Our Proud Story

For nearly 100 years, Betty Crocker has brought cakes and desserts, kitchen advice and cookbooks into the homes of America, but we’ve been proud to stand for far more. Through the years, we’ve made our name synonymous with family, love, togetherness. As we celebrate Pride this year, we take a look back on our story, a story we’re proud to tell, and continue with our belief that love, no matter how it’s arranged, is what makes a home, home.

1996

General Mills, Betty Crocker’s parent company, has been supporting diversity networks for its employees since the mid-1990’s. Today, these networks celebrate inclusivity and help make policies and practices tangible. Betty Crocker has a special connection to the LGBTQ+ employee network, which takes its name, Betty’s Family, from the brand. Supporting and advocating for the LGBTQ+ community and its allies, Betty’s Family encourages every employee to bring their whole selves to work in an environment where they can be understood and protected.

2012

General Mills became the largest company to publicly oppose a constitutional amendment to ban marriage equality in its home state of Minnesota. The company has also testified not once, but twice, on behalf of the protection of LGBTQ+ rights before the U.S. Congress.

2013

In 2013, Betty Crocker started The Families Project, a website created to better understand the changing family dynamics and how the definition of family is changing. The website features a compilation of research and personal perspectives to show how the notion of a “homemaker” has been reinvented, and for the better. That very year, marriage equality was achieved in the state of Minnesota and Betty Crocker celebrated by presenting the first three couples married with cakes for their weddings. The cakes were donated as part of The Families Project and were baked by Terri Leckas of Queen of Cakes in Edina, Minnesota.

2014

Betty continued to show support for marriage equality by donating cakes to couples marrying during the Twin Cities Pride event, which celebrates LGBTQ+ equality with a parade and weekend of events in the hometown of General Mills. General Mills also showed support with a float in the parade for Betty’s Family, the internal LGBTQ+ employee network, proudly marching alongside several married gay couples we call friends and colleagues.

2016

General Mills was named a top place to work for LGBTQ+ by Human Rights Campaign Foundation, receiving a score of 100% on the Corporate Equality Index, a premier benchmarking tool for workplace equality. General Mills has achieved this ranking for many years in a row.

2019

Betty’s Family partnered with the Veteran’s Network for a Pride Flag ceremony at General Mills World Headquarters. The celebration marked a historic moment, as General Mills was among the first companies in the state of Minnesota to proudly fly a rainbow flag on the grounds of their corporate operations.

Today, Tomorrow, Always

Today, Betty Crocker continues to celebrate and support the LGBTQ+ community within our walls and in our neighborhoods. We’ve made it our goal to place minorities and women in the leadership positions they so deserve and to truly listen to their perspectives and direction. We’ll continue to show up wherever necessary to fight for love, equality and home, however it’s made. And, the Betty Crocker brand promises to remain a tried-and-true, trusted ally for the ingredients that make up what means most to us: family.