BASF Donates $25,000 to Fight Childhood Hunger
BATON ROUGE, LA – In recognition of BASF‘s 150th anniversary, the company’s Geismar site donated $25,000 to the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank to bring the BackPack child nutrition program to Ascension Parish. The donation will provide backpacks filled with nutritious food for 100 low-income students for the 2015-16 school year. With the help of Volunteer Ascension, BASF employee volunteers will stuff backpacks with food and deliver them to students for weekends and holiday supply through the school year.
“We’re celebrating our 150th anniversary by supporting critical needs in the community, which is a year-round commitment for BASF,” said Tom Yura, Senior Vice President and Manager of the BASF site in Geismar, Louisiana. “We appreciate the opportunity to work with our nonprofit partners to fight poverty and childhood hunger in Ascension Parish.”
The BackPack program helps feed low-income children on weekends and holidays when they are not in school receiving their main source of nutrition through the National School Lunch Program. Last year, Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank enrolled 575 children in the program in eight area schools.
“We are excited to have BASF join us to expand the BackPack program to children in need in Ascension Parish,” said Mike Manning, President and CEO of Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank. “In addition to providing the funding needed for this vital program, BASF employee volunteers will pack and distribute the backpacks to these children – demonstrating BASF’s strong commitment to the community.”
According to statistics from Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, there were nearly 6,000 food-insecure children in Ascension Parish in 2013 and more than 44,000 in Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank’s service area. Feeding America’s report about childhood hunger in the U.S., Map the Meal Gap, is available at www.feedingamerica.org.
BASF’s official anniversary event took place April 23 in Ludwigshafen, Germany. In addition to employee celebrations and a historical retrospective, BASF has a co-creation program called Creator Space™ that focuses on the topics of food, energy and urban living. To learn more, visit https://creator-space.basf.com.
In recognition of BASF’s 150th anniversary, the Geismar site donated $25,000 to the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank to bring the BackPack child nutrition program to Ascension Parish. Pictured from left to right included BASF employee Randall Shoulders and Sasha Ipson; Kendall Hebert, Capital Area United Way’s Vice President of Communications; Tom Yura, BASF’s Senior Vice President and Site Manager at Geismar; Mike Manning, Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank’s President and Chief Executive Officer; Sherry Denig, Volunteer Ascension’s Executive Director; Gwen Hilliard Volunteer Ascension board member; John Langlois, BASF retiree, and his wife Charlotte Langlois.
About Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank
The Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank is a nonprofit organization that provides food to more than 100 charitable agencies operating food pantries, group homes, shelters, meal sites, and special agencies. Operating primarily on donations, the Food Bank serves 11 parishes (Ascension, Assumption, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Livingston, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena, St. James, West Baton Rouge, and West Feliciana). Now in our 30th year of service, the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank works with community partners to serve those most in need. Together, we’re fighting hunger. Visit www.brfoodbank.org for more information.
About Volunteer Ascension
Volunteer Ascension is dedicated to the recruitment and training of volunteers to provide a network of assistance to the less fortunate throughout the Ascension Parish community. We offer that assistance to children, the elderly, those with disabilities and those within our community who find themselves in a time of need. Visit www. volunteerascension.org for more information.
About BASF
BASF Corporation, headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, is the North American affiliate of BASF SE, Ludwigshafen, Germany. BASF has more than 17,000 employees in North America, and had sales of $20.6 billion in 2014. For more information about BASF’s North American operations, visit www.basf.us.
At BASF, we create chemistry – and have been doing so for 150 years. Our portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products and crop protection products to oil and gas. As the world’s leading chemical company, we combine economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. Through science and innovation, we enable our customers in nearly every industry to meet the current and future needs of society. Our products and solutions contribute to conserving resources, ensuring nutrition and improving quality of life. We have summed up this contribution in our corporate purpose: We create chemistry for a sustainable future. BASF had sales of over €74 billion in 2014 and around 113,000 employees as of the end of the year. Further information on BASF is available on the Internet at www.basf.com.
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