Community Engagement
Cargill invests in local communities through economic development, partnerships and giving combined with the volunteer efforts of our employees. Cargill provides corporate support to select national and global nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) that serve communities in which we have a business presence. We support partners working within our focus areas of food security, nutrition, and sustainability. And, our businesses and facilities sponsor employee-led groups, called Cargill Cares Councils, which support civic and non-profit organizations in their local communities.
Cargill Cares Councils seek to recognize issues important to our communities; build effective relationships with community leaders; and work to help improve living standards and promote vibrant, stable communities.
Supporting Education in Vietnam
Cargill’s ambitious school-building program, started in 1997, fits with one of the strongest beliefs of the people of Vietnam: The power of education.
Community involvement has been part of Cargill Vietnam since our beginnings in the mid-1990s, where our first community project was to raise US$2,000 to build a playground for handicapped children.
From the start, Cargill involved employees, suppliers and customers as part of its community work, including making them part of an annual fund raising event.
Under Cargill Cares, an employee-led volunteering initiative, employees volunteer their time and skills to supervise school building projects from approval to completion.
As of December 2020, Cargill and our employees have built 100 schools in Vietnam, benefitting more than 15,000 Vietnamese children, fulfilling our promise to the Vietnamese people.
Cargill has set a new ambitious goal: building 150 such schools in Vietnam by 2030 to address the remaining needs for better school facilities across rural communities in Vietnam.
A typical school consists of four or five classrooms, a schoolyard, a fence and restroom facilities. Each school serves about 150 to 250 students.
The provincial government of Ben Tre was so impressed by a school built in the Giao Hoa community that it was designated as a national standard for kindergarten school construction.
For our efforts in school-building program, Cargill received an award from the Minister of Education & Training and Deputy Prime Minister in 2007 and 2009 in addition to the Labor Order Grade 3 presented by Vietnam’s President Nguyen Minh Triet.