More than 740 Perdue associates, their family members, and friends across nine states helped beautify streams, shorelines, and parks on April 6 and 13 by participating in Project Clean Stream, a companywide effort to help protect and enhance the environment in the communities where Perdue associates live and work.
Volunteers harvested 57,000 pounds of trash and debris from 46 sites in Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, including the Chesapeake Bay and coastal bays watersheds on the Delmarva Peninsula. Their bounty included such items as bicycles, tires, toys, mattresses, bottles, televisions, and much more.
“Our associates’ participation says a lot about the culture at Perdue,” said Jeff Smith, director of environmental services at Perdue and Project Clean Stream coordinator. “They put a great deal of time and energy into their work and are still willing to come out on a Saturday morning and participate in a project that benefits their community and helps protect the environment.”
Project Clean Stream was launched in 2004 by the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland as a grass-roots effort to clean up waterways and shorelines in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Perdue joined the volunteer project in 2008 with 30 volunteers. Perdue has supported the Alliance and Project Clean since 2008 through funding provided by the Arthur W. Perdue Foundation, the charitable giving arm of Perdue.
“What the Alliance is really trying to build is environmental stewards,” said Al Todd, executive director of the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay. “Business has been a big part of that and there’s nobody better than Perdue, who’s been our partner for more than five years through the volunteer efforts of their associates and through financial support.”
In 2011, Perdue expanded the Project Clean Stream concept across the company to encourage associates to organize similar clean-up efforts in their communities. Since 2008, associates have harvested more than 80 tons of trash and debris from local ponds, streams, roadways and parks.
“Project Clean Stream provides an exciting opportunity to engage associates in helping protect the environment in the communities where they live and work, while reinforcing our company’s commitment to being a good corporate citizen,” said Steve Schwalb, Vice President of Environmental Sustainability at Perdue. “The combined strength of our associates’ efforts has the potential to make a tremendous impact.”
