Better Communities
Our Goals
- Invest over $10 million by the end of 2020 to advance sustainable food security
- Conduct a high-impact external campaign that engages consumers and policy makers to advance food security
- Accelerate progress of our 50% gender equity for leadership roles held by women by 2022
- Strive for a Total Recordable Incident Rate of 0.60 or less
- Strive for a Days Away, Restricted or Transferred Rate of 0.25 or less
2019 Highlights
- Contributed over $8 million to initiatives working to advance food security to-date
- More than $5.3 million of healthful products have been donated to-date
- Achieved 38% representation of women at the manager level and 31% representation of women at the director level
- Achieved a Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) of 0.60
- Achieved a Days Away, Restricted or Transferred (DART) Rate of 0.21
Partnering with Organizations
The Maple Leaf Centre for Action on Food Security partners with organizations across Canada to advance food security.
Here are some of the innovative programs we are supporting:
Our Stories
Food Security
4.4 million Canadians, or 12% of households, face food insecurity.
It is a shameful reality that in Canada, a country of considerable wealth and food resources, over four million people face food insecurity. This is not a food issue – we have plenty of food to nourish everyone. While geographic, health and literacy factors play a role, this is largely an issue of poverty and lack of income.
The statistics are shocking
- 4.4 million Canadians (one in eight households) experience some level of food insecurity, affecting one in every six children*
- 72% of children in Nunavut live in food insecure households, the highest level in Canada**
- Aboriginal and black households have a rate of food insecurity that is 2.5 times higher than that of other Canadians*
- Food insecurity is a serious public health problem, as physical and mental health is closely linked to household food insecurity
Despite global advances, levels of food security in Canada over the past decade have not improved and have in fact worsened in some provinces.
Maple Leaf Foods Centre for Action on Food Security
Maple Leaf Foods has a long-term commitment to advancing sustainable food security and going well beyond conventional corporate philanthropy. In late 2016, we launched the Maple Leaf Centre for Action on Food Security (the Centre), a registered charity governed by an independent Board of Directors. The Centre is committed to working collaboratively across sectors to reduce food insecurity in Canada by 50% by 2030 and advocating for critical policies.
In 2018, the Centre worked with a number of civil society and private sector partners to advocate for a national food policy that would address issues of poverty and food insecurity and establish a governance framework that would incorporate the views and expertise of various stakeholder groups as the government shifts from policy to program implementation. A Food Policy for Canada was announced in 2019 with “helping Canadian communities access healthy food” as one of four priorities.
The Centre seeks to raise the profile of food insecurity as we invest in programs required to make sustainable change. We have established The Feed Opportunity Fund, which provides grants to organizations engaged in testing and expanding innovative approaches to advancing food security, with the goal to capture and share learnings, and identify approaches that may be scaled to increase their impact.
In 2019, the Centre launched nine scholarships to support master’s or PhD students who pursue research that contributes to the body of knowledge on food insecurity. Three scholarships will be distributed each year, beginning in the 2020/2021 academic year.
Our principles
- We support food-based initiatives that promote dignity and build individual and community capacity to advance food security.
- We support partnerships that advance sustainable solutions to food insecurity.
- We support innovation, learning from what doesn’t work as well as what does.
- We connect our people and their expertise with our partners through skill matching and volunteerism.
- We build partnerships with governments, academia, non-profit organizations and the private sector to advance change and progress.
- We seek to advance collective knowledge and impact, sharing the learnings with others.
Partnering with Organizations
The Maple Leaf Centre for Action on Food Security partners with organizations across Canada to advance food security.
Here are some of the innovative programs we are supporting:
Here’s what our partners have to say about our working relationship:
“The Maple Leaf Centre for Action on Food Security has been key in helping us to become a national leader in the food security sector. As a funder, they understand the importance of dedicated and flexible support. This has enabled us to innovate, expand and adapt our work. We’ve leveraged the Centre’s investment in our collaborative Knowledge Exchange program to build a national network of 183 Good Food Organizations and shift the food security space towards more impactful programs that are centred around equity, dignity and health. As they’ve worked to innovate in their own approach, we’ve enjoyed an iterative and collaborative relationship with the shared goal of changing the national conversation around food insecurity.”
Nick Saul, CEO, Community Food Centres Canada
“The Depot's Boîte à Lunch after-school program offers educational nutrition and cooking workshops to grade 4 and 5 children in low-income neighbourhoods with the aim of building food skills and fostering an empowered and positive relationship to healthy food. Our partnership with the Centre not only allowed us to develop and test an innovative solution to scaling the program, but their collaboration helped us to deepen our understanding of its impacts and plan for sustainability.”
Daniel Rotman, Executive Director, Depot CFC
“The Northern Manitoba Food, Culture and Community Collaborative partners with about 30 community-led food security projects annually, and through those partnerships thousands of people in northern Manitoba have developed food-related skills, increased the availability and quality of foods, and have planted the seeds of possibility for the future. The people of northern Manitoba are leading a movement to health and strength through strong food systems, and we are proud to be good partners in that movement.
It has been a pleasure and benefit to have staff from the Centre and Maple Leaf Foods contribute to and take part in this work. We didn’t know what to expect from this partnership, as the Centre represented our first deep connection to the business world. The team has demonstrated great enthusiasm and support for the work as regular participants in our work.”
Julie Price, Tides Canada
Stories of Food Insecurity
What does food insecurity look like in Canada? Watch these videos of Canadians sharing their personal experiences.
Kerry is a single mom who has experienced first-hand the struggle of trying to make ends meet.
Affording food – let alone healthy food – while paying for school expenses is a challenge that impacts students’ ability to succeed. Hear from students Naja and Hansel.
Ervin, Brian and Chuck are empowering people in their remote Manitoba community to overcome food insecurity.
Supporting Bahamas’ Disaster Relief Program
In 2019, one of the most powerful and devastating hurricanes ever recorded, Hurricane Dorian, struck the Bahamas. In the aftermath, organizations and individuals across the world mobilized to support recovery efforts. In response to the destruction to communities and ecosystems, Maple Leaf Foods and the Maple Leaf Foods Centre for Action on Food Security donated CAD$10,000 to The Nature Conservancy’s Bahamas Program to support climate action and climate change resilience efforts.
Engaging with Our Communities
Occupational Health and Safety
Occupational Health and Safety at Maple Leaf Foods
We strive for zero occupational injuries in the workplace, a goal driven by our commitment to employee safety. Through our Safety Promise and continuous improvement in our safety protocols, in 2019 we realized a 90.4% improvement in our Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) since our 2012 baseline reporting year.
To advance our workplace safety program and goals, our Vice-President, Health & Safety, Security, Sanitation and Environment reports to the Chief Food Safety and Sustainability Officer. They both work closely with the operations leadership across our sites and report directly to the Safety and Sustainability Committee of the Board of Directors three times a year.
Maple Leaf Foods employs a Senior Health, Safety, Security and Environment (HSSE) team that provides leadership across the Company. This team is supported by an HSSE designate at each work-site and representatives from the Joint Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) committees that represent all Maple Leaf Foods employees. These formal joint management–employee committees monitor and advise on OHS programs, identify potential hazards and recommend controls.
Total Recordable Incident Rates (2012–2019)
Our Safety Promise
Our goal is to always provide consumers safe, great tasting food produced in a safe work environment.
- We commit to becoming a global leader in food safety and job safety, and providing the focus and resources needed to achieve this goal.
- We commit to establishing a culture of food safety and workplace safety with high-performance teams, where people are encouraged and expected to act on any concern they may have.
- We commit to measuring our safety performance with testing and benchmarking against globally recognized standards.
- We commit to continuously seeking better ways to make safe food, and to make it safely.
- We commit to openly sharing our knowledge with government, industry and consumers, so we can learn from them and they can learn from us.
- We commit to transparency and candour in pursuit of better performance and public confidence.
- We commit to behaving in the most responsible and transparent way possible, placing the safety of our people and our consumers first if there is ever a breach.
This is our Safety Promise.
Michael H. McCain
President and Chief Executive Officer
View our Safety Promise here.
Our Occupational Health and Safety Strategy
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Analyzing losses |
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Analyzing risks |
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Measuring culture |
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Leading OHS indicators |
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Lagging OHS indicators |
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Ongoing skills development and training are essential to continuing to reinforce the importance of workplace safety and procedures to keep people safe. Our supervisors receive training related to recognizing, assessing and controlling hazards, the roles and responsibilities of supervisors, forklift safety, chemical safety and other related topics.
Behavioural-Based Safety
Our Behavioural-Based Safety (BBS) program assists in the identification of opportunities for improvement through behavioural trend analysis (with transparent data) of safe and unsafe behaviours.
Corrective actions are taken to correct any unsafe behaviours and recognition is provided to the employee who identified the unsafe behaviour to be corrected.
Over the years, we have developed behaviour observation tools for our sites to utilize as well as a behaviour tracking tool.
Zero Hero Safety Club Recognition Program
The Maple Leaf Foods “Zero Hero Safety Club” is an internal campaign to drive and support the OHS program in order to realize the aspirational achievement of zero occupational injuries.
Our facilities become members of the “Zero Hero Safety Club” when they achieve zero occupational injuries and meet other criteria.
The Safety Promise Awards program is an internal recognition program that recognizes a Maple Leaf Foods site with the best overall performance and/or the most improved performance from a Food Safety and OHS perspective.
In 2019, we had 21 sites that had zero workplace injuries and became members of the Zero Hero Safety Club!
Occupational Health and Safety Golden Rules
Our “OHS Golden Rules” provide a consistent and standardized deployment of critical examples of behaviour that may pose the risk of injury, damage and even death.
The six core rules highlighted are intended to be a framework that supports our current OHS policy, standards, procedures and processes across Maple Leaf Foods facilities. Given the severity of risk inherent in the behaviours illustrated, such actions may result in termination of employment, even if it is the employee’s first offence.
OHS Golden Rules
- Violation of lock-out/tag-out
- Bypassing or disabling machine guarding or safety interlock devices
- Violation of confined space procedure
- Violation of fall protection procedure
- Violation of hot work procedure
- Unauthorized/unsafe use of powered material handling equipment
Our Workplace Safety Awards
Each year, we recognize individuals and locations for their outstanding workplace safety record in our annual “Safety Awards.”
Diversity and Inclusion
Women represented 38% of managers and above, up from 36% when we set our goal in 2017.
“I care deeply about Maple Leaf Foods and our people. I envision a workplace where everyone can thrive, where our individuality is valued and celebrated. I invite everyone to explore what diversity and inclusion mean to you, and how you can foster a workplace of inclusivity.”
– Curtis Frank, COO, Maple Leaf Foods
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The Multi-Cultural Advocacy Network (Multi-CAN) aims to share knowledge, promote cultural fluency and celebrate the strength of our collective differences to support an inclusive environment. |
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Maple Leaf Pride & Allies creates a safe environment for LGBTQ+ individuals and allies. This ERG encourages everyone to be fully authentic in the workplace through visibility, education and advocacy. |
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The Women's Impact Network is committed to advancing gender equality by creating meaningful connections so that all talent thrives at Maple Leaf Foods. |
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Women in Manufacturing is dedicated to attracting, engaging and advancing women in manufacturing, closing the gender gap at Maple Leaf Foods’ plants, and unleashing the full potential of our talent. |
Mental Health and Wellbeing
Mental health is a growing concern across all segments of society, and its pervasiveness is so great that in any given year, one in five Canadians will personally experience a mental health problem or illness. The impact reaches across families, amongst friends and communities. Maple Leaf Foods has started the You Are Not Alone! Initiative to develop a culture that stops the stigma associated with mental health challenges.
To learn more about our mental health initiative, click here.
Our guiding principles
- Actively build a workforce as diverse as the countries we are proud to serve
- Enable top performance by removing barriers, so talented people can exert their energy on doing great work, leveraging our differences
- Learn from each other’s unique experiences and perspectives, in a culture of openness and inclusion
- Create food that meets the diverse needs of the world we live in
Our Diversity Stories
Maple Leaf Foods’ people celebrating our cultural diversity in our communities and across our facilities. Click on the photos to read our stories.
Leadership
How We Develop Our People
We have a culture that enables great people to thrive, succeed and reach their full potential – to take a stand, pursue excellence and create the future. To that end, we have various programs in place to provide our people with career development opportunities, such as self-directed learning, training, coaching, and recognition and rewards.
The Leadership Track Program for New Graduates
The Leadership Track Program is Maple Leaf Foods’ early leadership development program for talented, driven and ambitious graduates. The three-year program has recruited over 300 leadership trainees since it was established in 1998, with 28 participating in the 2019 program.
Our aim is to achieve a 95% retention rate of top talent.
Participants in the program will get a lot of experience: on-the-job training, learning and networking opportunities with other participants and program graduates, senior management mentoring, annual performance reviews, competitive compensation package and career coaching.
The program offers three diverse and meaningful roles across select areas, and participants spend one year in: a client- or market-facing role, an operations role, a support role.
Leadership Edge
At Maple Leaf Foods, we have a Leadership Edge commitment, culture and expectation. We strive to be leading edge in how we engage, develop and provide a safe working environment for our people. It is a culture that enables great people to thrive, succeed and reach their full potential – to take a stand, pursue excellence and create the future. We have various programs in place to provide our people with career development opportunities.