Good causes in Bournville and neighbouring parts of Birmingham were paid a visit from 250 members of Mondelēz International’s Research, Development and Quality (RDQ) team last week.

On Tuesday 1st October, the 250 strong team of volunteers braved the elements and headed out to a number of different local community partners including Rowheath Pavilion, Bournville Community Hub and Selly Oak Nursery to celebrate ‘Purpose Day’ - marking the anniversary of the business and one year of the company’s new ‘Snacking Made Right’ strategy.

During the day, 40 volunteers, led by The Conservation Volunteers (TCV), headed to the company’s Health for Life community food growing space at Ley Hill in Northfield and trimmed hedges, planted daffodils and restored benches. Another team of volunteers made their way around the village on a day-long litter pick, with a further team building a recycled bottle greenhouse at Somerville Primary School.

Volunteers also supported Age UK Birmingham, hosting a group of local beneficiaries for coffee, cake and bingo at the Cadbury Club.  The Cadbury archives team from Bournville were also on hand with a Cadbury heritage display – bringing back lots of happy memories for the group. The activity formed part of the current Cadbury partnership with Age UK and the ‘donate your words’ campaign – bringing awareness to the 225,000 older people in the UK who often go a whole week without speaking to anyone.    

Last year, colleagues at the Bournville site committed a record 4,000 hour of volunteering, and following the RDQ team’s determination they look set to break the record again in 2019. The healthy ethos around volunteering is a homage to Richard and George Cadbury, who built a community in Bournville for their workforce in 1895.

Ian Noble leads the Bournville RDQ team at Mondelēz International and headed up the Purpose Day activity. He said: “Giving back to local communities is such an important part of who we are as a business. It was important to the founders of our business and it’s still very much part of our values and purpose as a business today. 

“To see the whole of my RDQ team head out into the local community simultaneously gave everyone a huge sense of civic pride. They’ve done an amazing job and we’ll be back next year to support even more local activities!”