Issue Date：July 31, 2024
 

Farm the Hopes

In 2014, employees of the Hsinchu Headquarter and Chunan Office began to create a brand-new model to pay back society from daily meals. This thus gave birth to the "Farm the Hopes". Through collaboration with social enterprise "Buy Nearby" and "Earth Friend Organic", we purchase organic vegetable from small farms in local communities as nutritional vegetable for employee lunch. Apart from taking care of employee health, we can help small farms increase their income.
 

For the purpose of easily obtain organic fruits and vegetables for our employees, we have cooperated with the social enterprise "Buy Nearby" to create an exclusive organic and fruit purchase platform “CoreLOHAS” for our employees, which will online provide our employees with organic fruits and vegetables and products from small agricultural farmers that are directly delivered from the farms.
 

In addition, we have purchased Miaoli Yuanli rice from the social enterprise "Buy Nearby" as a gift for shareholders since 2011, to expand the scope and beneficial result of the farm of hopes. We are also pay attention to the current agricultural situation in Taiwan and provide timely support to farmers who are in difficult situation. The price of cabbage dropped tremendously in 2018 which was a huge loss to the farmers. We cooperated with the social enterprise－Buy Nearby, and bought 4,828 cabbages (about 7,242 kg) from farmers in Nantou County and Yunlin County, at a price that is higher than the market price. The purchased cabbages were given to our employees and each of the staff received 2 cabbages as a gift. Our employees had posted many messages on the Company’s FB fan page to support this warm-hearted event organized by the Company.

【2023 Performance】

  • Purchased over 20 tons of organic vegetables from social enterprises "Buy Nearby" and "Earth Friend" for employee meals, with a total procurement amount of nearly NT$1.49 million.
  • Purchased 15 tons of rice from Yuanli Township, Miaoli County from the social enterprise "Buy Nearby" as gifts for shareholders meetings, furthermore, hired 20 people with intellectual disabilities from the Jixian and Tzu Yu sheltered workshops in New Taipei City to package the rice.
  • Purchased over 1 ton of fair-trade coffee beans from the social enterprise "OKOGREEN" to share with employees.


【2022 Performance】

  • Spent over NTD 1.5 million purchasing over 20 tons of organic vegetables from the social enterprise "Buy Nearby" and "Earth Friend Organic."
  • Purchased 15 tons of Miaoli Yuanli rice from the social enterprise "Buy Nearby" as a gift for shareholders , and hire 20 children with intellectual development disorders from 2 sheltered workshops in New Taipei City to pack.
  • Purchased 667.5 kg fair trade coffee beans from the social enterprise "OKOGREEN."
  • Won "Buying Power-The New Product and Service of Social Innovation Purchase Reward Program" Second Prize by Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, Ministry of Economic Affairs.
     

By the end of 2023

Spent NTD 29.57 million
Organic Vegetables & Fair Trade Coffee Beans193.9 tons
Miaoli Rice190.2 tons
2014/6 ~ 2014/9
Stage 1
Integrating vulnerable farmers in remote areas and establishing a stable supply model
  1. Provide field management guidance for vulnerable farmers to achieve stable supply once a week.
  2. Establish a standard operating procedure for farmers to harvest, gather, and deliver vegetable.
2014/9 ~ 2014/12
Stage 2
Hiring low-income families, revitalizing idle farmland, and organic vegetable certification for the first yield
  1. Train and hire parents of students from low-income families for long-term work at farms.
  2. Hire old farmers to manage farms to stabilize income from sales.
  3. Lease revitalized abandoned farmland to cultivate wasteland into farmland.
  4. First yield from the revitalized farmland passed organic vegetable certification.
2014/12 ~ now
Stage 3
Establishing a sustainable model, communicating with stakeholders, and expanding the scope of aid
  1. Establish various standard operating procedures.
  2. Identify the expectations of stakeholders from the plan.
  3. Communicate stakeholders with text, videos, and volunteer activities based on their expectations.
  4. Reproduce the "Farm the Hopes" to continuously expand the area of organic farming and hire more vulnerable groups.

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