Organic Valley’s Response to COVID-19

Many people—consumers, customers, and community members—have reached out to learn how we’re protecting our employees and keeping all of our delicious products flowing from our farmer-owners’ fields to millions of consumers.

When it comes to sustaining a steady flow of organic products to millions of consumers who rely on us, we are a uniquely resilient business. The vast majority of our products are grown, processed, packaged, and sold right here in the United States. Our supply chain lives mostly here in the U.S., and we have created strategic redundancies with over 90 co-processors across the nation to ensure we can keep trucking milk and delivering healthy, organic food to our valued consumers. In addition, our supply comes from over 1,800 farmer-members who are proudly self-sufficient in many ways.

We would like to share a few of the many other steps we’ve taken in response to this crisis:

• To protect our employees and the communities where they live and work, we’ve instituted mandatory work-from-home for all our staff who can do their jobs remotely.
• With our facilities closed to everyone but staff whose roles require them to be on site, we have been able to focus our cleaning and sanitation staff and supplies at our production and warehouse facilities to keep those employees safe at work.
• We are saluting all employees who continue to work on site with an additional $2 per hour added onto their base salaries during this time until normal work may be resumed. We’re also supporting them with free, healthful, organic, home-cooked meals and continuous availability of organic snack items, also at no cost.
• We’ve ceased nearly all business travel and have required that non-essential visitors to our facilities come see us at another time.
• We’re offering an additional 80 hours of paid time off for any employee who is or becomes unable to work due to their own or a family members’ coronavirus-like symptoms, or who is unable to work due to their own or a family member’s immunocompromised conditions who need to be in social isolation during this time.
• Through our Organic Valley Retail Store in La Farge, Wis., we are providing employees and community members with access to a wide range of Organic Valley, Organic Prairie, and other organic foods. Recognizing the importance of social distancing, customers can call or email their orders in advance; our team assembles their orders for fast and safe pickup.

Finally, you can have full confidence in the quality, safety, and taste of Organic Valley products. The USDA, the FDA, and the CDC are united in their assessments that the coronavirus is not transmitted via food products.

All of our production and distribution operations adhere to extraordinarily stringent manufacturing practices that are recommended and regulated by state and federal agencies. These standards govern hygiene, sanitation, personnel practices, and safe handling procedures that protect from environmental contamination, ensure product integrity, promote safety, and provide a wholesome operating environment. And as was the case evenbefore this heightened concern, our milk undergoes quality and food safety tests at every step from the farm to you.

We are deeply grateful for the outpouring of interest and concern for our people and our cooperative. Like everyone, we look forward to the world’s eventual return to normalcy.

We want to thank all essential workers who play a role in putting food on our tables, and we offer an especially big thanks to the health care workers who are on the front lines, keeping us safe in this time of need. We appreciate all that you have been doing! In the meantime, we wish everyone safety and good health.