Document e5pB4yX5Q4RKzYxd97O9v0Oee

To: Monsanto Fund Board members The Monsanto Fund Board is asked to review the attached proposal for funding for the Jackie Joyner Kersee (JJK) Youth Center in East St. Louis. This item will be discussed at the Board's next meeting on June 28. There would be advantages to Monsanto to approve this project at the June meeting in that we would have the flexibility to announce our involvement when most advantageous, for instance: --JJK will return to St. Louis after the Olympics to become very involved with this project. A homecoming program, hosted by Bob Costas at Busch Stadium, is scheduled in August during which substantial contributions to her center can be announced for maximum media play. A broad-based appeal for financial support from everyone in the St. Louis metropolitan area will also be made at that time. --Monsanto can be in a position to announce our involvement when other corporations are ready to go. For instance, if Anheuser-Busch, Nike and McDonald's Corp. are ready to announce their $1 million contributions at the same time, we'll be in a position to stand with them at the front line rather than be a "me too" a few weeks later. This is a truly regional project for the St. Louis area. Funding has already been pledged from Enterprise Rent- A-Car, Casino Queen, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Boatmen's Bancshares, Union Electric, Magna Group and Maritz with many others expected to help too including Emerson Electric, McDonnell Douglas, Schnucks Markets and A.G. Edwards. In addition, plans call for linking this project to Project 2004, the large regional effort to rejuvenate the metropolitan area in time to celebrate the centennial of the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. However, if the board would like more information or clarification before making a decision we respectfully defer to your judgment. DSW 137110 STLCOPCB4037068 Proposal for Monsanto Fund consideration Jackie Joyner Kersee Youth Center 6/12/96 Jackie Joyner Kersee Youth Center To Inspire Hope in Troubled Area Over the decades, Monsanto has contributed generously to the St. Louis community in the areas of youth, culture, health care and education. The leading St. Louis development organizations including the Regional Commerce and Growth Association, Civic Progress and Project 2004 have stressed that they serve the St. Louis metropolitan area, including the East Side, yet programs and investments on the west side of the Mississippi have far outweighed East Side involvement. Monsanto now has the opportunity to contribute to an important project to benefit area youth. The opportunity is the Jackie Joyner Kersee Youth Center in East St. Louis. The Center will give area youth a constructive outlet for their time and energy, thereby reducing crime, teaching some employable skills, providing positive role models, and providing incentives to stay in school, all of which will contribute to a more sustainable community. The Center will also illustrate how businesses and civic organizations in the metropolitan region, by their investment of people and resources and by working together with the community can make an important difference in the community. This project would provide an anchor on the East Side to balance Monsanto's contributions for the enrichment of the greater St. Louis region. In addition, our East Side plant in Sauget could leverage that investment to their advantage, using the Center as an umbrella for their other strategic youth-related and general community relations activities. Background: In the East St. Louis area*: -- 22 abandoned waste sites have been identified; -- 42 percent of the residents are jobless; - 43 percent are on public assistance; -- 73 percent are on welfare. -- The population is 40,000. Ninety-nine percent of residents are African- American. - According to one resident, "people haven't given up hope, but the city has a long way to go." * (Statistics provided by ESL's Rev. Buck Jones to Monsanto Corporate Social Responsibility Committee, 2/95) The biggest community need, as identified by one community leader, is hope, and the best ways to generate hope are through jobs (economic development) and organized youth activities (community center). DSW 1371 LI STLCOPCB4037069 Opportunity: The Jackie Joyner Kersee Youth Center, named after the Olympic gold medal athlete who hails from East St. Louis, could provide a safe haven for local children to play ball, swim, learn computer and other skills, learn about wellness and practice performing arts. Plans for this center have been underway for quite some time. For many years, Jackie Joyner Kersee has had an interest in establishing a center to train young athletes in the East St. Louis area. Mayor Gordon Bush has also been interested in providing a place to safely channel the energy and spirit of local youth in constructive directions. Individual companies, including Monsanto, have donated to specific programs in East St. Louis and have been looking for an umbrella organization that could serve as the focal point for youth services. Last year, these groups and others from both sides of the Mississippi decided to work together to make the center a reality. Ms. Kersee will return to East St. Louis after the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta to help raise funds, build, and supervise the Center. The city, through the local schools, will ensure all students are able to take advantage of the Center. The complex will be totally funded by private industries, individuals and grants; no political funds will be involved. Martin Matthews will serve on the board bringing expertise from the Matthews-Dickey Clubs in St. Louis to the JJK Youth Center in East St. Louis. Should we decide to participate, the opportunities the JJK Youth Center presents for Monsanto are many: 1) Would tie well to the W.G. Krummrich plant community relations plans As part of our desire to maintain our right to operate, Monsanto strives to be a good neighbor in the areas where we have facilities. Part of that commitment involves investing in appropriate community projects so that we are viewed as a strategic community contributor bringing many benefits to the area by our presence. Monsanto operates a manufacturing facility in Sauget, III. just south of East St. Louis. The plant has been involved in a number of youth-related activities over the years to try to reinvigorate the area both economically and socially. Activities have included: Junior Achievement Bakari Institute (helps struggling kids stay in school) Operation New Spirit (urban gardening centers, housing demolitions and general cleanup). GEMM Center Catholic Urban Program summer camp for ESL Youth Camp Wyman summer camp DSW 137112 STLCOPCB4037070 While these programs are important, great opportunity exists to play a bigger role in developing an umbrella organization for area youth services and activities. The need has been identified by members of the plant's Community Advisory Panel and key community leaders. In helping establish such a youth center, Monsanto would strengthen the goodwill between the East St. Louis community and the Krummrich plant. Other initiatives currently funded in East St. Louis (such as the Bakari Institute) are in search of physical facilities. The JJK Youth Center could potentially provide the needed facilities and/or serve as a network tying together youth activities and services offered throughout the area. 2) Would contribute in a meaningful way to improve the quality of life in East St. Louis by giving youth a constructive outlet for their energy and time. Part of the Monsanto focus on sustainability is to contribute to the improvement of the quality of life for people by giving them opportunities to better sustain themselves. As mentioned above, one of the ESL community's own indicators for a sustainable community is an upcoming generation that has hope for the future. This hope can be inspired through athletics, skills training, mentoring, health and wellness training - all services to be offered by the Center. Investing in this project would be a meaningful demonstration to the St. Louis community and beyond that Monsanto is serious about its commitment to sustainability. 3) Would contribute to a project which would counter any claims of environmental justice advocates which say that persons living near industrial facilities take all the risk and get little of the benefits from the operations. In the book, Savage Inequalities. Jonathan Kozol filled a chapter on the state of deterioration and hopelessness in East St. Louis portrayed against the backdrop of manufacturing giants (including Monsanto), releasing pollution into the area, but not paying taxes or contributing to the city's regeneration. While we have done much to clean up our facilities and to invest in the community, the Jackie Joyner Kersee Youth Center could become a model for how local industries can collectively provide an important community resource to people living close to a manufacturing campus that wouldn't otherwise exist without their funding and support. This model can be used by companies in other cities where inner city deterioration has left youth with few constructive recreational facilities. DSW 137113 STLCOPCB4037071 4) Would provide opportunities to tie in with Monsanto businesses. Monsanto could sponsor the health and wellness clinic within the youth center providing an outlet for basic health care (athletic check-ups, vaccinations (?), first aid), and wellness information about how to eat healthier, exercise properly, relieve stress, settle altercations without violence, etc. Searle has invested in a health clinic in South Africa where health care is an important issue and also sponsors the Patient-in-Need (PIN) program which benefits people who could use their pharmaceutical products but can't afford them. Some beneficiaries of the PIN program have been from East St. Louis. By providing a modern clinic to youth in the East St. Louis area, Searle and Monsanto would help these youth get a healthier beginning to their lives and develop healthier habits that could benefit them throughout their lives. No other such facility currently exists in the East St. Louis area to focus on preventive health needs of youth. Monsanto/Searle representatives could work with the Illinois chapter of the American Medical Association to set up the clinic, hire a nurse practitioner to staff the facility and identify third-party medical professionals to ensure quality health care is provided. Our doctors may want to volunteer some of their time to the clinic and/or get some of the universities, like Washington University Barnes Medical School, to send volunteers to the clinic. Also, with our expertise in food and nutrition (Benevia, Ceregen, NutraSweet/Kelco, Crop), we should be able to provide useful guides to helping youth make healthy eating choices. We can tie that knowledge in with the Urban Gardening project which we have helped sponsor in the past through Operation New Spirit, to supply more of the recommended fruits and vegetables to area youth and involve them in the growing of the crops. Other Monsanto connections: Monsanto could provide mentors at the JJK Youth Center offering one-on-one guidance, homework assistance, and career counselling. Mentors would be Monsanto volunteers from the Krummrich plant, the Technical Community of Monsanto, the Alliance, and other interested employee organizations. Auditor's report: Anheuser-Busch contracted for a thorough review of the JJK Youth Center proposal for soundness and feasibility. They concluded that the proposal was sound, the location chosen was exceptional and the plan was very workable. The consultants recommended approval and Anheuser-Busch is expected to approve a S1.0M+ grant in June. Monsanto will have copies of the study by mid-June. DSW 137114 STLCOPCB4037072 Conclusion: Monsanto can serve an important St. Louis area need through our participation in the JJK Youth Center. We can provide the health and wellness facility, filling a need that often goes unfulfilled in low-income areas. We can provide personal role models through our employees acting as mentors to youth who frequent the Center. And we can provide leadership through our role on the board of directors. In return, we will strengthen our relationship with East St. Louis leaders; reinforce our commitment to sustainability through helping this community raise healthier and more employable, self-sufficient youth; provide a model facility to counter any potential environmental justice claims about lack of meaningful investment in fenceline communities; and showcase Monsanto's strengths in health and wellness in an area where it can really make a difference. Recommendation: Monsanto build and equip the health/wellness clinic Monsanto contributes $250,000 a year for four years to the overall effort ($500,000 total less than the $1.5M requested but still generous and reasonable.) The JJK board agrees to add a nurse practitioner to the Center's staff to run the wellness clinic. Russ Sackett or Bill Boyle serves on the board of directors. Monsanto employees participate as mentors. DSW 137115 STLCOPCB4037073