CorpCROP is a nonprofit program dedicated to bringing truly sustainable wellness to the workplace that improves the lives of employees, supports the environment, benefits local communities and positively impacts the bottom line. Their approach is unique and truly grassroots. We wanted to share their story.
HL: Tell us about how you came up with the idea for CorpCROP?
CorpCROP: Jen, the founder, previously worked for a start-up company that got acquired by a larger company. Once her roles changed, her job went from being very active to very sedentary and she decided it was time to make a change. Living in San Francisco, Jen became interested in the urban permaculture garden near her home. She wondered why no one had tried creating a community garden
at work and came up with the idea for CorpCrop - a campaign to change sedentary behavior, to bring fresh food to the worksite and to get people out of their seats during the day.
HL: How does CorpCROP promote worksite wellness?
CorpCROP: Our core mission at
CorpCROP is sustainable wellness. This applies in 4 ways. 1) it keeps
people engaged and we don’t have to keep coming up with new ideas to get wellness started. When people are engaged they are more productive and there is less absenteeism. 2) we work really hard to be
environmentally responsible by providing organic produce whenever we can and transforming land for producing healthy food. 3) we focus on the
community. All of the businesses who are involved with creating a worksite garden donate a portion of the food to communities in need to help and sustain those areas. 4)
online social collaboration and gamification builds community across all of the participants by leveraging technology that extends engagement beyond the garden and spans geographic locations.
HL: What does a healthy business look like to you?
CorpCROP: At CorpCROP a healthy businesses has two main components. First, it’s all about
culture. A healthy culture creates a more successful team. Second, there is a financial component, when the employees are healthy and the business is healthy, it will result in a healthy bottom line as well.
HL: Why do you think health and safety are important in business?
CorpCROP: First and foremost is valuing the people that work for you. Showing you care for them means management invests in employee wellbeing. This will increase both trust and loyalty. If employees are passionate about what they are doing, the company is successful. If you aren’t safe it changes the entire environment. It creates fear, and people avoid wanting to go to work.
HL: In what ways do you promote health and safety for yourself and your workers at CorpCROP?
CorpCROP: The people on our team are passionate about eating healthy and all have their own gardens. In order to make sure that everyone stays healthy, we ensure there is a good balance to reduce stress. Doing things like making sure that they are not overcommitted and that all their needs are met are simple ways to promoting a good work-life balance.
HL: What advice do you have for businesses who are thinking about starting a wellness program?
CorpCROP: Be creative, there are a lot of low cost things that you can do for your employees that make them feel valued. Ask your employees what to do. People have amazing ideas, and if you don’t ask, they will never share. Finally, diversify the wellness programs that you do offer them; one size doesn’t fit all. Doing as much as you can, even if it is small is really great.
