Site Quality Assurance and Food Safety Manager, LaCarla Denny Helps Minimize McCormick’s Impact on the Environment While Maximizing Her Impact in the Community

LaCarla Denny, Site Quality Assurance and Food Safety Manager at McCormick, has always had a passion for sustainability. In fact, she wrote her thesis on soil sustainability while in graduate school earning an MS in Agricultural Economics. "Sustainability is a way of life in Wheatley, Arkansas, where I grew up. My father, like most people in our farming community, raised livestock in addition to his regular job. We grew our own vegetable gardens, too," said LaCarla.

Today, LaCarla is leading the development, implementation, and administration of the quality control function at McCormick's 250,000 square foot South Bend, Indiana Plant. She ensures product safety, integrity, and conformance concerning customer, divisional, corporate, and regulatory requirements. Her extensive background in quality systems, auditing, and training and development helps her maintain customer quality satisfaction. LaCarla's favorite part of her job is leading the Quality team of 10 Lab Technicians and a Quality Systems Manager. She enjoys mentoring and training her team, helping them gain new skills, and developing them into future McCormick leaders who can make an impact on the business. 

As the Site Quality Assurance and Food Safety Manager, it is LaCarla's responsibility to lead the Quality Assurance team in enforcing good manufacturing practices, such as sanitation and hygiene, and  ensuring that all products have been produced according to their specification in chemical analysis, taste, and appearance.  

"We start with materials from suppliers—farmers and growers—who respect the environment and the communities where they produce. They effectively show McCormick how they adapt to changes that sustain and improve quality, thereby showing their dedication to enhancing lives across our supply chain," said LaCarla.

Supporting day-to-day operations to produce a safe, quality product requires the Quality team to work well together and have open communication. Their goal to protect the integrity of McCormick's products motivates them to create processes that promote continuous improvement. "Whether working on BBQ sauces for Stubb's, marinades for Lawry's, or honey for Billy Bee, we are contributing to McCormick's Purpose-led Performance (PLP) goal to support the planet we all share. We are constantly finding ways to work safer, better, and more efficiently, to minimize our impact on the environment," said LaCarla.

Aligned with McCormick's PLP commitment to supporting communities where we live, work, and source, LaCarla began looking for ways to support her new community in Indiana, and she tapped into service organizations for ideas. Together, they identified local projects that support healthcare for women, at-risk youths, and shelters that provide safety for women and their children. LaCarla's volunteer activities range from mentoring youth in agricultural projects, distributing information about the prevention of heart disease, or organizing and delivering donations like personal hygiene items, school supplies, and clothing, to those in need. "It is important for everyone to look in their own neighborhood and find ways to improve and take care of it – in my experience, the opportunities are always there," said LaCarla.

Another passion LaCarla has is supporting the education of young Black women. She partners with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and organizes representatives to speak with young Black women about educational opportunities at their respective schools. They inform them about areas of study and offer suggestions to help figure out what field of study in which they may have interest.  They discuss the application process, scholarship opportunities and eligibility, and what resources are available to them to start their college journey. "Having Black professionals from HBCUs take the time to directly speak with and encourage these young Black women to attend college is invaluable, and I am proud to be part of it," said LaCarla.

LaCarla finds her job as the Site Quality Assurance and Food Safety Manager at McCormick's South Bend plant exciting, challenging, and rewarding. But when she visits her hometown of Wheatley and the Arkansas Delta now, she has a very different perspective. Her neighbors are not just neighbors, but suppliers and potential suppliers, and she uses her experience and education to support them. She offers them advice on how to manage their farms sustainably, increase their incomes, and ensure that land is well preserved for future generations. She may be a nine-hour drive away, but LaCarla has become a trusted resource to the small, supportive, farming community of her childhood.

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