Campbell Soup Company Ranks on National List of Best Corporate Citizens

(Photo via Flickr user wallyg)

Campbell’s Soup has become a staple in grocery stores and kitchens all over the world, but it is more than an affordable and iconic food product. Located just across the Delaware River on the Camden Waterfront, Campbell Soup Company is one largest corporations in the Philadelphia region and also one of its best corporate citizens – at least relative to other corporations of its size.

The company was recognized in The Civic 50, a national survey that looks at outstanding examples of  corporations giving back to the communities where they are located. The survey was created in 2012 by the National Conference on Citizenship (NCoC), Points of Light, and Bloomberg.

Campbell’s ranked in the “Fostering Civic Culture” and “Business Integration” categories. It also ranked No. 1 in the “Best in Consumer Staples Industry” and “Best of Mid-Cap Market.”

The company’s model of corporate social responsibility (CSR) includes programs for both its customers and its neighboring communities. Customer-focused programs tend to be more broadly applicable, such as health education initiatives or creative ways to provide resources through its products. The “Labels for Education” program, for example, allows customers to save labels from Campbell’s products to give to their schools, which the school can then redeem for school supplies.

Campbell’s community-based initiatives are much more targeted to the company’s hometown, Camden, N.J.  In 2011, the company launched “Campbell Healthy Communities,” which aims to increase access to  fresh foods and to safe places to play, exercise and walk in Camden. It also wants to develop avenues for nutrition education and to create buy-in for these goals in the community.

Another initiative, which Generocity covered last year, uses undersized or slightly blemished peaches that would have gone to the landfill to produce a salsa product. Revenue from the salsa is channeled into the Food Bank of South Jersey.

For more information about Campbell’s programs, check our their webpage designated to social responsibility.