Corporate Citizenship Strategies

By Carley McCree

At Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company, many of our corporate efforts are focused on corporate citizenship. As an organization, corporate citizenship is as our continued commitment to the communities that we serve and continually engaging our employees to give back. We strive to create an environment where employees are driven to give back through volunteering, monetarily and through offering their talents to organizations in our community.

Our corporate citizenship strategies have shifted throughout the last year, as many of our day-to-day lives have also changed. However, the desire to give back did not stop at Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company. Our employees are generous and continued to give back despite many challenges that they faced. When volunteer opportunities arose, employees jumped at the chance. We supported local organizations like Sow, Reap, Feed, a local nonprofit organization, to sponsor their JXN Mobile Markets in Jackson, Mississippi.

Sow Reap Feed is a nonprofit organization strengthening hungry communities by rebuilding their access to and understanding healthy foods. They have developed two tools that help reduce the impact of hunger now while providing sustainable long-term solutions. One of those tools is the Mobile Market that Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company sponsored. The Mobile Market provides consistent access to fresh fruits and vegetables for the communities who find themselves abandoned by the traditional food system. We supported four mobile markets and sent volunteers to assist in the mobile market’s set-up and the selling of produce.

Our employees volunteered weekly to help staff the markets and assist with set-up and takedown at their mobile market locations. Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company employees all receive eight hours each year to serve in the community. While we usually take numerous employees each month to various locations to volunteer, the pandemic halted our volunteer efforts. The partnership with Sow Reap Feed was a great solution to get our employees back into the community to serve and volunteer.

We also partnered with two other local organizations, The Mustard Seed and Hope Hollow, to provide volunteers throughout the year. Our friends at The Mustard Seed needed volunteers to help the seedsters with outdoor projects, clean-up efforts, and just being a source of light for the seedsters. The Mustard Seed is one of those organizations that we have to turn volunteers away because so many employees have a special place in their hearts for the organization’s mission. Continuing to provide volunteer opportunities while some of our workforce is still working remotely was essential to keeping our employees engaged and feeling connected throughout the pandemic.  

At Hope Hollow, our employees have been able to help prepare for summer camps and assist with beautifying the grounds of their campus. Another one of our employee favorites, Hope Hollow, has been one of our community partners for several years. They are committed to the community by providing resources and programs to families to individuals with special needs and their families.

Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company employees are not only generous with their time, but their generosity monetarily is also significant. For over ten years, employees have given through our monthly employee giving campaign, CARES, over $150,000 collectively each year. During open enrollment, employees have the opportunity to select ten to twelve organizations that make up our SFBLI CARES list. Of those organizations, Children’s of Mississippi has always been at the top of our list. So, when approached with an opportunity to give to the new Children’s of Mississippi building campaign, we jumped. Children’s of Mississippi has always been one of the largest and most significant amounts that our employees give each year. Because of the generosity of our employees, we have committed to $100,000 over four years to name two NICU rooms and one clinic exam room after the employees of Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company. The commitment our employees make monthly to give back to many local organizations makes a significant difference!

Our company’s slogan, “Your Friends for Life,” emphasizes one of our employees’ common threads of the desire to help others, be they family members or members of our community. Despite the many changes over the last year, our employees are still moved to ask, “How can I help?” As we continue to navigate the ever-changing environment of remote working and transitioning back to the workplace, we will continue to look for opportunities to be a friend to our community partners and will continue to be there for the communities that we serve.