Last summer we pledged to be an actively anti-racist company. We also committed to being open about our wins, setbacks, and learnings along the way. In the spirit of transparency, we’re sharing the progress we’ve made since our pledge last summer.
-
We created an internal program – Grow With Us – to address the racial discrepancies between our leadership team and hourly associates. Grow With Us promotes career growth and development opportunities within Imperfect Foods by offering a clear pathway for upward mobility within teams and even across departments so our employees can pursue their passions and build new skills. The goal is to both build equity across teams and nourish the next generation of leaders and managers from within Imperfect.
-
Our talent team completed an inclusive hiring training in 2020 and another diversity-in-hiring workshop in 2021. We also invested in software to minimize implicit bias in our hiring process.
-
We hired our first Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Program Manager. This new position will play a key role in furthering DEI efforts at Imperfect and will help foster a diverse and inclusive workplace and culture.
-
Our IT and Engineering teams partnered with several new organizations to increase the diversity of candidates in our hiring efforts. These organizations include:
-
We are working to increase diversity in our sourcing practices, but this will take time to meaningfully implement. Agriculture has a long way to go in promoting diversity in land and farm ownership; listen to a thought-provoking chat with Jilian Hishaw on our podcast to learn more about this issue.
-
To stand in solidarity with our AAPI community in the wake of anti-Asian hate crimes, we donated $5,000 to Asian Americans Advancing Justice and $5,000 to Save our Chinatowns.
This work has been educational and humbling for us as a company. We are proud of the progress we’ve made but know that we have a lot further to go. The food system, much like the rest of our society, has a lot of historical baggage when it comes to racial equity, and we’re more aware than ever that meaningful change will not come quickly. Much like our commitment to sustainability, being an anti-racist company is an ongoing journey, not a temporary focus or a set of items on a checklist. We appreciate your support as we continue to try to do better, day by day.
