Deere employees volunteer 82,000 hours to community organizations

Moline, Ill.-based Deere & Co. has announced that U.S. employees recorded more than 82,000 hours of volunteer support to community organizations. This work is part of the company’s citizenship efforts that focus on long-term solutions for world hunger, education, and community development.

One example of the volunteer effort by employees is the packaging of 975,000 meals for local food banks, an initiative that included 3,500 employee volunteers in recognition of World Food Day. In addition, about 1,800 Deere employees volunteered for United Way's Day of Caring in the Quad City area of Iowa and Illinois, where the company's world headquarters is located.

The firm’s citizenship efforts include not only employee volunteer effort but also grants from the John Deere Foundation, its philanthropic organization, and through corporate contributions made mostly in communities where John Deere employees work and live. In 2014 foundation grants and corporate contributions totaled nearly $32 million.