Investing in the community

Our investment in the local community in the countries where we operate is an important element in the culture of Strauss Group and a source of inspiration for our employees. Our investment in the community is in three areas:

• Economic empowerment for women
• Advancing healthy lifestyles with an emphasis on social projects that promote healthy nutrition and active lifestyles through support, collaboration over the long term
• Reducing food waste and improving food security

Our principles of social investment

We ensure a focus on areas which have relevance for our core business in order that we can maintain our involvement over the long term

We work with a small number of strategic partnerships in a meaningful way and with attention to the effectiveness of the partnership

We work on our social activities with partners across all sectors – business, public and social

We ensure synergy between our internal activities and external initiatives, so that we can gain shared value for our organization and for the community

We simultaneously manage strategic partnerships and community activities across our group in terms of different departments in order to strengthen our connection with the local community and support our team spirit at Strauss

Food rescue

As a leading food company, we believe we have a role to play in the reduction of food insecurity of people in need. In Israel, a new forum, “Saving food”, was established in partnership with the food companies group of the Manufacturers’ Association in Israel and the non-profit organization, Latet, which distributes food to the needy. Strauss is one of the leading food companies taking part in this Forum.

The objectives of the forum are:

increase awareness of food companies in Israel of the need to reclaim food throughout the entire production chain (production, packing, transportation, logistics, distribution and consumer) in order to ensure that as much food as possible gets to those in need

Develop a program of joint activity to address the legal and regulatory barriers to incentivizing food companies to reclaim food

Learn successful models from around the world and reapply them in Israel as best practice.

Global data shows that 30%-50% of food that we grow and process does not get to the consumer and is wasted along the way. In Israel, the estimate is that NIS 18 billion in food is wasted each year. As a leading food company, it is important for is to help lead the change for an improved and stronger society.

The main partners we work with for reclaiming food and distributing to those in need are two organizations in Israel, Latet and Leket Israel.

Strauss Israel ? investing in the community

In Strauss Israel, we manage a network of social partners that includes around 40 social organizations that represent different causes. Around 2,800 Strauss Israel employees volunteered during 2015 with these organizations – 40% volunteer on a regular basis. In addition to our support for these causes, we also collaborate with 12 organizations that are at the core of our social investment strategy and develop shared initiatives together. In addition, we support food reclamation and rescue to a value of $1.3 million each year to help to reduce food insecurity in Israel.

We focus our social investment on organizations that advance healthy lifestyles in different communities as well as women’s empowerment. We connect with around 30 organizations in these areas so that they can increase their social impact.