Honoring a deep-seated connection with the community, Mars Food associates spent time in the Mars Community Garden on Union Street last week to prepare it for planting.
Area residents can make use to the 26 garden beds to plant vegetables, herbs and other garden delights. This is the fourth planting season the garden has been made available to the community.
The donation is not the first time for Mars to donate to the district.
The Greenville facility has been active in the community for many years, supporting organizations including food banks, Blessings in a Backpack and the Mars Food community garden.
Mars Food, which opened in Greenville in 1978, brought partners together to further ingrain the company’s participation in the community as it celebrated 40 years of operation.
In an effort to recognize the importance of education and fostering an interest in sustainable gardening, Mars made a donation of $40,000 to Greenville Public School District in September 2018.
"We are thrilled about the opportunities that this donation will create," said Dr. Janice Page, Superintendent of the Greenville Public School District said last year. "The support of Mars will continue to have a tremendous impact in our community. With this sustainable gardening program, our students will learn about the benefits and mechanics of growing their own food and how to eat healthier diets. Students will also be able to share with others of all ages within our district and within our community."
Thanks to the donation from Mars, the district will be able to create a sustainable gardening program.
“We have incorporated aspects of the curriculum both at Greenville Technical Center in both our agriculture and botany classes,” Page-Johnson said. “We have plans to contract a garden at Greenville High School, but with all the rain we have been having the project has been delayed. This is a wonderful addition that we are excited about and look forward to having the full program available next year.”
The intent is to use it as a way to insure we are educating and exposing children to the benefits and mechanics of gardening, Page-Johnson said.
Although plans for the garden are in the planning stages still, Page-Johnson said she already has big plans for what the garden can help students achieve.
“The intent is to use it for field trips. Students can come and go, write about what they see,” she said. “We also want it to become a learning tool for our students and beneficial for our community by having a farmers’ market or our culinary arts class. We look forward to using this for the benefit of our students and our community.”
The facility is the third largest employer in Greenville, with more than 180 full-time associates, and produces UNCLE BEN'S® dry rice and ready-to-heat rice pouches and SEEDS OF CHANGE® ready-to-heat rice pouches.
Mars Food has invested nearly $200 million into the site over the last 40 years, most recently investing more than $30 million between 2014 and 2018 and creating 25 new jobs in its manufacturing and research and development operations.
Today the facility is zero waste to landfill, covers 80 acres with more than 250,000 square feet of space and produces 100,000 tons of rice annually, making it the largest Mars Food factory in the world.
"Our operations in Greenville are essential to both the success of our business as well as our efforts to deliver on our purpose of 'Better food today. A better world tomorrow,'" Mars Food Greenville Site Director Don Cornett said last fall. "We are proud of the progress we've made over the last four decades and are excited to continue investing in our talented Associates and the community of Greenville, who make milestones like these possible."
Governor Bryant and Mayor Simmons were at the celebration and met many of the Greenville facility's associates throughout the day, including two that are Greenville natives. Lucy Whitley started at the factory 27 years ago and is a member of the site's inbound receiving team with a passion for people and safety. Bryant also met Mike Jones, the director of operations who started as a fork truck operator 21 years ago.
"For 40 years, Mars Food has helped fuel the growth of Greenville and the broader Mississippi Delta region by providing jobs, investing in the community and being an important partner to the state of Mississippi," Bryant said at the celebration. "We're honored to share this milestone with Mars Food in Greenville and hope to celebrate many more."
