Blue Cross: Leveraging organizational assets to invest in healthy communities

Challenge

What started as an idea pitch by employees has turned into a demonstration of Blue Cross’ strong commitment to the environment, volunteerism and public health. The organization builds lasting relationships with local shelters and food shelves by integrating local and cultural preferences for growing specific fruits and vegetables. Through these partnerships and interactions, the company engages its employees, responds to community members’ needs and takes measurable actions to address systemic racial and health equity issues.

Result

An enthusiastic response to the associates’ Giving Garden proposal reinforced an organizational culture of innovation at Blue Cross – one that boosts employee social connectedness, wellness and community engagement. Blue Cross does not stop at providing fresh produce to local shelters and food shelves: associates engage with and learn from community partners in order to better serve the community, thereby creating a circular connection.

The Giving Garden has added to the company’s brand value, making it a role model, regionally and nationally. With the growing interest from other companies and the success of two Giving Gardens – Twin Cities and Northern Minnesota – Blue Cross has developed a public workplace giving garden template as a starting resource. The company hosts two Community Giving Garden Summits every year – typically, one in the spring and one in the fall – to educate and celebrate with partners and community members. This approach allows Blue Cross to shift the corporate systems approach to sharing resources for replication and advancing goals around equity and community engagement.

In addition to the benefits current and future associates experience, such as wellness and recruitment, the community also benefits from the Giving Garden. A local domestic violence shelter teaches women how to cook meals using fresh produce donated from the garden. It has also helped advance the Department of Indian Work’s focus of providing healthy food to stem the high rate of diabetes in Native American communities. Company volunteers support this effort and have a direct impact on community members.

The company’s Giving Garden demonstrates scale and viability of the market by increasing access to food solutions. Blue Cross has inspired leaders at more than 20 Minnesota-based companies to replicate giving gardens on their properties.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (Blue Cross) invests in healthy communities through its two Giving Gardens. This program provides a model to address systemic racial and health equity challenges by promoting food security and access to nutritious food. The Giving Garden program centers circularity by focusing on making connections between systems and increasing access to solutions.

Following Blue Cross’ lead, more than 20 Minnesota-based companies have launched their own giving gardens over the past 13 years.