By closing its entire US operations for one day, Perfetti Van Melle’s 370+ employees will provide more than 2,960 volunteer hours to two area non-profits.
ERLANGER, KY – Local confectioner Perfetti Van Melle will close its US headquarters in Erlanger, as well as its Hebron facility, on Monday, September 10 as company employees once again take part in the company’s annual Community Day. This year marks the employees’ ninth annual event.
One day each year, Perfetti Van Melle closes so that employees may share in a paid day of community service. Together, all of Perfetti Van Melle USA spends the day working in teams to give back to the community in which the company’s manufacturing plant and home offices are located. Staff from the Erlanger corporate office, all three manufacturing shifts, the Hebron, KY distribution center and members of the sales team from across the US devote their entire workday to one of two area non-profit agencies.
Several groups of the Perfetti Van Melle employees have teamed up with Keep Cincinnati Beautiful to spend the day at Cincinnati Public Schools Evanston Academy, Academy of World Languages and Owl’s Next Park (all located in Evanston). Employees will landscape and maintaine school grounds and provided general clean-up of the surrounding. They will clean and paint playground equipment, clean up community and school gardens, and repaint area signs and chain link fences. Perfetti Van Melle employees have also collected more than 1,000 much-needed books for the Evanston Academy school library.
Other Perfetti Van Melle employees will spend the day at The Giving Fields (101 Anderson Lane in Melbourne, KY). These employees will harvest, record and sort produce, and weed various areas of the farm. They will also work on other projects such as staining a shed, repairing boxes, repairing fences, and cutting down small trees.
“Giving back to the community in which we operate is a core value of Perfetti Van Melle,” said President and CEO Sylvia Buxton. “We are grateful to be a part of this Greater Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky region. Our employees are committed to supporting vital agencies such as Keep Cincinnati Beautiful and The Giving Fields, both of whom provide much-needed assistance to those in need.”
About Perfetti Van Melle
Perfetti Van Melle is a privately owned global company that was established in March 2001 through the merger of Perfetti SpA and Van Melle B.V. Perfetti Van Melle manufactures and distributes sugar confectionery and chewing gum products in more than 150 countries. Today Perfetti Van Melle is one of the world’s largest confectionery groups, marketing highly renowned brands such as Mentos, Frisk, Chupa Chups, Smint, Fruittella, Alpenliebe, Golia, Vivdent, Airheads, Happydent & Big Babol. The Group has corporate headquarters in Italy and The Netherlands. U.S. operations are solely operated out of Erlanger, KY.
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About The Giving Fields
The Giving Fields is a community farm located in Melbourne, KY that provides fresh produce for Northern Kentucky food pantries, soup kitchens and other agencies that provide emergency food for those in need. Our employees will harvested and sort produce, mow grass and eliminate weeds, trim tree limbs and remove brush, winterize blueberries and work on various construction projects.
About Keep Cincinnati Beautiful
Keep Cincinnati Beautiful is committed to revitalization and environmental initiatives that build community and foster pride in all of Cincinnati’s 52 neighbourhoods. Perfetti Van Melle teams will perform tasks such as landscaping and enhancing school grounds, cleaning and painting playground equipment, weeding and prepping school vegetable gardens and painting school gymnasiums.