At the grand opening of The City of Greensburg SunChips Business Incubatorlast Friday, the City of Greensburg, Kan. -- with
support from Frito-Lay’s SunChips brand -- took a big step forward in its journey to recover from a tornado that devastated the city in 2007 and to become the “preeminent green city” in America. What a great way to end Earth Week.
Greensburg faced what seemed like an insurmountable challenge as one of largest tornadoes in U.S. history destroyed 95 percent of the town and killed 11 people. When the storm hit, the city’s population had slowly been declining as young people moved away to find jobs in other cities. In fact, there was serious consideration of abandoning the city altogether.
The storm impacted our Frito family too: The tornado destroyed homes of two members of our Sales team. Our Midwest South sales region and the SunChips brand team quickly jumped-in to help clean-up the city.
After the storm, the Greensburg community realized their city -- and the close ties of family and friends -- were worth saving, and residents made a commitment to re-establish their community, with a twist -- they would rebuild Greensburg as the greenest city in America.
And, with Greensburg's decision to rebuild green, it became apparent that the SunChips team could play a much bigger role. After all, SunChips is our testimonial snack when it comes to conserving and preserving the planet -– using solar power to help make SunChips at our Modesto, Calif., plant, leading the industry with progress on our compostable packaging and partnering with National Geographic to launch the "Green Effect" to help communities be greener.
So the SunChips team donated $1 million to build the Greensburg SunChips Business Incubator, a solar-powered facility that will house 10 local businesses. The Business Incubator is key to the city's long-term recovery, as it will help attract young people back into the community with good jobs at profitable businesses.
I believe the residents of Greensburg are a testament to the human spirit, and because of this spirit and a commitment to green living, the Business Incubator will be a success and really help the city re-establish itself. What is your community doing to be greener?
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