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We’re profiling industry leaders to gather their insights into the transforming worlds of DEI, social impact, and brand elevation. 

With over a decade of experience as a corporate social responsibility leader, Pooja Pelham has successfully developed programs and initiatives to make a difference in our communities. Her expertise is focused on building scalable partnerships, harnessing technology for good, and strengthening nonprofit capacity and mission fulfillment.

In her role as Senior Manager of Social Impact at HelloFresh, she leads the company's Beyond the Box program, which focuses on food insecurity efforts in the United States. Prior to her arrival at HelloFresh, Pooja worked for Feeding America where she managed strategic partnerships with leading retailers including Amazon and Albertsons Companies.

How is your company brand appealing to Gen Z professionals from a career destination standpoint?

At HelloFresh, we’re creating an inclusive culture for all generations of employees, and we know that Gen Z professionals are our future leaders. We always keep a close pulse on the needs and motivation of our potential candidates to ensure we are providing the right benefits, culture, office perks, and flexibility required to thrive both personally and professionally at HelloFresh. From a hybrid work schedule among all our office locations, to company-sponsored events, development stipends, community engagement and volunteer opportunities with our local charity partners, Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) such as Fresh Pride, Women Inclusion Network, and LIMES (Leveraging Inclusivity for Minority Employee Success), and because learning never stops we have our HelloMint mentorship program where employees are paired together for 1:1 coaching connections; there is something for everyone here. 

What is HelloFresh's impact team doing in terms of best practices that other Fortune 1000's should take note of?

1. Intersectionality of Social Impact and Business - Historically, social impact has been siloed from core business functions in the corporate world. HelloFresh is changing this landscape by involving various departments so that every employee has an opportunity to participate. For example, our procurement team supports our giving strategies by helping to secure inventory for programmatic needs, our food safety and quality team work closely across our Distribution Centers to ensure the surplus food we donate to our partners is safe for consumption, and even our CRM team lends a voice to this work by sharing our impact with our customers. Impact spans across all of our brands including HelloFresh, GreenChef, Factor, and EveryPlate, and is celebrated internally via quarterly All Hands Meetings, our company-wide FreshNews newsletter, and presentations aligning departments with distinct social impact opportunities.

2. Qualitative Data Excellence - Storytelling produces a powerful connection between output and outcome. At HelloFresh, we empower the narrative by visualizing the linearity from our company, to the charity, to the recipient - an illustration which would be difficult to uncover with numbers alone.

3. Fostering Trust through Transparency - Crafting a social impact landing page, gathering a portfolio of image/video assets, and developing Impact Reports can create palpable and transparent connections between consumers and the philanthropic mission. Consumers and stakeholders want evidence in the commitments and goals being made.

In your view, how can social impact efforts affect a company's employer brand?

Social impact empowers employees and consumers alike by humanizing the brand. When done right, people can develop a personal connection to the product. When you know a company is creating a positive impact in the world, you are inspired and want to support it, you want to purchase the company’s products or donate to charitable campaigns, you want to be part of the difference, and you certainly want to work there. It goes without saying that social impact brings out the best of intellectual capital within employees, fosters team collaboration, and sparks creativity.

At HelloFresh, we enable our employees to embrace and support a cause that they are passionate about, helping to make a real difference in the communities where we each live and work. Our company values kindness, and many of our employees feel compelled to support our work in this area.

What’s a key best practice for other Fortune 1000 brands to follow when it comes to elevating employee engagement?  How about a best practice for DEI employer branding?

It is important to listen to employees about what really matters to them. If you ask, they'll tell you! There are hundreds of People Programs a company can develop and launch but if these initiatives don't actually impact what employees truly care about they won't make a meaningful difference or elevate the employee experience. We make sure we are paying close attention to what employees are saying, and when they are saying it so we can use this feedback to influence the programming we build for employees at every step of their lifecycle. 

Showing the authenticity of your employees is imperative to a company’s employer brand, especially in the DEI space. Potential employees want to see people who look like them, working in the roles they want, and seeing diversity in every level of the organization. Candidates want to hear about personal experiences within the company to understand not only the culture, but also how they can grow their careers. Empowering employees to show up as their authentic selves and have their voices heard creates a ripple effect of inclusivity and belonging that impacts every part of the business.

What inspired you to begin working in social impact?

I was raised on the principle of helping others - my parents instilled it in me at a young age. I knew I wanted to help people but I was unsure how. In fact, it required a bit of trial and error to discover my potential.

Standing nearly 5 feet tall, being left-handed and a woman of color - I quickly realized that the world was not created for me. 

Being different was my catalyst to starting a career in social impact. I wanted to be a part of change and to know that my work was capable of improving the lives of others. I spent some time working for various charitable organizations until I ultimately found a mission that resonated deeply with me - hunger relief.

After working for a local food bank and then nationally for Feeding America, I found my purpose. I personally know friends and families who have turned to food banks for support and have witnessed the positive influence it brings firsthand. It’s the reason I have spent the last decade of my career in this space. 

Today, I’m proud to lead HelloFresh’s Beyond the Box social impact program and continue the mission to end food insecurity in the United States.

Tell us more about HelloFresh's Beyond the Box social impact initiative. How do you determine success?

Beyond the Box is the philanthropic expression of HelloFresh’s mission: changing the way people eat, forever, inclusive of those facing food insecurity. Our objective is to target a broken food system, ensuring fresh food is available and accessible to the food insecure and others in their time of need. Additionally, our Sustainability team has amplified our social impact efforts by donating our fresh, surplus ingredients to over 40 charities nationwide.

To HelloFresh, social impact goes beyond numbers, it comes down to true impact, which is why we named the program Beyond the Box. Giving back is about understanding the value we bring to our communities, in some ways it is quantifiable such as the number of meals we provide, but our greatest opportunity is to seek the qualitative by gathering feedback, creating inclusivity and storytelling of the lives we have changed.

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1. Intersectionality of Social Impact and Business - Historically, social impact has been siloed from core business functions in the corporate world. HelloFresh is changing this landscape by involving various departments so that every employee has an opportunity to participate. For example, our procurement team supports our giving strategies by helping to secure inventory for programmatic needs, our food safety and quality team work closely across our Distribution Centers to ensure the surplus food we donate to our partners is safe for consumption, and even our CRM team lends a voice to this work by sharing our impact with our customers. Impact spans across all of our brands including HelloFresh, GreenChef, Factor, and EveryPlate, and is celebrated internally via quarterly All Hands Meetings, our company-wide FreshNews newsletter, and presentations aligning departments with distinct social impact opportunities.

2. Qualitative Data Excellence - Storytelling produces a powerful connection between output and outcome. At HelloFresh, we empower the narrative by visualizing the linearity from our company, to the charity, to the recipient - an illustration which would be difficult to uncover with numbers alone.

3. Fostering Trust through Transparency - Crafting a social impact landing page, gathering a portfolio of image/video assets, and developing Impact Reports can create palpable and transparent connections between consumers and the philanthropic mission. Consumers and stakeholders want evidence in the commitments and goals being made.