As part of our In Conversation interview blog series focused on elevating shared value leaders and practitioners, we had the opportunity to speak with Kim Fortunato, Vice President of Community Affairs at Campbell Soup Company and President of the Campbell Soup Foundation about the purpose-driven company’s approach to advance school nutrition and about her journey as a social impact leader.
Shared Value Initiative: Campbell’s has a long and storied history of being purpose driven. Can you tell us how Campbell’s has used its purpose to guide its strategy and how shared value has played a role?
Kim Fortunato: Campbell Soup Company was founded in Camden, NJ in 1869 and we’ve been a purpose-driven company, one that cares about our employees, consumers, community, and environment, for over a century and a half. From the beginning, Campbell has been committed to making good, honest and affordable food that people love.
Our purpose, connecting people through food they love, along with our values and mission, play an important role in building our culture, implementing our strategy, and driving performance. We consider purpose in our decision making for all that we do, and it’s our priority to “deliver on the promise of our purpose.”
Over time, we’ve expressed our purpose in different ways to reflect the evolution of our business, but it’s always included connecting people through food while having a positive impact on the communities we call home and preserving the resources on the planet we share.
SVI: You recently launched a new program, Full Futures. Can you share more about the context for that launch and the thinking behind Full Futures?
KF: We recently wrapped up our 10-year Campbell’s Healthy Communities program that focused on measurably improving the health of young people in our hometown of Camden, NJ. Because the Healthy Communities program was designed with a collective impact approach and much of the programming focused on school nutrition, school gardens, cafeteria menus, and nutrition education, we began to think about the role Campbell could play in the school nutrition space.
Children consume more than a third of their daily calories at school and there’s a well-established link between healthy dietary behaviors and academic performance. Recognizing the vital role that schools play in providing daily nutrition to children, I proposed a shared value idea to our leadership. The idea would focus our community and philanthropic efforts on school nutrition: breakfast, lunch, after school meals, and summer feeding programs.
A key lesson from our Healthy Communities program was the importance of working collaboratively with expert partners. When we set out to develop Full Futures, we knew creating a collective impact partnership with organizations across public, private, and non-profit sectors would be essential to our success. With a lot of collaboration and creativity from this group, Full Futures was born!
Full Futures is a partnership to advance the school nutrition environment—from cafeteria equipment, to expanded meal programs, nutrition education, menu reformulation and equitable sourcing of more local, fresh produce.
Over time, we’ve expressed our purpose in different ways to reflect the evolution of our business, but it’s always included connecting people through food while having a positive impact on the communities we call home and preserving the resources on the planet we share.
SVI: As a shared-value practitioner and as a purpose-led company, how is Campbell’s thinking about equitable access to nutrition? Can you share what this looks like in practice?
KF: The goal for Full Futures is to foster a school nutrition environment that ensures all students are well nourished and ready to thrive at school and in life. Campbell and our partners in the Full Futures collective have committed to grounding our approach, strategies, and process in equity. This means understanding the systems and challenges our communities have faced in an environment like Camden, NJ.
Equitable access to nutrition means ALL children are afforded access to healthy, nutritious foods that are culturally and dietetically appropriate. It means no child should be hungry. It also means listening to the needs of the School Food & Nutrition Services Director and understanding the challenges that school food service staff and school food delivery are facing as the pandemic continues to force change upon schools.
SVI: We’re living in a world that’s very different than it was just a few years ago and it looks to only be changing at an increasing rate driven by technological advances, the pandemic, climate change, the racial justice crisis and a host of other issues. With that in mind, what’s some advice that you have for upcoming leaders that need to grapple with increasing transformation and uncertainty?
KF: The complexity of the social issues we face in today’s world is growing exponentially. As a leader in the area of social change and transformation, there are a few grounding principles that have guided my work:
- Listening is critical – not only to the stakeholders with whom we are co-creating to find solutions, but to the communities in which we work. Acknowledging communities as partners, giving their members a shared voice, and being willing to shift power to them is so important.
- I am also a devotee of collective impact. Having practiced this approach of social change for more than a decade, I am convinced it is the only way to advance change. I advocate for cross sectorial partnerships that can demonstrate a shared commitment to a common goal and encourage my fellow funders to fund collectively. If we are encouraging this framework with our nonprofit partners, it is incumbent for those of us who are committed to this approach to consider it in our funding strategy as well.
SVI: What are you reading, watching or listening to that’s shaping your thinking about corporate purpose, equity and shared value?
KF: The Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) has been a staple resource for me for more than twenty-five years. Shortly after joining Campbell Soup Company, I first read the seminal article on Collective Impact by John Kania and Mark Kramer (Winter 2011) that was foundational to our program design for Campbell’s Healthy Communities and our approach to co-creating social change in our Campbell communities for more than a decade.
A current article in SSIR that has informed my thinking on shared value and the role of the private sector is Business Executives Want to Be Pushed Towards Responsible Sourcing by Steve Rochlin and David Wofford. It provides guidance on the business case for social investments and the need for more sophisticated analysis of ESG data.
SVI: What is one thing you’re optimistic about for the near future?
KF: As an eternal optimist, I am hopeful that a variety of cross sector stakeholders are more willing to come together to focus on some of the seemingly intractable problems our world is facing. I am also incredibly optimistic about the younger generations and their focus on purpose, meaning, and doing the right thing.
