Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

How we’re turning our promise into action

Why our focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion?

As a nationally recognized and trusted brand, we have a responsibility to address social injustice and marginalization in our country. We’re starting by making changes that ensure we’re providing a workplace environment that prioritizes fairness, equal opportunity, and which better reflects the wonderful diversity of our baking community.

How are members for King Arthur’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion team chosen?

Collaboration is key for effecting large-scale, integrated positive changes. This is why we created a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion team comprised of King Arthur Baking employee-owners. Some chose to join as representatives of a marginalized community and others were selected because of their interest or related roles within the company. Every participant is passionate, engaged, and motivated to create change at King Arthur Baking and beyond.

In addition to forming a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion team, we’re working with outside consultants who have extensive experience in cultural proficiency and social justice to help guide and assist us on this journey.

How does this focus affect King Arthur’s hiring practices?

Our hiring philosophy is to recruit for culture add rather than culture fit. Our team pursues individuals who share our mission and vision, and who also bring an aspect of diversity that positively contributes to our workforce.

There have been several key updates to our hiring practices that are driven by the desire to attract greater diversity among candidates. First, we now utilize a job posting tool that spreads our openings to a possible 20,000 job sites, including those which are well-known, niche sites, and those whose primary focus is diverse candidates. This increases the chances of openings to be seen and pursued. Secondly, each job description is reviewed for implicit bias, gendered terms, and to ensure educational requirements fairly match the role prior to posting.

These transformations within our hiring process don’t conclude our work in this area. We’ll be refining the process and adding features as we move forward.

What trainings has the King Arthur team undergone recently?

We engaged outside expertise in cultural proficiency and social justice to guide and assist us on this journey towards diversity, equity, and inclusion.

CQ Strategies conducted an Implicit and Institutional Bias training with our senior leaders. The training began in November 2019 and ran through February 2020. This training covered an introduction to cultural competency; personal and social identities; implicit and institutional bias and intersectionality; and power, privilege and racism in the past and present.

Race Forward conducted a training for our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion team beginning in September 2020. In this training, the team started building a clear understanding of critical concepts such as racial equity and structural racism. They also learned to talk about race constructively and acquired tools and= practices for counteracting racial bias.

Equity in Practice conducted multiple companywide training sessions focused on cultural competency education and equity and justice analysis.

How did King Arthur distribute its DEI fund?

In June 2020, we pledged to support organizations working to address racial inequity and change the systems which continue to fail Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. We believe that creating a more just food system, is integral to realizing an inclusive, equitable future for all people, so that is where we focused our support.

The following are our fund recipients:

• Asian Americans Advancing Justice 
• Collective Fare 
• Detroit Food Academy 
• Edible Schoolyard NYC 
• Equal Justice Initiative 
• Farms to Grow 
• Food Education Fund 
• Hot Bread Kitchen 
• National Soul Food Month  
• National Young Farmers Coalition 
• North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems  
• Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont   
• Soul Fire Farm 
• Southern Poverty Law Center 
• Sweet Generation
• Sweet Potato Comfort Pie 
• Teens for Food Justice 
• With Warm Welcome Baker’s Box 

Creating a more equitable and just food system will continue to be a significant part of future giving initiatives.

What is King Arthur doing to diversify voices in its baking content?

We’re expanding our network of social media, video, and blog contributors to feature a broader range of voices, perspectives, backgrounds, and areas of expertise, prioritizing those historically excluded from the food media landscape including BIPOC and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Working with these partners, we seek to publish content that reflects the vibrant inspiring, and diverse world of baking.

We take responsibility as content gatekeepers to create a more just and equitable publishing landscape.

A key component of this work is ensuring that the influencers and partners we hire receive equal or greater rates of pay compared to past and current partners. They’re encouraged to share their backgrounds, identities, and cultural heritages with our audiences.

Where can I learn about future updates on progress?

You can find updates on our progress via this page, which we’ll be updating as we make progress in these efforts. We’ll also be providing periodic updates via some of our communication channels (such as social media) in order to maintain focus and accountability on this important work.

Is King Arthur aligning itself with a political candidate or party?

Our employee-owners embody different beliefs and political affiliations. As a company, we don’t endorse any specific parties or candidates. Collectively, we firmly embrace the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We’re committed to furthering its cause regardless of the political environment.