The check could have been in the mail, but that would have prevented Hormel® Natural Choice® brand team from demonstrating once again what they – and the brand they represent – are all about. So, instead, team members got on their bicycles, dividing up portions of a 220-mile journey in order to deliver much-needed funds in person.
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Matt Lewis was one of them. The category sales manager for the Natural Choice® brand joined five of his Hormel Foods team members, cycling from the company’s Corporate Office in Austin, Minn., to the chapter headquarters of the Juvenile Diabetes Relief Fund (JDRF) in Des Moines, Iowa. He logged about 80 miles in honor of someone special. His sister-in-law Liz lost her battle with Type 1 diabetes last year.
The fundraising and bikeathon efforts were yet another installment in the Natural Choice® brand team’s Good Feeds Us All Tour. In April 2020, team members hitched their proverbial wagon to Hy-Vee to increase awareness of (and funds for) the organization focused on Type 1 diabetes, the form that presents in children. That included donating 10 cents to JDRF for every unit of Hormel® Natural Choice® lunch meat shipped to participating Hy-Vee stores from April 1 through July 31. The gift totaled $20,000.
“Our mission … is to continue to do good in the world. We saw Hy-Vee doing some really great work with this partner. And so, together we decided to pool our resources and make this donation,” says Beth Fehrenbacher, senior manager of the Natural Choice® brand.