Kraft Foods believes that, as a citizen company, it can contribute significantly to the sustainability of the communities where it operates, which is why it is implementing outreach projects in many different spheres.

Its purpose is to foster inclusion and social mobilization, generating income, developing leaders and boosting local economies, while protecting forests and fields and creating true agents for transformation.

Since 2003, it has been a partner of CARE Brazil in the Small Cocoa Growers Program through supporting this crop, introducing other sources of income, upgrading production processes at settlements established through agrarian reform, and assisting small family farmers.  For the 2009/2010 cycle it is supporting this NGO in its efforts to upgrade the quality and quantity of cocoa produced through transferring  technology developed by the University of Campinas to the Rochedo and Terra de Santa Cruz settlements, which will serve as models for other small growers and settlers in other Southern Bahia State.

“What is under way through corporate social responsibility in Brazil is quite innovative.  This is no longer a pilot project, but is rather firmly consolidated, acknowledged and included in the political discourses of institutions, governments and corporations.  Although CARE is a relatively new NGO in Brazil, where it has been working for eight years, the global CARE family dates back more than sixty years, with activities all over the world.  We decided to combat poverty through tightly focused long-duration projects.  Our main purpose is to boost the capacity for independence of the assisted families, providing them with conditions for them to become the protagonists of their own histories.  Kraft is one of the companies that is most firmly engaged in these efforts, and has developed, moving away from the traditional approach of merely allocating funds.  “We have already reached a degree of maturity in this relationship, and we still have plenty of headroom to grow together” – Markus Brose, director of CARE Brazil.