April 18, 2018
Workers from Moët Hennessy with City Harvest. Image courtesy of Moët Hennessy
Spirits group Moët Hennessy is partnering with City Harvest to help combat hunger and poverty in New York, continuing the trend of luxury brands giving back to their communities.
With this new partnership, Moët Hennessy employees will gather to help make and pack thousands of free lunches, which will be distributed throughout New York's large homeless population. The partnership shows that luxury brands can use their resources and large employee bases for altruistic good rather than solely for profit.
"The Moët Hennessy USA team and I could not be more excited to partner with City Harvest " said Jim Clerkin, president and CEO of Moët Hennessy North America, in a statement. "We are an organization that highly values our commitment to philanthropy, community and sustainability, which fully aligns with the mission of City Harvest whose Healthy Neighborhoods programs make it possible for us to make a difference."
Food security
Approximately 16 percent of New Yorkers are food insecure, meaning they do not know where their next meal will come from.
These statistics are troubling for any region, but particularly so for a city as prosperous as New York. Moët Hennessy is looking to contribute to lowering this statistic in whatever way possible through its partnership with City Harvest.
City Harvest is a nonprofit focused on feeding the hungry around the country. This year, City Harvest s hoping to feed 1.3 million hungry New Yorkers.
Moët Hennessy’s employees will work to create 1,000 lunches for 7,000 hungry schoolchildren. The spirits group has committed to 200 volunteer hours by the end of the year.
The project was undertaken at the behest of the Moët Hennessy Philanthropic Committee, which is in charge of ensuring that the brand gives back as much as it can to worthwhile causes.
Moët Hennessy is volunteering for City Harvest. Image courtesy of Moët Hennessy
Luxury brands frequently donate their time and resources to charities and other nonprofits.
For example, British automotive manufacturer Rolls-Royce has announced its charity of choice this year, following its tradition of allowing employees to pick one cause per year that the company supports through a number of initiatives.
This year, the chosen charity is The Ickles Pickles Partnership, a group dedicated to providing neonatal care units to premature and sick babies. By placing the decision of which charities to support directly in employees’ hands, Rolls-Royce is helping them forge a connection and creating a more personal investment in support for that charity (see story).
Moët Hennessy’s choice of feeding the hungry will have an immediate beneficial effect for many in the city’s hungry and homeless population.
"Nearly 1.3 million New Yorkers face hunger every year, including one in five children in our city," said Jilly Stephens, CEO of City Harvest, in a statement. "We're proud to partner with Moët Hennessy to ensure that residents across the five boroughs have enough nutritious food for themselves and their families.
"Moët Hennessy's generous commitment will help feed over 200,000 of our neighbors in need."
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