customer focus, teamwork and personal ownership are key to our success. By doing what we say we’ll do, putting our customers’ interests first, realizing that we can accomplish more as a team than as individuals, and taking personal responsibility for our company’s success, we continue to grow as an organization and as individuals.

This growth is shaped by The Ventura Edge. It’s what makes us special and guides our business approach and decision- making as we serve our customers.

Specifically, The Ventura Edge articulates our mission to help our customers delight their customers. It outlines our company’s values and identifies our core capabilities that include:

Our investment in a learning environment that results in the growth of our people;

The breadth of our custom and branded portfolio;

Customer excellence highlighted by

our culinary and product development expertise;

A multi-channel market approach;

An advantaged supply chain through a unique combination of size, scale and flexibility; and,

Our commitment to being a

responsible corporate citizen.

The philosophy of The Ventura Edge is put into practice in our Employee Code of Conduct. The Code, about which all employees are trained and agree to uphold, states that we will comply with all local laws and regulations. It also outlines our commitments to product quality and safety, maintaining a safe and healthy work environment, avoiding conflicts of interest, and other expectations. In FY19, our employees completed more than 1,660 hours of ethics and compliance training. As Ventura Foods is committed to maintaining a working environment that values open, honest two-way dialogue, anyone with questions or comments about how we are upholding the Employee Code are encouraged to reach out to their local HR representative, their manager or another senior team member, or they can access our Ethics Hotline.

We also have a Compliance Committee of cross-functional company leaders that meets quarterly to review and address a number of topics, including alignment with our Employee Code of Conduct and Supplier Code of Conduct. The Committee includes representatives from Corporate Communications, Finance, Food Safety, Human Resources, Information Technology, Learning and Development, Legal, Commercial and Operations teams.

Our Values at Work

In FY2019, our employees completed more than 1,660 hours of ethics and compliance training.

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Ventura Foods’ products fuel our customers’ passion for great-tasting food in the foodservice and retail environments. No one keeps ahead of trends and develops products that effectively deliver upon them in our core market segments like we do. In addition to our commitment to innovation, we are equally dedicated to producing our product line of dressings, sauces, mayonnaises, butter-blends, shortenings and oils safely and responsibly.

Product is the first pillar in our CSR strategy because we know that by achieving our business goals we can also contribute substantively to our work in the People and Planet pillars.

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Products

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The safety of our products, along with the safety of our people, are Ventura Foods’ highest priorities. Just as we never compromise on employee safety, we also never compromise on the safety, compliance and quality of our products. This commitment requires all employees to be engaged, to understand their roles in quality and food safety, and to be empowered to take action to protect our consumers, customers and brands. In FY2019, our employees completed more than 8,460 hours of food safety- related training.

In support of our culture of food safety, we:

Comply with all relevant laws and regulations, corporate practices and customer requirements;

Continuously improve our food quality and safety management system through the review of food objectives and results; and,

Encourage participation and promotion of quality responsibility among all employees and third-parties through standards, training, communication and effective supervision.

In FY2019, we expanded our ongoing training program and focused on protecting our products, preventing food fraud, advancing our traceability capabilities and ensuring recall preparedness. We also introduced an expanded Supplier Quality Expectation Manual that addresses these topics and others.

100% of our production facilities are Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI) certified, having achieved a Safe Quality Food (SQF) Level 2 certification.

Food Safety and Quality Mission Statement

Our mission is to develop, document and maintain a comprehensive food safety and quality management system that strengthens our manufacturing capabilities to produce safe, quality food that delights our customers’ customer.

Our Culture of Food Safety

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Expanded TrainingIn FY2019, nearly 99 percent of our production employees completed our 10-course food safety training that addressed important safeguards, including:

▪ Preventive Controls;▪ Food Safety Standards and SQF;▪ Preventing Foodborne Illness;▪ Effective Record Keeping; and,▪ Food Allergens.

We also custom-created courses for the 18 preventive controls identified as applicable in our facilities to comply with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Food Safety and Modernization Act.

Protecting our Products In FY2019, we completed a Food Fraud Vulnerability and Mitigation Plan, including a comprehensive assessment of ingredients and packaging supplied to Ventura Foods, using the Global Food Safety Initiative food fraud standards. We also introduced food fraud prevention training to the Quality Assurance and Site Leaders in eachof our production facilities.

Also in FY2019, we completed a company-wide Food Defense Plan and each of our facilities has developed similar, localized plans that address their specific vulnerabilities with identified

action steps. All employees completing our Core Compliance training program also receive annual training on food defense protocols.

Advancing Traceability Ensuring the rapid traceability of ingredients and finished products is a key component of food safety. To fine-tune these processes within our operations, we conducted two corporate-initiated unannounced traceability exercises in each of our production facilities in FY2019. Where gaps were identified, we put action plans in place to quickly make the needed improvements.

Recall PreparednessWhile our food safety and quality management system goes a long way toward preventing the need for recalls, we must, nonetheless, be prepared for recalls that might ensue from our actions or those of companies within our supply chain. That’s why we conduct at least one mock recall exercise annually – as we did in FY2019 – to identify and immediately address any gaps in our systems and processes.

Our Culture of Food Safety Cont.

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Many people have said that “sustainability is a journey, not a destination.” We agree. As we continue on our journey to responsibly source our ingredients and packaging, and sustainably produce our foods, we took several significant steps in FY2019. Ventura Foods:

▪ Conducted a thorough assessment of suppliers representing the top 75 percent of our corrugated and folding carton purchases to better understand the sustainability of our packaging. Through this effort, we determined that 91 percent of this packaging is certified sustainable by either the Forest Stewardship Council or the Sustainable Forestry Initiative. We will continue our work with suppliers that uphold these high standards.

▪ Again met our commitment that 90 percent of our annual volume of direct materials and commodity oil suppliers understand and agree to the standards set forth in our Supplier Code of Conduct.

We also updated the Code to include the Ethical Training Initiative Base Code of labor practices.

▪ Piloted a supplier verification process with NAVEX Global that we will introduce across our supply chain in 2020.

Sustainably Sourcing Ingredients We continue our efforts to ensure that 100 percent of the palm oil we use in Ventura Foods’-branded products are sustainably sourced and traceable to the mill by 2020. To support sustainability initiatives in this supply chain, we are members of the Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil and the North American Sustainable Palm Oil Network.

Engaging Within Our IndustryAs a producer of many oil-based products, Ventura Foods is actively engaged with several industry organizations including the National Institute of Oilseed Products, Institute of Shortening and Edible Oils and the American Oil Chemists Society, among others.

Sourcing Responsiblyand Sustainably

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At Ventura Foods, we’ve developed a winning recipe for products that meet our customers’ needs to continue delighting their consumers. Time and time again, our insights, combined with our culinary expertise and research and development, result in great-tasting products.

FY2019 was a year of innovation and simplification. We continued to expand our portfolio with new and exciting healthier and big-taste foods while continuing to create efficiencies across our manufacturing operations and supply chain.

On the innovation front, we launched Sauce Craft™, a new, cleaner label line of sauces for foodservice customers. Sauce Craft™ has no artificial flavors or preservatives, high-fructose corn syrup or caramel color. The inspiration for the Sauce Craft™ line of globally inspired flavors came from our Insights team and is proving successful in continuing our mission of helping our customers delight their customers.

We also launched new Marie’s® Market Reserve™ dressings to appeal to younger consumers who want bold tastes and fewer calories. (See below for more information).

In FY2019, Ventura Foods exceeded expectations by helping customers introduce healthier foods, transition to clean label ingredients, explore new organic ingredient options, and consider non-bioengineered (or non-GMO) ingredients.

Ventura Foods has developed and is currently implementing a plan to eliminate one-third of our mayonnaise recipes. Reducing the complexity of our product portfolio helped us streamline our supply chain, increase production efficiency, reduce overall waste and better deliver products to our customers on time. In 2020, we’re undertaking similar work to simplify our product portfolio with Ventura Foods-branded products as we work to Strengthen the enterprise.

Delighting Customers and Consumers with Our Products

Produce for Better HealthFoundation (PBH)

Ventura Foods was honored to receive the PBH “Industry Role Model” for its efforts in FY18. This was the sixth time receiving this award. A member of the Ventura Foods team serves on the PBH board to help this non-profit organization encourage Americans to increase their daily consumption of fruits and vegetables.

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Ever wonder how Ventura Foods develops new products? Our new Marie’s® Market Reserve™ refrigerated dressings – one of Ventura Foods biggest innovations in FY2019 – provides a great example.

As a leader in fresh dressings, Ventura Foods always has an eye on innovation. Our Insights team learned that younger consumers enjoy the richness of our premium Marie’s® line of refrigerated dressings, but want familiar flavors with a creative twist in lower-calorie options. And because these people often live in one- or two-person households, they also want smaller package sizes for greater variety and less food waste.

To bring these insights to life, the team at our Innovation Center in Brea, CA used their culinary expertise, along with their research and development skills, to find new ways to deliver the big flavors expected from Marie’s® with 60 calories or less per serving. Doing so was no easy task. Over time the team found perfect combinations of ingredients like plain low-fat yogurt, soy puree, smoked black pepper, molasses and Meyer lemon. Without compromising taste, they were also able to introduce some vegan, gluten- free and dairy-free choices in the new Marie’s®

Market Reserve™ line of refrigerated dressings available in smaller 7.75 ounce bottles.

Case Study: How Insights and Culinary Expertise + R&D bringa New Product to Life

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Our people are the heart of VenturaFoods. Every day they help fulfill ourmission of delighting customers. Theteams who produce our foods, partnerwith our customers and support ouroperations are the reason Ventura Foodsreceives a number of supplier awards forquality and service every year. We knowit’s important that our company continueto earn their trust and encourage theircommitment. That’s why we strive to bean employer of choice and communityleader in every city in which we operate.

People

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In FY2019, our employees completed more than 7,160 hours of safety training.

Our culture of employee safety is just as important to Ventura Foods as our culture of food safety. Both are foundational to our company’s past and future success.

While we aim for a zero-injury workplace, and regularly achieve it in many of our facilities, we believe a better long-term, company-wide goal is top quartile performance in our industry. This peer- to-peer benchmarking encourages us to constantly raise our expectations. In FY2019, we put in place a number of initiatives to strengthen our core safety capabilities and saw a 31 percent year-over-year reductionin employee safety incidents. We also began focusing on leading indicators, rather than past performance, by introducing proactive and ongoing safety conversations aimed at identifying and preventing potential safety incidents. In FY2019, our employees completed more than 7,160 hours of safety training.

These new courses focused on enhancing our employees’ understanding of how to best prevent key risks within our facilities and included:

▪ Chemical Safety 101: Introduction to Chemical Safety

▪ Environmental Compliance Awareness

▪ Hot Work Awareness for Affected Personnel and Fire Watch

▪ Bloodborne Pathogens

▪ Crane and Hoist

In FY2019, we launched at two of our facilities Safety in Motion® training to reduce employee strain, pain and musculoskeletal injuries in our operations. This program will be rolled out across our entire U.S. organization in FY20. Numerous initiatives in production facilities also contributed to a significant improvement in our safety performance in FY2019.

▪ The Salem, OR team reduced their 12-month rolling safety incident rate to zero by more fully engaging every employee in the Creating Safety Days initiative. An active Safety Committee solicited safety ideas from employees and increased safety awareness in the facility. The Salem leadership team focused on “LEADing Safe” by listening, engaging, aligning and delivering safety.

Ensuring the Safety of Our People

We also introduced a new curriculumof safety courses for employees in ourproduction facilities that were fullycompleted by more than 99 percentof this group in FY2019.

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▪ By asking employees to identify and prevent potential risks before beginning a task, and concentrating on the prevention of slips, falls and trips, our Waukesha, WI facility also significantly reduced its safety incident rate.

▪ In Thornton, IL, the Safety Champion of the Month receives an extra vacation day and priority parking for promoting a safe work place with their teammates and identifying potential safety hazards so they can be corrected. Employees also complete Daily Safety Checklists for their work areas to be certain equipment is operating properly and safety is always top-of-mind.

▪ The best way to encourage safe behaviors it to recognize them. This is the premise behind the new Caught Doing Something Safe program in our St. Joseph, MO facility that allows leaders and peers to congratulate employees demonstrating important safety behaviors.

Ensuring the Safety of Our People Cont.

As of the end of FY2019, our team in Portland, OR has not had a safety-related incident in more than 600 days.

Introducing a new safety suggestion program has contributed to this record.

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Ventura Foods’ commitments to inclusion, well-being and personal development underpin our goal to support our people and communities and to be viewed as an employer of choice.

InclusionBuilding an inclusive culture is important to our success. We must attract top talent that can help grow our business and innovate new products based on a solid understanding of evolving consumer preferences. That’s why, in FY19, we hired a new Director of Talent Acquisition who will focus on the hiring of outstanding and diverse talent and increase inclusiveness in our succession and people planning. We also continue to increase female and minority representation on the Executive Leadership Team, Ventura Leadership Council and across the company.

Also, recognizing the importance of inclusion across our industry, Ventura Foods has long supported the Women’s Foodservice Forum, (WFF) the food industry’s thought leader on gender equity. WFF has committed to leading the way to become one of the first industries to close the gender gap and we are actively engaged with the organization. For example,

three Ontario team members attended WFF’s Leadership Development Workshop in October 2018. In January 2019, our Ontario facility hosted a two-hour information session to introduce employees to WFF and to highlight its many learning and networking opportunities. Ventura Foods’ WFF Engagement and Learning subcommittee has similar events planned for our Brea, CA team and for other employees via Skype.

Our team in Ontario, CA also honored its 22 employees who are veterans by creating a permanent Veteran Recognition Board to celebrate those who have served or are serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.

We are also proud of and excited about our investment in Flavor Reddy Foods, an Asian minority-owned business that provides sauces, dressings and condiments to a leading restaurant brand that believes in a supplier network that matches the demographics of its customers.

Investing in Our People

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Learning and DevelopmentVentura Foods is committed to supporting the ongoing personal and professional growth and development of our team. In FY2019, our employees completed more than 25,000 hours of learning and development training.

Across our organization, we have seen the benefits of leader-led learning. In this model, we help our leaders best recognize and support the development needs of themselves and their teams. To help our leaders do so, we introduced several new training programs in FY2019 that leverage Ventura Foods’ Staying Sharp 12 essential skills for success:

All Employee Skills1. People development2. Teamwork3. Adaptability4. Communication5. Customer focus6. Results driven7. Continuous improvement8. Business knowledge9. Decision making

Leadership Skills10. Strategic thinking11. Courageous leadership12. Inspire and motivate

For facility Front Line Leaders, we introduced a new Leadership development program with quarterly training sessions to increase our leadership effectiveness. Our Learn and Lead Program is on-track toward our goal of having 100 percent of these leaders complete the first year of training by March 31st of 2019, and the feedback we have received has been positive. One hundred percent of participants said the training was useful, very useful or extremely useful, 97 percent said the training addressed challenges the leaders face in their jobs, and 98 percent said the training will help them build their individual development plans.

To ensure that our Employee Health and Safety (EHS) leaders and front-line supervisors in each facility are tooled for success, more than 98 percent completed a four-part leadership development series addressing Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP); Communication and Trust; Motivation, Discipline and Goals; and Solving Problems at Work.

Investing in Our People Cont.

In FY2019, our employees completed more than 25,000 hours of learning and development training.

“I’ve learned to actively incorporate leadership into my daily activities and to develop improvements for myself and my team. No matter our departments, all Ventura Foods’ leaders face challenges. Learn and Lead taught us that we should talk to and lean on one another to help build a better company.” LEARN AND LEAD PARTICIPANT

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Investing in Our People Cont.

Ventura Foods also introduced training for mechanics to make sure they have the specialized skills to maintain and repair the increasingly technical equipment utilized in our facilities. Working with a third-party partner, we’ve made this online learning part of our maintenance team’s daily jobs. More than 260 employees are enrolled in the 165 available courses, which, when complete, will earn them various mechanical certifications.

To help our top 70 leaders who are members of the Ventura Leadership Council further their skills, we introduced a Staying Sharp leader-training program focused on communication skills.

We also have seen tremendous employee engagement following last year’s launch of our partnership with LinkedIn Learning. In FY2019, employees viewed more than 2,900 courses and more than 20,000 videos.

Ventura Foods also provides a full continuum of food and workplace safety training programs. Updates on these function-specific trainings are discussed in the respective sections of this report.

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In FY2019, employees viewed more than 2,900 courses and more than 20,000 videos.

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Well-BeingOur company has long been committed to supporting the health and wellness of our employees. In FY2019, we introduced a more comprehensive approach to fully engage our team in their overall well-being through three platforms of physical, social/emotional and financial health. Our intent is to support the whole employee at work and away from our facilities.

To do so, we again offered biometric screening and health-risk assessments to help our employees identify any significant changes to their health over time. We have also begun actively encouraging employees to participate in

activities to improve well-being behaviors, including sleep, water intake, diet and exercise. For example, during Employee Appreciation Week in March 2019, we held a variety of programs and classes at our Brea, CA headquarters on our three well-being platforms, including lunch and learns on weight management, budgeting basics and enhancing relationships with better communication. We also held sessions on sleep and stroke prevention during the year and regularly shared important well-being information in our company’s monthly Ventura Voice newsletter that goes to all employees.

Investing in Our People Cont.

“The tips on sleep improvement seemed too simple and I was skeptical of how effective they would be. However, when I started using them, the impact on my sleep was incredible. I was sleeping so much better and waking up rested and ready for the day. I really appreciate what I learned in that class!”

- HQ EMPLOYEE

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In FY2018, Ventura Foods introduced a company-wide giving program. Together across our numerous locations, we’re focused on hunger prevention and relief efforts in the communities where we do business. In just one year, we have solidified our corporate philanthropy and volunteering around helping the one in eight Americans who lack access to food and may not know where their next meal is coming from.1

In FY2019, we held our first company-wide giving campaign and matched employee gifts. As a result, we donated the equivalent of more than 155,000 meals to the Feeding America network of food banks that serve the communities where we live and work. Additionally, we made separate donations directly to each of the food banks in the communities where our production facilities are located.

Ventura Foods is also committed to a strong culture of employee volunteerism. In FY2019, we increased interest in and support of employee volunteering efforts by creating a volunteer toolkit – Team Building for Good – that we shared with the 70 leaders on our Ventura Leadership Council to help them create volunteer opportunities for their teams focused around hunger relief.

1 https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/food-insecurity

Another key element of our corporate giving platform is disaster relief. In FY2019, Ventura Foods supported the American Red Cross’ efforts to aid people impacted by wildfires in California and Oregon, as well as flooding in the U.S. Midwest. Several of our facilities in these locations also raised money to help. In some cases, our employees were impacted by these disasters. In others, we simply knew we needed to do something to help people in these devastated communities.

Giving to Our Communities

“Ventura Foods has been a fantastic partner of ours over the years. Your company has donated a total of 4,666,377 pounds of food since 2009 – that’s extraordinary!”

YAN MEDICECorporate and Community Relations Officer,Oregon Food Bank

Together across our numerous locations, we’re focused on hunger prevention and relief efforts in the communities where we do business.

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Across the U.S., our facilities held a number of events and activities during FY2019 to support hunger prevention and relief efforts in their communities:

▪ Our Birmingham, AL facility supported the Community Food Bank of Central Alabama through Ventura Foods’ product donations.

▪ The Greater Chicago Food Depository and South Suburban Family Shelter received support for their efforts to provide food to people in need from employees in Thornton, IL.

▪ In Minnesota, employees at our Albert Lea facility raised funds to help United Way of Freeborn County’s senior adult nutrition program, Meals on Wheels initiative, and shelter that provides families with food and other needed resources.

▪ Salem Harvest received support from the Ventura Foods’ team in Salem, OR for its work connecting area farmers with volunteers to pick fruits and vegetables that would otherwise go to waste.

▪ Two food drives held by Ft. Worth, TX employees secured more than 860 pounds of food for the local Community Enrichment Center food pantry that provided grocery assistance to more than 30,000 area residents in 2019.

▪ Our second annual food drive for the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County collected approximately 1,200 pounds of food and a monetary contribution from the company. Also, during Employee Appreciation Week, one of Bracken’s Kitchen’s food trucks provided lunch to Brea, CA headquarters’ employees and showcased how the organization uses its fleet of food trucks to deliver hot, nutritious meals to those in need.

Giving to Our Communities Cont.

“I have the pleasure of meeting some of the many people your support helps. Many times, I receive a tear-filled ‘thank you’ and ‘I don’t know what I would have done without you.’ Ventura Foods has made a profound difference in uplifting the lives of many people facing the unimaginable. Thank you for your kindness, generosity and the hope you’ve given them for better tomorrows.”

JESSICA FOREMAN-LEGARDEInterim Regional Philanthropy Officer,American Red Cross, Desert to the Sea Region

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Doing our part to protect our planet for future generations is one of the three strategic pillars of Ventura Foods’ CSR approach. This means that, acrossour production facilities, we are working to identify and implement practices to reduce our use of water and energy, along with the waste we generate.

Planet

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In FY19, we approved a dedicated environment specialist position to be added to our corporate team. This individual will be responsible for leading our facility environmental management efforts and identifying continuous improvement opportunities. As part of this work, we are committed to advancing and standardizing our overall environment management systems across our U.S. manufacturing facilities.

Setting Reduction Targets Across Our NetworkBecause water, energy and waste issues are locally driven, they require facility and geographic-specific assessments and action plans. In FY2019, each of our production facilities developed a site-specific plan that identified opportunities and set goals to reduce their environmental impacts. Each of these Sustainability Gap Closure Plans include targets to reduce utility usage and annual initiatives to address water, energy or landfill reductions. To ensure accountability, progress against the initiatives will be reviewed during quarterly meetings with Operations team leaders.

Using Less EnergyIn FY2019, across Ventura Foods, our facilities reduced energy use in multiple ways:▪ By creatively addressing its production

schedule and shutting down from 3pm

Friday to 3am Monday, the Portland, OR team significantly reduced energy use.

▪ After carefully evaluating the energy consumption of equipment against production needs, our Salem, OR team made operations changes to reduce energy use.

▪ The Chambersburg, PA team reduced energy use and promoted employee safety by changing to rechargeable batteries for the facilities’ forklifts. Disposal of used batteries is no longer required and employees no longer need to lift and change the heavy batteries.

▪ By identifying and addressing air leaks, the St. Joseph, MO team saved more than $18,000 in energy costs in just six months.

Reducing Water WithdrawalsVentura Foods’ operations continue to reduce their dependence on local municipal water systems:

▪ Again by changing its production schedule (see Using Less Energy above), our Portland, OR team also reduced its water withdrawal by requiring one less sanitation cycle each week.

▪ Our St. Joseph, MO and Chambersburg, PA facilities installed new equipment that uses less water.

Enhancing Our Environmental Management Processes

Ventura Foods’ operations continue to reduce their dependence on local municipal water systems.

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Enhancing Our Environmental Management Processes Cont.

Generating Less WasteBy improving our processes, Ventura Foods’ facilities continue to reduce the amount of waste they generate.

▪ Our Waukesha, WI team reduced ingredient and food waste by introducing a more rigorous recipe adherence process that reduced scrap and rework, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in ingredient costs in the process.

▪ By bailing all cardboard and selling its good used boxes, our Thornton, IL facility reduced waste and recycling pick-ups from weekly to monthly. In addition to generating less waste, fewer pickups also reduced the energy needs of our service providers.

▪ The team in St. Joseph, MO improved the tension monitoring of stretch wrap

to reduce plastic waste. They also

switched from cardboard to re-usable plastic totes to reduce waste and improved production processes to reduce food waste.

▪ By focusing on “right the first time” practices, the team in Chambersburg, PA reduced food waste. They also implemented a new process to recycle packaging from products that do not meet their high quality standards and will not be shipped to customers.

By improving our processes, Ventura Foods’ facilities continue to reduce the amount of waste they generate.

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Recovering Used Frying Oil for BiofuelSince 2010, Ventura Foods has worked with its environmentally conscious customers to reduce waste and carbon footprints by collecting used frying oil for recycling into biofuel. This program – Producing Useful Renewable Energy (PURE) – supports an important recycling stream across the U.S., helping to prevent used cooking oil from being sent to landfill or entering communities’ wastewater systems.

Ventura Foods remains committed to continuously expanding and improving the PURE program to support our customers’ environmental goal for their communities.

In FY2019 we introduced a simplified oil management solution, allowing us to partner with even more foodservice, retail and deli operators.

Enhancing Our Environmental Management Processes Cont.

In FY2019, we collected1.1 million gallons of used cooking oil and produced 1 million gallons of biofuel.

We helped our customers prevent 19.2

million pounds of pollutants from entering the atmosphere.

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Ventura Foods is proud to provide this update of progress toward our CSR commitments. We thank you for taking time to understand how we source our ingredients and make our products, support our people and communities, and help care for our planet. We look forward to sharing additional information in future years.

We welcome your questions and feedback at www.venturafoods.com/contact-us/.