By Darbi Durham, Director of Communication and Advocacy
Over the last 61 years, Illinois Chamber member Dot Foods has built 12 U.S. Distribution Centers and a Corporate Sales and Marketing Office all across the country, while growing a workforce that is now 6,300 employees strong. This makes Dot Foods the largest foodservice industry redistributor in North America. Through the years of growth, they remain committed to their mission of supporting and providing to communities everywhere.
Dot Foods was founded in 1960 by Robert and Dorothy Tracy in Mt. Sterling, where their headquarters remains today. Robert and Dorothy deeply valued a strong commitment to their community, and continuously instilled that value into their family of 12 children. Dot Foods and the Tracy family continue these commitments of charity and action for the communities in which their family members and employees live.
With the coronavirus outbreak affecting the entire world, businesses and people have been struggling with being out of work and finding the need for essential supplies for their families. At the beginning of 2020, Dot Foods had a well-established charitable effort at each of their facilities. “The pandemic and its repercussions were a sizeable jolt to our business, as its effects were suffered by our customers, suppliers, and other business partners,” says Suzy Parn, Corporate Charitable Oversight Chair for Dot Foods.
Since mid-March 2020, Dot Foods has donated food valued at over $16 million to food banks, food pantries, soup kitchens and other agencies. “Truckloads of dry, refrigerated and frozen product have made their way from our Mt Sterling facility, as well as from our distribution centers, to agencies across the nation to help address the food insecurity that was further aggravated by the pandemic,” says Parn.
Dot Foods continues to support its local agencies as well, including Central Illinois’ Foodbank of Springfield with food and volunteers for community food distributions, and the Midwest Food Bank of Peoria and Normal, Urban League of Metropolitan Saint Louis, and Two River Pantries of Brown and Pike Counties with product donations. “Dot Foods has focused on charitable grant programs to address COVID-related issues. The Tracy Family Foundation has also established a fund to help agencies withstand the COVID effects,” says Parn.
Recently, Dot Foods partnered with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, also known as ‘FEMA,’ to identify and donate food to disaster relief agencies around the United States. By April of 2020, two months into the pandemic, Dot Foods knew the amount of food they had on hand would more than exceed what their local agencies could handle. Dot Foods made the connection and contacted FEMA. They asked if the agency could help direct their donations to organizations throughout the nation, to where the help is needed the most. Dot Foods has also recently donated food to assist people in the aftermath of hurricanes, the winter storm in Texas, and wildfires that occurred in California. “The relationship with FEMA has given us an opening to work with large national agencies that are in the forefront of disaster relief,” said Parn. “In addition to helping our local food banks during this time of unprecedented need, we are making a national impact by donating a large volume of food to disaster areas that are in urgent need.”
Dot Foods has been a member with the Illinois Chamber of Commerce for 46 years. “The Illinois Chamber has provided strong leadership in Springfield to defeat bad legislation and promote legislation that helps businesses in Illinois, said Jim Tracy, Illinois Chamber Board Member and Senior Vice President at Dot Foods. “For example, this past year, they led the coalition that was able to defeat the progressive tax in the state of Illinois. Their leadership was key in getting this proposal defeated, which would have raised our cost of doing business in the state of Illinois.”
Dot Foods has been a tremendous help for businesses and communities all over and continues to show gratitude and appreciation during these uncertain times. To learn more about Dot Foods or ways you can partner with them, click here. Thank you, Dot Foods for making Illinois a better place to work and live!