California Ag Network

Tag: Stewart Resnick

  • The Wonderful Company Announces Over $1.5 Million in Funding for Central Valley Nonprofits and Schools

    The Wonderful Company, one of the largest and most philanthropic privately held companies in the United States, announced today the latest recipients of its Central Valley Community Grants program.

    Grounded in a place-based approach to philanthropy, the Wonderful Community Grants Program supports local nonprofit organizations and schools across California’s Central Valley, where more than 3,000 Wonderful employees live and work. This year, more than $1.5 million in grant funding has been awarded to 43 organizations, supporting initiatives focused on health and wellness, education, recreation, community beautification, art, and social services.

    Serving as a flagship initiative, Wonderful Community Grants is part of The Wonderful Company’s comprehensive commitment to the Central Valley. For more than 10 years, the company and its co-owners, Lynda and Stewart Resnick, along with their foundations, have invested more than $850 million in the region, driving long-term social, educational, and economic progress.

    “As rising healthcare costs, food insecurity, and reductions in public funding continue to strain the nonprofit sector, local organizations are being asked to do more with fewer resources,” shared Andy Anzaldo, chief operating officer of corporate social responsibility at The Wonderful Company. “The Wonderful Community Grants program reflects a longstanding commitment to place-based giving by supporting the organizations that form the backbone of healthy, resilient communities, ensuring the Central Valley continues to be a place of opportunity for generations to come.”

    The program serves organizations based in Avenal, Delano, Del Rey, Firebaugh, Lost Hills, Mendota, Sanger, Shafter, and Wasco, California.

    “Thanks to The Wonderful Company’s generous support, we have been able to open doors for our youth to learn, grow, and thrive,” said Rudy Matcham, club unit director of the Del Rey Boys & Girls Club of Fresno County. “Wonderful’s support has been instrumental in expanding programs like Triple Play: Daily Challenges and Healthy Habits, and in ensuring the successful launch of the Alebrijes program, where youth are encouraged to explore physical activity, nutrition, and cultural storytelling through hands-on learning, from the kitchen to the classroom.”

    Some of the 2025 recipients include:

    Delano

    • The Open Door Network: Funds will ensure the domestic violence center in Delano remains open and accessible to survivors of domestic violence

    • United Way of Central Eastern California: Funds the VITA program offering free tax return support and filings to the communities of Delano, Lost Hills, Shafter, and Wasco

    Del Rey

    • Boys & Girls Clubs of Fresno County: Provides after-school programming including mentoring, healthy habits/nutrition, physical activity, cultural arts, field trips, and leadership opportunities to underserved youth

    Firebaugh

    • Central California Food Bank: Distributes free, fresh produce and essential boxes to individuals and families in Delano, Firebaugh, and Avenal

    • Regents of the University of Southern California: Funds their Promotoras initiative to help increase health equity in the community

    Lost Hills

    • Links for Life: Funds a mobile mammogram clinic in the communities of Delano, Lost Hills, Shafter, and Wasco

    • Shoes That Fit: Provides low-income students in Delano, Shafter, Lost Hills, and Wasco with new shoes on a referral basis

    Mendota

    • Central California Food Bank: Supports the expansion of food distribution programs among families and residents facing food insecurity in Mendota and Del Rey Sanger

    • Aquarius Aquarium Institute: Funds the Teaching Tidepools program, bringing hands-on aquarium experiences and environmental lessons into classrooms

    • Valley PBS: Provides workshops on mechanical, chemical, electrical, and civil engineering to children in kindergarten through sixth grade in Firebaugh, Sanger, Mendota, and Wasco

    Shafter

    • 746 Sports Foundation: Provides summer camp recreational and learning activities for kids in kindergarten through eighth grade and continues to build on the partnership between The Wonderful Company and the Shafter Recreation & Parks District with the new The Wonderful Company Community Sports Complex

    • Vision y Compromisio: Funds promotoras to deliver trainings on CPR, healthy development, nutrition, and more to family, friend, and neighbor caregivers, as well as parent engagement workshops in Shafter and Wasco

    Wasco

    • Community Action Partnership of Kern: Distributes free, fresh produce in the communities of Wasco, Shafter, and Lost Hills

    • City of Wasco: Offer hands-on nutrition and meal-prep education during a two-month Summer Nutrition Program at the Wasco Police Activities League (PAL) facility.

    For more information about Wonderful Community Grants, visit www.wonderfulcommunitygrants.com.

    About Wonderful Community Grants

    The Wonderful Company and its co-owners, Lynda and Stewart Resnick, have a long-standing commitment to investing in the communities where their employees live and work, particularly in California’s Central Valley. In addition to the millions of dollars the Resnicks, along with their foundations and The Wonderful Company, invest in the Central Valley every year, the Wonderful Community Grants program provides critical funding to organizations impacting change throughout the area.

    Local governments, area nonprofits, schools, and faith-based organizations can apply for grants in the categories of health and wellness, recreation, art, social services, and community beautification for amounts of up to $50,000 for one year and up to $100,000 for two years. Funding may be used for program development, expansion, innovation, small-scale capital improvements, technology, or equipment. More information can be found at www.wonderfulcommunitygrants.com.

    About The Wonderful Company’s Corporate Social Responsibility

    The Wonderful Company and its co-owners, Lynda and Stewart Resnick, have a longstanding commitment to investing in the communities where their employees live and work, especially in California’s Central Valley, which is home to 3,000 employees. The Resnicks, along with their foundations and The Wonderful Company, have invested more than $2.5 billion in education, health and wellness, community development, and sustainability initiatives across the Central Valley, Fiji, and the world. To learn more about The Wonderful Company and its core values, visit csr.wonderful.com.

  • The Wonderful Company Ranks No. 1 on PEOPLE®’s List of Companies that Care

    The Wonderful Company has taken the coveted No. 1 spot on the 2025 PEOPLE® Companies That Care list, rising from No. 3 last year. The $6 billion enterprise, with 10,000 employees worldwide and a portfolio of well-known healthy brands, earned the recognition for its commitment to employees, communities, and the environment. This commitment is rooted in the vision of founders Lynda and Stewart Resnick, whose philanthropic giving, along with their foundations and company, accounts for more than $2.5 billion and focuses extensively on the communities where Wonderful employees and their families live and work.

    Based in Los Angeles, The Wonderful Company is one of the largest privately held companies in the United States and among the world’s largest agriculture companies. With operations spanning the Central Valley and wine regions of California, Texas, New Jersey, Arizona, Oregon, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and the countries of Mexico and Fiji, its family of brands include Wonderful Pistachios, FIJI Water, POM Wonderful, Wonderful Halos, Wonderful Seedless Lemons, Teleflora, and JUSTIN, Landmark, and Lewis Cellars wines. To qualify for the PEOPLE® list, thousands of anonymous employee survey responses provided input attesting to The Wonderful Company’s culture, leadership, and relationships with workers.

    In bestowing the top honor, PEOPLE® highlighted The Wonderful Company’s signature Career Pathways program, which empowers students to obtain an associate’s degree upon graduating from one of seven partner high schools in the Central Valley. Students also receive critical work- based learning experiences by participating in job shadows, career workshops, and paid internships at Wonderful. Since 2018, more than 1,600 students have graduated from the program with an associate’s degree.

    Wonderful Career Pathways Graduation

    “In the Central Valley of California, our people do the hard work of feeding our nation. Their children deserve every opportunity,” says Lynda and Stewart Resnick, owners of The Wonderful Company. “Wonderful Career Pathways is one of the many ways we are committed to ending the cycle of poverty by taking a holistic view and focusing on the social determinants of a healthy society. This program empowers students to enter college with 60 credits and a two- year head start on classes – or graduate high school and step right into higher-paying jobs in health care, education, and agriculture. And, Wonderful is with them every step of the way.

    Over the past decade, The Wonderful Company and the Resnicks, along with their foundations have committed over $1 billion in the Central Valley, home to more than 3,000 of their employees. Wonderful offers free health care services to its full-time workforce in the Central Valley, including preventive care, physical therapy, prescriptions and more. Every meal served at its onsite cafeterias is fresh, nutritious, and cooked from scratch. They also support 5,000 students across 70 schools, including two public charter schools the Resnicks founded, and over 1,000 Wonderful Scholars, many of whom are employees’ children, with tutoring, academic coaching, emotional support, up to $40,000 each in college scholarships, and more. To learn more about Wonderful’s award-winning CSR and philanthropy, please visit csr.wonderful.com.

    “Witnessing the innovative spirit with which these companies invest in their employees, communities, and the world is trulyinvigorating,” says Charlotte Triggs, PEOPLE GM and editor- in-chief. “Their commitment reflects our mission, to feature what happens when ordinary people do extraordinary work.”

    Earlier this year, The Wonderful Company was also named one of Fortune® magazine’s 100 Best Companies to Work For. It was recognized again as one the Best Places To Work in the Central Valley by Best Companies Group for its commitment to the well-being of its workforce.

    To be considered for the PEOPLE® and Fortune® lists, companies must be Great Place To Work Certified™ and have at least 10 U.S. employees.

    About The Wonderful Company’s Corporate Social Responsibility

    The Wonderful Company and its co-owners, Lynda and Stewart Resnick, have a long-standing commitment to investing inthe communities where their employees live and work, especially in California’s Central Valley, home to 3,000 employees. The Resnicks, along with their foundations and The Wonderful Company, have invested more than $2.5 billion in education, health and wellness, community development, and sustainability initiatives across the Central Valley, Fiji, and the world. To learn more about The Wonderful Company, and its core values, visit csr.wonderful.com.

    About the PEOPLE® Companies that Care List

    Great Place To Work selected the 2025 PEOPLE Companies that Care List by gathering and analyzing over 1.3 million confidential survey responses from companies representing more than 8.4 million U.S. employees at Great Place To WorkCertified organizations. Of those, more than 1 million responses came from employees at companies eligible for the list and these rankings are based on that feedback. Company rankings are derived from 60 employee experience questions within the Great Place To Work Trust Index™ Survey and essays submitted by participating companies. Read the full methodology.

    To get on this list next year, start here.

    About Great Place To Work

    As the global authority on workplace culture, Great Place To Work brings 30 years of groundbreaking research and data to help every place become a great place to work for all. Its proprietary platform and Great Place To Work Model™ helpcompanies evaluate the experience of every employee, with exemplary workplaces becoming Great Place To Work Certified or receiving recognition on a coveted Best Workplaces™ List.

    Follow Great Place To Work on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram or visit greatplacetowork.com and sign up for the newsletter to learn more.

  • Cal Poly Names Center for Wine & Viticulture After Industry Donors

    Matt Steel (left), general manager at JUSTIN Vineyards and Winery, and Jerry Lohr of J. Lohr Vineyards, at the Cal Poly Center for Wine and Viticulture groundbreaking in May.

    In recognition of the generosity and philanthropic support of two vital donors to the building of Cal Poly’s Center for Wine and Viticulture, the center will be named the JUSTIN and J. LOHR Center for Wine and Viticulture. Lynda and Stewart Resnick, owners of JUSTIN Vineyards & Winery, a family-run winery that focuses on Bordeaux varieties and Syrah in west Paso Robles, donated $2.5 million to Cal Poly’s campaign to build the Center for Wine and Viticulture. The center will be co-named for Jerry Lohr of J. Lohr Vineyards, an industry icon also based in Paso Robles who also committed $2.5 million in funding.

    “The local wine community has stepped forward in support of this project, solidifying a partnership with Cal Poly that will not only benefit students for years to come but will provide the rigorously trained talent that the wine industry depends on,” said Andrew Thulin, dean of the College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences.

    “Cal Poly has demonstrated the university’s commitment to providing future generations of wine makers and vintners and its support of the wine industry at a national level,” said Stewart Resnick, co-owner of JUSTIN Vineyards & Winery. “Our investment in the Cal Poly Center for Wine and Viticulture signifies our commitment to a partnership that will allow the industry to continue to prosper. We are not just giving back; we are investing in the future.”

    A groundbreaking ceremony, attended by key donors and supporters, as well as Cal Poly leadership, faculty, staff and students, was held May 4. A public event will be held once construction is complete. The JUSTIN and J. LOHR Center for Wine and Viticulture is anticipated to open in late 2019.

    The JUSTIN and J. LOHR Center for Wine and Viticulture is a donor-funded project that will enhance the Wine and Viticulture program at Cal Poly for years to come. The geographic locale of Cal Poly positions it at the heart of California’s Central Coast – providing students with hands-on access to vineyards and wineries to learn first-hand from some of the wine industry’s top leaders and some of the country’s best winemakers. Students, who benefit from Cal Poly’s philosophy of Learn by Doing, have access to thousands of award-winning wineries throughout the state, providing abundant internship and research opportunities.

    The JUSTIN and J. LOHR Center for Wine and Viticulture will include both a 15,600-square-foot winery and a 12,000-square-foot grange hall. The buildings will include crush, fermentation, barrel, sensory, bottling, enology and viticulture rooms, as well as teaching and research labs, a bonded winery, offices, and community and industry meeting spaces. Professional partners in the project include TLCD Architecture as the executive architects, Von Raesfeld & Associates as the winery consulting architects, and JW Design & Construction as the contractor.

    “We would not be where we are today, ready to begin construction, without the countless volunteers who stepped forward and the leadership and persistence of our longtime supporters, including Jerry Lohr who has been with the project since its inception and led the charge in rallying the wine community to support our vision for the future,” said Thulin. “The symbiotic relationship that is shared by Cal Poly and the wine industry nationwide will now be commemorated brick by brick.”

    Members of the Cal Poly Wine and Viticulture fundraising committee, comprised of key industry professionals, include: Jerry Lohr (chair), Vicki Carroll, Paul Burkner, Steve Burns, Pat Delong, Dana Merrill and Dennis Stroud.

    “I am elated to celebrate the start of construction of the Center for Wine and Viticulture – a vision that I have supported since the beginning,” said Jerry Lohr. “With the partnership of JUSTIN Vineyards & Winery, years of planning will now emerge as the preeminent program for wine and viticulture students in the nation.”

    Cal Poly’s Wine and Viticulture program, the largest of its kind in the U.S., provides a comprehensive education that focuses on the three major elements of the wine industry: viticulture, enology and wine business.

    The program currently has a 14-acre teaching and production vineyard and small pilot winery where students gain hands-on experience in all aspects of the industry, from vineyard cultivation and management to winemaking, marketing and distribution.

    About JUSTIN Vineyards & Winery
    Located in Paso Robles, JUSTIN® Vineyards & Winery was founded in 1981 and is known for crafting world class wines using Bordeaux grape varieties. Widely recognized for their iconic ISOSCELES Bordeaux blend, JUSTIN is also known for their Cabernet Sauvignon. The property at JUSTIN features a Tasting Room, luxury suite accommodations and a restaurant — making it one of the only wineries on the Central Coast to offer all three options. In addition to its stellar hospitality offerings, JUSTIN consistently receives top honors around the world, establishing JUSTIN as a leader in luxury Bordeaux variety winemaking. In 2015, JUSTIN was named “American Winery of the Year” by Wine Enthusiast Magazine. JUSTIN wines are available through discerning fine wine retailers and restaurants throughout the United States, or directly from the Winery via JUSTIN’s Tasting Room, online store or to members of the exclusive JUSTIN Wine Society wine club. To discover more about what makes JUSTIN so unique, visit www.justinwine.com.

    About J. Lohr Vineyards
    Founded more than four decades ago by Jerry Lohr and still family owned and operated today, J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines crafts a full line of internationally recognized wines from its 3,700 acres of sustainably farmed estate vineyards in Paso Robles, Monterey County’s Arroyo Seco and Santa Lucia Highlands appellations, and St. Helena in the Napa Valley. Offering an expressive range of styles, J. Lohr produces five tiers of award-winning wines, showcasing its estate fruit: J. Lohr Estates, J. Lohr Vineyard Series, J. Lohr Cuvée Series, J. Lohr Gesture, and J. Lohr Signature Cabernet Sauvignon. J. Lohr’s Signature Cabernet Sauvignon recently won the Grand Champion Best of Show against 2,188 other wines at the 2018 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo International Wine Competition. To learn more about J. Lohr Vineyards, visit www.jlohr.com.