“Here, I have learned about caring for others. The collaborative culture we have here has changed my life forever,” says Rebeca Tenorio, Pozuelo employee, Costa Rica. She and her work colleagues enjoy sharing: they are generous with their time, salary, knowledge and skills. They feel that their jobs are a privilege and show their gratitude by volunteering.
In 2020, with the purpose of supporting vulnerable families and mitigating the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, they supported the mission of their country’s food bank. The volunteers put together food kits with biscuits, juice products and essential goods. “The most striking aspect about it is that I knew I wasn’t going to meet any of the people who were going to receive the food kits, but I still was sure that they were going to make the most of them, which is why I said to myself: ‘I have to do my best to put together as many food kits as I can because the more I put together, the larger the number of people who will get one,’” reckons Guillermo Enrique Sáenz, employee.

The volunteers put together and donated 25.000 food kits. These aids and the ones donated by other Costa Rican companies enabled the food bank to support seventy NGOs throughout the country. This represents 21.000 more people than the total they serve each year in average. “It’s a small act of love for changing the world. We do a small job and then we gather efforts that multiply and become blessings. That is what this volunteering work represents,” says Guillermo. Rebeca also expresses her satisfaction: “It’s only one hour assembling cardboard boxes or helping in other activities, but you feel really nice inside. It’s something beautiful.”

Inspired by activities such as this one, Rebeca and Guillermo have incorporated a service-driven attitude into their life. She gives emotional support to all her work colleagues; he is committed to his small acts of love: in the morning, he washes the utensils so that other employees can use them right away and, on the weekends, he picks up the garbage he finds while taking walks with his dogs. “I like to help with anything I can because that’s what it’s all about, cooperating with others,” states Guillermo.

For the five past years, Pozuelo has worked in partnership with the Costa Rican Food Bank on its mission of fighting hunger throughout the country. In addition to donating products, the Company’s employees do volunteer work such as organizing food products and improving, with their talent, multiple processes of the food bank, such as legal, safety and administrative aspects.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Grupo Nutresa donated 1.024 tons of food in the region. These aids reached the hands of people at risk such as children, senior citizens and front-line healthcare personnel working through the COVID-19 pandemic.