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Hershey commits to Ghana training

Hershey has announced a new Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Commitment to Action to train 7,500 farmers in Ghana on improved agronomic practices, empowering them to supply local commercial markets with safe and high-quality peanuts to produce Vivi, a vitamin and mineral-fortified nutritional supplement distributed to school children in Ghana. Hershey has committed to 100% local […]

Hershey has announced a new Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) Commitment to Action to train 7,500 farmers in Ghana on improved agronomic practices, empowering them to supply local commercial markets with safe and high-quality peanuts to produce Vivi, a vitamin and mineral-fortified nutritional supplement distributed to school children in Ghana. Hershey has committed to 100% local sourcing of peanuts for its production of Vivi by 2018.

Providing children with the basic nutrition they need to learn, grow and be successful in school remains a challenge across West Africa, the company notes. Hershey says that it produces and distributes these much-needed nutritional supplements at no cost to the children through a partnership with the Ghana School Feeding Programme and non-profit Project Peanut Butter.

“Ghana has a long history of producing peanuts, known locally as groundnuts. Yet rural farmers lack access to commercial buyers due to quality and food safety issues, so they struggle with low incomes,” said Mike Wege, Chief Administrative Officer at Hershey. “By sharing our world class expertise in peanut production, roasting and processing, we hope to increase the quality and safety of Ghana’s peanut supply, improve the livelihoods of its farmers and promote a sustainable supply chain for basic nutrition.”

In addition to capacity building and training for local peanut farmers, Hershey says it will provide financial and in-kind resources to rehabilitate a local peanut roasting facility and implement training on the appropriate roasting techniques. Hershey will establish a premium price for purchasing the peanuts as an ingredient for the Vivi nutritional supplement.

The commitment to source 100% local peanuts for Vivi is part of Hershey’s global social purpose to provide children with the basic nutrition they need to learn and grow, the company says, and builds on Hershey’s existing Energize Learning program, which will help feed 50,000 Ghanaian children by 2016 by distributing Vivi during the school day.

Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), an initiative of the Clinton Foundation, convenes global leaders to create and implement solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges. CGI Annual Meetings have brought together 190 sitting and former heads of state, more than 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members of the media. To date, members of the CGI community have made more than 3,200 Commitments to Action, which have improved the lives of over 430 million people in more than 180 countries.