Last summer my wife, Janis, and I spent a day hiking through the Ancestral Pueblo cliff dwellings at Bandelier National Monument (pictured left) in northern New Mexico. While it was fascinating to learn about the Pueblo history, I realized how little I know about today's Native Americans.
So, to satisfy my curiosity, I recently called Grace Panther, who works in production at our Irving, Texas plant, and founded the RISE organization at Frito-Lay/PepsiCo, an employee network that raises awareness about the contributions of Native American people and their culture. She told me about the work RISE is doing at Frito-Lay/PepsiCo and in the community and to celebrate Native American Heritage Month this year.
Grace told me that RISE and its 500 members focus on issues that Native Americans are passionate about, such as family and community and their connection with the earth. One of RISE’s core principles is to uplift Native American youth and educate them about business and career opportunities. It recently hosted a career day for 40 Choctaw students and helped keep an after-school program for Native American students in Charlotte, N.C., from closing.
RISE is especially active at Frito-Lay, helping drive environmental sustainability progress and education, including leading recycling packaging efforts with TerraCycle (a relationship I've blogged about in the past). The network also works closely with our sales team to support business with Native American organizations and businesses.
Grace (pictured right) told me about a variety of events RISE hosted in November to celebrate Native American Heritage month, including a summit at Frito-Lay Headquarters on Nov. 11. “We celebrated our heritage and educated employees about RISE and what we do,” Grace told me. “Hopefully, the summit helped break down stereotypes and demonstrate the contributions Native Americans make in American society.”
One of the summit highlights was a presentation by Thomas Begay, a former Marine, about his experiences as a Navajo Code Talker during World War II. The Code Talkers developed a secret code based on Native America terms that the U.S. military used to communicate with troops. It’s the only unbreakable code in modern military history.
Nov. 11 was also a milestone for Grace, marking five years of hard work building the RISE network. "Five years ago I was working at our Cucamonga plant in California and attended an employee event. I walked through the event booths and came upon the Diversity and Inclusion table, which provided information about all of the Frito-Lay employee networks. The employees hosting the table asked me if I wanted to join Adelante, Frito-Lay's Hispanic/Latino network, or the Women of Color network. I told them I'm Native American and wanted something specifically for me. Nothing existed. A couple of weeks later, I agreed to start a Native American network at PepsiCo -- although I had no idea the amount of work I was getting myself into!"
Grace, a 22-year veteran of Frito-Lay, credits Dave Haft, a Vice President in Operations, for providing the initial executive sponsorship to help make RISE a success. As I finished my conversation with Grace, I asked what “RISE” stands for. She laughed and said that it’s not an acronym; it is the actual verb – “to rise.” When she was a young girl attending a small Native American church in Oklahoma, at the end of the service, the pastor would say "Asaladana," which is Cherokee for "get up and rise." So, Grace thought “RISE” was an appropriate and inspirational name for the Frito-Lay/PepsiCo Native American network. After speaking with her, I have to agree.
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