We were overdue for some good news.
And this week Hilmar Cheese Co., a private corporation owned by 11 local dairy families since it was founded in 1984, gave it to us.
The company plans to add an administration building in a field south of its visitor center, across August Avenue. Officials expect the move to generate about 100 jobs in addition to the estimated 770 positions already at the Hilmar facility and 330 positions at the company's Dalhart, Texas, site.
This is only the most recent example of Hilmar Cheese giving back to the community. For nearly two decades, the cheese and whey manufacturer has done well by doing good.
It takes 20 pages just to list all its local and more widespread contributions in its 2010 sustainability handbook.
Here's a big one: Hilmar Cheese made a $250,000 gift to Friends of Merced County Fair to secure naming rights for a new Big Barn at the fairground.
Late last year, the company was awarded the 2011 Outstanding Corporate Donor in Philanthropy by the Yosemite Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals.
A few more of those contributions: Each year Hilmar Cheese donates 7,000 pounds of cheese and thousands of cans of food to local food banks and hunger-relief organizations; 17 students got college scholarships from Hilmar Cheese; 15,000 students participated in its educational programs (including one that lets them make their own ice cream); 70 percent of the water used in the Hilmar facility is recycled; the company partners with more than 230 local dairy farms dedicated to providing it "with the highest quality milk."
According to calculations from California's Bureau of Economic Analysis, Hilmar Cheese provides 4,700 additional jobs in local communities, 9,633 regional jobs provided indirectly through its business with vendors, goods and services, transportation and other indirect benefits.
It also gives a percentage of its profits to Emanuel Medical Center, the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life, the Delta Blood Bank and the Hilmar Community Pool.
"Need knows no county lines," Denise Skidmore, the company's director of public relations, wrote in an email. "We try to help those in our surrounding communities -- where our owners, employees and the dairy farm families that supply our milk live and spend their time. We receive thousands of requests and try to help as many as possible."
We regularly call out agencies, bureaucracies, elected and administrative officials and others when we believe they deserve criticism.
Likewise, when a person, agency or company acts on behalf of our community, we offer our praise.
Thanks, Hilmar Cheese, for all you do for our community.
E-Mail
Print
