When it mattered most, General Mills did the right thing.

#1: September 1987 – A baby chokes to death on a rubber ball inserted into a Cheerios box as a free premium toy. The “Powerball” toy had passed all Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) tests for children under the age of two.

However, the elderly person who was babysitting the child had dexterity problems and couldn’t remove the ball. The EMT who first arrived easily removed it – unfortunately too late to save the baby. The Powerball passed the truncated cylinder test (too large to fit inside it) so General Mills was not technically at fault.

General Mills had to decide: Alert consumers about a premium that passed all CPSC tests and risk damage to the company’s most valuable brand or allow the promotion to run its course. General Mills did the right thing and alerted the media that it was pulling the remaining Cheerios boxes with the free “Powerballs” inside off store shelves. It was costly, but doing the right thing did not cause any long-term damage to the company or the Cheerios brand.

#2: 2007 World Economic Forum – Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations meets with General Mills CEO Ken Powell. They talk about the plight of millions of malnourished and underfed people in Africa. Kofi asked, “Is there something a global food company, like General Mills, can do to help these people?”

That was the challenge that started an internal program at General Mills. A program that led to the formation of Partners in Food Solutions in 2011, an independent, non-profit organization. Soon other major food companies including Cargill, Hersey, DSM and Buhler joined General Mills’ vision of improving food security and economic development across Africa.

Leveraging their knowledge and expertise of food production, hundreds of volunteers from these food companies donate their time to help food producers across Africa. By helping to improve the capacity, efficiency and product quality of local food processors, Partners in Food Solutions seeks to advance food security in the African countries that need it most.

Over the past five years, Partners in Food Solutions has grown to nearly 1,000 volunteers helping over 800 small food companies in seven African countries.

Bob Andersen is freelance writer and former employee of General Mills Inc.