By Ed Nicholson

Sorry for the week's hiatus.  I was out talking about social media last week--instead of participating in it. 

At Tyson, we've been involved in hunger relief for nine years.  Well, actually for the first couple of years, we weren't really involved--we just threw money and food at it.  Just like all the other good work "campaigns" we'd ever done before. 
But then an interesting thing happened.  We started visiting foodbanks during donations; getting to know their work.  We went to conferences, and heard a diversity of inspiring speakers.  Our employees started doing hunger relief work in their own communities. 
In the process, we became engaged.  Hunger relief has become an important part of what we're doing as a company.
But sometimes it does complicate the relationship we have with our non-profit partners.
Now that we have some time invested in the issue, we have opinions.  We ask questions.  Sometimes we challenge conventions. Some might see it as interfering where we don't belong.   We're not always right, but we're engaged. 

So here's your chance to  voice an opinion and help us become better partners.  Please comment:   Where do we draw the line between contributing and meddling?  Should we produce food and leave the strategic work to the experts?  If you're a non-profit, does it aggravate you that someone from the outside would presume to tell you how to do your job?  Would it be a better world if ultimately corporations were not even involved in social issues? 
 
You know I love dissent.  So let me have some.