Hormel Foods Corp. will pay the tuition of a two-year college for any of its employees’ children, the company announced Tuesday.
Every graduating senior with a parent or caretaker who works at Hormel will be offered a free community college education.
The program is designed to be inclusive, without a GPA or test score threshold. The only academic requirement is that the student has to graduate high school and meet any standards outlined by the college.
“We believe equality in education can be a game-changer, and we have decided to take on that challenge. Through a new program called Inspired Pathways, we are going to make the dream of a college education a reality for the children of our team members,” Hormel’s chief executive Jim Snee, said in a statement.
Inspired Pathways is one of two programs at Hormel that is aimed at addressing systemic racial and economic inequality — issues that have been brought to the fore this summer following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
“As we witnessed the social unrest this summer, we knew we needed to get involved,” Snee told investors Tuesday. “We decided to let our team members decide how we would give.”
Hormel employees selected three organizations for Hormel to give to: Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences, the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and United Negro College Fund.
Many of Hormel’s employees in its processing plants are immigrants. This two-year college program is aimed at helping those and other families improve their economic status and build their future opportunities.
“When you think about how a college education can change lives and start a ripple effect that will be felt for generations, that’s the change-maker Hormel Foods wants to be,” Snee said.
Hormel, based in Austin, Minn., will work with community colleges located in cities and towns where it has operations. The meat and snacks company already offers a four-year scholarship program through National Merit Scholarship Corporation, available for high-achieving students. Hormel also reimburses tuition for current employees who go back to school while working at the company.
The program will be available to the families of its U.S. employees. Hormel employs 20,000 people worldwide.