For the seventh year The Hershey Co. has been named to The Civic 50, an annual recognition from Points of Light, the world’s largest organization dedicated to volunteer service. 

Launched in 2012, the Civic 50 recognizes companies that most effectively use their resources to positively impact the communities in which they do business. The Hershey Co. has demonstrated a passion for supporting vibrant and thriving communities for more than a century. 

“As we celebrate our 125th anniversary this year, we are proud that our investment of time, talent and resources continue to help make our communities strong and vital,” said Leigh Horner, v.p. of corporate communications and sustainability, The Hershey Co. “We continue to create jobs in our communities, help children and families thrive, and promote education and economic opportunity in the places where we live and work.”

Hershey’s sustainability strategy, “Our Shared Goodness Promise,” guides how it shares goodness by investing in local communities and promoting employee engagement and volunteerism. Last year, Hershey impacted nearly 11 million lives through investments in community nonprofits, volunteered for more than 133,000 total hours in the community and made more than $10.9 million in total cash donations.

Throughout the year, Hershey employees give back to their communities and are given paid time off to volunteer. In July, the company will once again deploy thousands of employees across communities around the world for its annual global week of service, Good to Give Back Week. Hershey employees will work with the company’s nonprofit partners to support local communities, highlighted by the annual meal-packing event with Rise Against Hunger, when the company expects to pack nearly 300,000 meals for communities in need, adding to the more than 1.2 million meals already packed during the previous six years. 

The Civic 50 is the only award that exclusively measures corporate involvement in communities and provides a national standard for superior corporate citizenship and showcases how companies can use their time, skills and other resources to improve the communities in which they do business. 

Civic 50 recipients are public and private companies with U.S. operations and revenues of $1 billion or more and are selected based on four dimensions of their U.S. community engagement program — investment, integration, institutionalization and impact.