This one goes out to all our front-line people
One of our Fonterra teams has been working tirelessly over the last four weeks to make sure our front-line employees and farmers are kept safe during these times.
Fonterra Category Delivery Co-ordinator Kadin Stevenson, along with our Farm Source team, started a project to say thanks to all of our Fonterra farmers and employees who are leaving their bubbles each day to head into work – by giving them free bottles of hand sanitiser.
“When supply of hand sanitiser started running low, we wanted to make sure we could keep our store teams safe, while also being able to support farmers to operate safely”, says Kadin.
Fonterra’s Farm Source team led the initiative, working with the Co-op’s manufacturing sites to get the project off the ground.
“We worked with Head of Fonterra’s ethanol business, Lactanol, Peter Motion and the Fonterra Edgecumbe site to get ethanol to a third-party manufacturer to create our own sanitiser for distribution,” says Kadin.
We’re now in a position to be able to gift sanitiser to Fonterra’s front-line employees to take home as a thanks to them and their bubbles.
All Fonterra farmer suppliers are also being provided with a bottle of sanitiser from next week as a way of saying thanks. Any supplier currently having milk collected will get a free bottle dropped off by their tanker driver. The suppliers not actively having milk collected will have a bottle of sanitiser waiting for them next time they are at their local Farm Source store.
Manager Farm Source Category Strategy Mark Ennis says although it has been a difficult project, Kadin and the Farm Source team have done a fantastic job to make it happen.
“There has been great support and collaboration across the Co-op. I’m proud we were able to recognise the problem, be proactive and move quickly to get a great result.”