The Hershey Company ranked No. 3 on the Fair360 2023 Top 50 Companies for Diversity list.
The Hershey Company has a longstanding partnership with global food corporation Cargill to improve sustainability and upcycle products.
Hershey relies on roughly 17,000 cows daily to produce fresh milk for its chocolate products. These cows also benefit from Hershey’s products as their feed is made from discarded products that would otherwise go to landfills.
This feed, called “candy meals,” is made by supplier partners at Cargill. Sugar is an energy source that’s digestible for cattle and other animals. Cargill blends it with nutritious food to nourish livestock.
Cargill removes wrappers from Hershey products and shipped to an incinerator to be converted into energy. The dried-out candy is pulverized into a candy meal and mixed with other ingredients to create a balanced food blend. The quality is then tested and delivered to hundreds of farms.
“Our candy meal project truly is a win-win. It diverts tens of thousands of pounds of chocolate waste from landfills; it feeds cows, pigs and other animals a nutritious blend of calories; and it saves farmers money, considering sugar prices have surged. It also shows that our suppliers aren’t just suppliers, they’re strategic partners,” said Eric Boyle, Sr. Director of U.S. Commodities, Specialty Materials & Operations Procurement at Hershey.
