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Purpose, Strategy & Culture

A Culture & Spirit of Connections Drives Economic Stability

The Hershey Company

Our culture and ability to create connection are now more important than ever. At a time when uncertainty, fear and anxiety are the new normal for so many of us, staying true to our purpose – the reason why all of us at Hershey get up in the morning – is a constant on which we can rely. We make moments of goodness for people to share with our brands. Our brands continue to play an important part of peoples’ lives during this time—from baking and watching movies to family game nights and back yard s’mores and supporting communities.

As a food manufacturer, we’re also an important link in the broader food supply chain that provides economic stability for our farmers, partners, suppliers, and communities by creating jobs and fueling demand for ingredients and products.

We’re helping protect the economic well-being of our suppliers

By operating safely across our business, and with a high degree of sensitivity to the impact of COVID-19 on our workforce, we’re able to continue to make a positive impact across the value chain. Due to our close relationships with our suppliers, we’ve been able to continue production and support our suppliers across the dairy, sugar, peanut and almond industries.

    • Dairy: Hershey partners with over 250 dairy farms and is the last global chocolate manufacturer that still processes fluid milk to make our Hershey’s Milk Chocolate and Kisses products. During a time when milk is at a surplus, we continue to take daily deliveries of milk – 25-30 truckloads – which is sometimes as much 1.5 million pounds in a day.
    • Sugar: Across the company, Hershey sources cane and beet sugar from farmers across eight states and is one of the top 10 largest sugar users in the U.S.
    • Peanuts: The peanuts our plants use come from all three peanut growing regions (Virginia/Carolinas, the South East and the South West U.S.). As one of the five largest peanut users in the U.S., we purchase three of the four market types of peanuts from our suppliers – Runners, Spanish and Virginias.
    • Almonds: The Hershey Company uses California almonds to produce Hershey’s chocolate products in the U.S and globally. We have purchased our almonds from California suppliers for more than 100 years.

Our employees are key to keeping operations strong

Our employees are at the center of keeping our operations safe and maintaining these strong relationships with our suppliers. We see this day in and day out through the hard work and dedication of our more than 16,000 employees. Our remarkable people not only manufacture the products people love, but they also sell, ship, and merchandise those products online and in retail location from coast to coast.

We’ve implemented programs from flexible working hours, off-peak hours at retail and work-from-home options, as well as financial incentives and personal protective equipment, to allow people to keeping working in a way that protects their income, while also allowing them to attend to their families and loved ones.


As a 10-year veteran of The Hershey Company, I have always been proud to work for and represent this fine company. As the world has been dealing with this unprecedented issue of COVID-19, the way we, as employees, have been treated was more than I could have wished for. To have the flexibility to work from home has been a life saver for many people in more ways than one. I have been working in the field two days a week since this started, and feeling safe 100% of the time thanks to all the safety equipment and instructions that have been provided for us. I have had great success doing TeleAssist due to the training I’ve received and have had success calling on my stores in person. Having the opportunity to make extra money during this extreme time has been incredibly helpful and I thank the company from the bottom of my heart.”

Janeen Foreman, Retail Sales Manager, Canton Michigan


Commitment to Community

Supporting our team and our community during difficult times is part of our legacy. From the very founding of the company, Milton Hershey created affordable treats for American families, and upholding that tradition is something our employees take pride in today. Safely maintaining production and distribution ensures that our brands consumer love and rely on for moments of goodness remain accessible and affordable during times of economic uncertainty.

Our commitment to community is not something that we invented overnight. It’s an integral part of our purpose that we’ve honed for more than 125 years. This commitment is often noted when during the Great Depression, Milton Hershey initiated great building projects around the town to keep his workers employed. Similarly, the company served a national need by producing military rations during World War II. Today, that commitment is taking a new form as employees from our Chocolate World retail attraction will soon be staffing a manufacturing line that will produce disposable face masks for our employees, their families and our communities.

As we’ve done throughout critical points in our nation’s history, we’ll continue to lean on our belief in the power of connection to play a powerful role in driving economic stability, and supporting those in the communities where we live and work to get through these tough times together.