Ingredion’s business resource group (BRG) Pride at Ingredion celebrated Pride Month by hosting several virtual events designed to engage with and raise awareness of the LGBTQ+ community at Ingredion. 

Pride at Ingredion is an open and inclusive group that empowers the LGBTQ+ community at Ingredion. The group’s objectives are to bring in diverse talent, create an aware and inclusive workplace with a visible LGBTQ+ presence and to advocate for LGBTQ+ employees to help drive inclusion. 

“Despite challenging and uncertain times, the Pride BRG was able to successfully celebrate and embrace diversity, and proactively foster an inclusive work environment where everyone is valued and feels inspired to contribute their best,” said Tony DeLio, Ingredion’s chief innovation officer and executive sponsor of Pride. “The Pride BRG has become an indispensable part of our company’s culture.” 

With the restrictions of social distancing in place, participants joined events virtually, including a networking event to facilitate introductions and conversations to expand each individual’s network at Ingredion. During a presentation from Youth Outlook, a speaker presented the trends being seen with youth coming out of high school and college and entering the workforce. The presentation answered why businesses want to be involved in the LGBTQ+ community and why policies around LGBTQ+ initiatives matter for corporations. Additional topics included LGBTQ+ retention, nonbinary employees, and how organizations and employees can support transitioning employees. Garden State Equality presented on LGBTQ+ history, and current legal protections, including a facilitated discussion on sexual orientation versus gender identity versus gender expression and how these concepts differ from one another. 

The group hosted a virtual screening of TREVOR, a winner of the Academy Award^® for Best Live Action Short film which follows 13-year old Trevor when his crush on a schoolmate gets discovered and becomes gossip for the town. The film served as an inspiration for the filmmakers to create the Trevor Project, which provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to LGBTQ+ young people under 25.

“Pride at Ingredion strives to further our company’s diversity, equity and inclusion strategy,” said Kyu Oh, corporate strategy senior analyst and president of Pride at Ingredion. “It has been truly successful in making an indelible impact on Ingredion’s culture.” 

To learn more about Ingredion’s values, please visit the website.