Sugar Industry Sustains Communities During Pandemic

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For decades, America’s sugar industry has been proud to be a sustainable economic driver in communities across the country, producing high-quality sugar while providing well-paying jobs. As America comes together to present a united front against the COVID-19 virus, the on-farm and factory jobs the sugar industry supports across America are more important than ever in keeping communities strong and a crucial food ingredient flowing to American families.

The industry is also working on new and creative ways to help other businesses keep their doors open.

Michigan Sugar Company has been hard at work during this pandemic finishing its sugar beet slicing campaign, one of the busiest times of the year, in order to help keep the nation’s supply chain of sugar full. During this difficult season, company officials decided that they wanted to help businesses that were facing a slowdown due to the pandemic.

Michigan Sugar bought 2,600 gift cards from more than 50 restaurants from Michigan communities of Bay City, Caro, Croswell, Sebewaing and Ohio communities of Fremont, Findlay and Toledo.

In total, Michigan Sugar spent $131,000 to give all of its 1,300 employees $100 cards to spend in the community at restaurants that have lost customers.

“We hope this helps ease the pain of this pandemic for those businesses just a little bit,” Michigan Sugar Company Board Chairman Adam Herford told Mlive.com

Sugar farmers and workers are an essential part of the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They continue to work hard, despite the uncertainty and risk, in order to keep grocery store shelves stocked and food moving to American consumers.

Michigan Sugar Co. President and CEO Mark Flegenheimer thanked employees for keeping products flowing.

“During this stressful and challenging time related to the COVID-19 pandemic, our employees have stayed focused on the task at hand and shown incredible determination as we continue to produce, package and ship sugar on a daily basis. I can’t thank them enough for the dedication they have shown and the efforts they have made to keep our products flowing into the marketplace,” he said.

America’s sugar farmers and producers’ mission for sustainability fuels their drive to help our nation’s recovery. The industry is focused on providing safe and affordable food and preserving good jobs and the communities that have been built around sugar. Even when disaster – or a pandemic – strikes.

Because if there is anyone who knows resiliency, it’s an American farmer.

As Pastor Gary McNealy, of the Friendship Baptist Church in Harlem, Florida, said: “Farmers always have our backs.”

Sugar Producers Aid COVID-19 Fight

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The COVID-19 pandemic has required an all hands on deck approach to protect our communities and ensure first responders have the tools they need. Sugar producers have boldly stepped up to the challenge and are making critical donations, retooling portions of their production lines or diverting sugar from their normal supply chains to create necessary products to fight COVID-19.

Health care providers across the country are desperately in need of personal protective equipment (PPE), such as N95 masks, to protect them as they are on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19. Sugar companies are donating extra masks and equipment to these first responders.

Michigan Sugar Company uses PPE to keep sugar workers safe, and donated a portion of their company supply to local health systems, including hundreds of masks, safety glasses, and gloves.

Amalgamated Sugar Company, which processes sugar beets in Idaho, Oregon and Washington, saw the pressing need for cloth face masks to protect against the COVID-19 virus and moved the industrial sewing machines in its quality lab into face mask production. They typically make tare sample bags but are now hard at work sewing face masks to protect their employees as they continue the essential work of producing food for our nation. Amalgamated Sugar employees are assisting in this effort as well, working to sew masks while at home.

“We will donate any surplus we have once our critical infrastructure employees are adequately protected,” said Scott Winn, Amalgamated Sugar’s Vice President of Operations.

Beyond masks, hand sanitizer was among the first items in short supply as the pandemic took its toll on stockpiles across the world. The sugar industry has teamed up with distilleries to help restock this critical item.

In Florida, the members of Florida Sugar & Molasses Exchange are donating molasses to Tampa Bay Rum Company to produce sanitizer that will be donated to doctors, hospitals, police, fire, EMTs, letter and package carriers or any frontline workers. U.S. Sugar is donating fermentable sugar to Sugar Sand Distillery in Lake Placid to make sanitizer.

Three Roll Estate Distillery in Baton Rouge normally makes rum, but with the help of the sugarcane industry in Louisiana, they’re now distilling a higher proof alcohol for hand sanitizer.

Domino Sugar’s Baltimore refinery donated sugar to Lost Ark Distilling, which will use it to create ethanol, one of the ingredients in the hand sanitizer it is producing and donating to local hospitals and first responders.

In Illinois, American Sugar Refining (ASR) Group is donating sugar and molasses to KOVAL Distillery, which will use it to create ethanol for hand sanitizer that will be given to fire stations, hospitals and ambulance companies.

“By continuing to support each other and our neighbors, we will get through this crisis together and will be stronger for it,” ASR Group said.

We’re proud to lend a helping hand as we all fight COVID-19 together.

From Sugar to Sweet Corn: Feeding Our Communities

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With their friends and neighbors facing job loss and uncertainty due to COVID-19, U.S. Sugar provided 1,000 crates of green beans as well as fresh Florida orange juice to churches, healthcare providers, and food banks across South Florida. U.S. Sugar isn’t alone in its efforts to keep the community fed by donating truckloads of food.

Across America, sugar growers and producers are stepping up to help sustain local families as economic hardship has increased demands for assistance.

The sugar industry is providing donations to food pantries, ensuring children have access to food programs with the absence of school-based meals and helping feed the elderly who depend on community-based food programs.

The iconic Domino Sugar refinery in Baltimore, Maryland, delivered sugar to Catholic Charities of Baltimore, which was distributed to four food pantries in the city and will be used at Our Daily Bread Employment Center to provide individuals with a daily hot meal.

The Domino Sugar refineries in Chalmette, Louisiana and Yonkers, New York each donated granulated sugar to food banks to be distributed to families in the area.

C&H Sugar in California donated sugar to the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano, which is working to provide a consistent supply of food to those it serves while also meeting a new and growing need for nourishing meals in the community.

These company efforts supplement the generous donations provided by individual sugar farmers across the country.

As the harm inflicted by COVID-19 on their neighbors grew, South Florida cane farmer Paul Orsenigo and business partner David Basore of Grower’s Management Inc. increased their monthly donation of sweet corn, lettuce and fresh cabbage to a Feed the Hungry food bank in Palm Beach County. Their donations help the food bank feed more than 3,000-5,000 families every day.

Orsenigo and Basore have also donated vegetables to the Place of Hope in Palm Beach Gardens, which supports more than 300 foster children and at-risk youth.

“The need for food has increased dramatically in recent weeks,” Orsenigo said. “We are thankful that we have the opportunity to support those in need by providing healthy and nutritious Glades-grown vegetables to local charities.”

At the American Sugar Alliance, we are grateful to have the opportunity to support the humble and hardworking farmers and workers who make up the American sugar industry. Thank you for the essential work that you continue to perform, and the love and compassion you have displayed for your friends and neighbors during this exceptionally difficult time.

Sugar Producers ‘Have Our Backs’ Amid Pandemic

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Volunteers at U.S. Sugar recently donned masks and carefully packed crates brimming full of green beans. Each crate full of fresh produce was destined for a local church or community group.

When the farmers at U.S. Sugar saw that many of their neighbors in the community were facing food insecurity due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, they knew exactly what to do.

“We are neighbors helping neighbors and trying to share the bounty of our farms with local families when they need it most,” said Judy Sanchez, U.S. Sugar Senior Director for Corporate Communications and Public Affairs. “These communities, where we have lived and raised our families for generations, hold a special place in our hearts.”

In total, they donated more than 120,000 servings of green beans to those who needed it most.

“In this crisis and many others, farmers always have our backs and we are grateful for their hard work growing food for Americans,” said Pastor Gary McNealy, of the Friendship Baptist Church in Harlem, Florida.

While still working in fields and factories to produce an essential food ingredient, sugar farmers and producers across America have also been quietly acting in a multitude of ways to support our communities during this unprecedented pandemic. These extraordinary gestures are an ordinary act for an industry that prides itself on providing a helping hand and investing in sustainable communities.

Now more than ever, that commitment is critical.

Sugar producers have donated nourishing produce to food pantries and sugar to distilleries to produce hand sanitizer. They’ve provided protective equipment to keep frontline health care providers safe. And they’ve purchased gift cards to help local restaurants stay open and employees fed.

The American sugar industry is working in innovative ways to keep our communities strong. We are proud of the generosity of our industry, so we are sharing a small series of stories focused on these inspiring gestures.

Our series will take you around the nation as we chronicle the efforts of the men and women who grow and produce our sugar as they support the national fight against COVID-19.

America’s Sugar Growers are Still Farming

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Over the past several months, the world has changed dramatically as we confront an unseen enemy. Despite physical distance and stay-at-home orders, Americans have found new community as together we face uncertainty about what tomorrow may bring.

Even as this pandemic unfolds, we must continue to eat, which means farmers continue to farm. In fact, the federal government declared that farmers and food manufacturers are an essential workforce and a critical part of the national response to COVID-19. Despite the many challenges they currently face, rural America and the nation’s farmers continue to work tirelessly to provide us all with a safe and affordable supply of food.

For the sugarbeet growers who farm in Southern California’s Imperial Valley, harvest must go on.

Southern California sugar growers are unique in that their harvest starts on April 1 and stretches through the summer. They are an essential part of the food supply chain for a significant portion of the Southwest/Pacific markets, as the Imperial Valley growers supply the sugar needs of nearly 7.5 million people who call California home. For perspective, that’s enough sugar to feed the four largest cities in California – Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco – and then some.

“Rural America is not exempt from the anxiety we all feel about the threat that coronavirus poses. However, one thing I am not worried about is America’s food production. I see first-hand every day that agriculture is still moving forward,” sugarbeet grower Suzanne Rutherford said.

“We are thankful for a beautiful sugarbeet crop that, during the next few months’ harvest will again be a driver in our local economy. California sugar will eventually be delivered to our bakery and confectionery customers, and in turn will move as an essential ingredient along the food supply chain to your grocery shelves. Particularly in times like these, I’m proud to be a small but very important part of this supply chain.”

Suzanne and her husband Curt are both multi-generation farmers, whose grandparents arrived in the Imperial Valley at the beginning of the 20th century.

“When we planted sugarbeets here in the Imperial Valley desert last fall, the coronavirus was unheard of. Now, in completely different times, we are ready to begin harvest on April 1, just as we always have,” Curt Rutherford said.

“With the health crisis facing the nation, I feel that the agricultural community will come through and provide a safe, bountiful supply of food and fiber for the nation,” Curt added. “We have millions of Americans depending on our farms and factory to meet their needs.”

Adapting to new challenges is a defining characteristic of rural America and this year’s harvest will be unlike any harvest before as producers take additional measures to protect the health and safety of their growers and workers.

“I’m extremely grateful for a crop to harvest, especially when you consider the recent disaster that happened in other beet growing regions of the United States,” said Von Medearis, President of the California Beet Growers Association. “I feel it’s an honor to be one of the few who can do this.”

Grower Jason Taylor echoed that sentiment, saying, “I feel blessed to do what I do. I really enjoy being able to produce an important part of the American food chain.”

We pray that our beet growers in Southern California have a safe harvest and we are thinking of the farmers all across this country working hard so that we may have the food necessary to nourish our families.

To all of our beet and cane growers, farmers and ranchers, and the essential workers who help bring our food products to market: Thank you for #StillFarming.