Milton S.

Hershey:
A Businessmans Social and Economic Influence on a Community
LeeAnne Neilson
FCS 5630 Healthy Communities

Dr. Len Duhl, a professor of community health and human development at the University
of California, Berkeley, who has expertise in the area of healthy cities and communities,
partnered with Dr. Trevor Hancock, a professor at the University of Victoria and health
promotion consultant, to become the founders of a global movement in the late twentieth century
which promoted the creation of healthy communities. Their program falls under the direction of
the World Health Organization and has been embraced by more than 3,000 communities around
the world. The Healthy Communities movement takes a broad view of health and employs a
cross-section of human endeavors to achieve improved health status and community quality of
life.1 Some areas of focus when creating a healthy community include quality affordable
housing, access to recreation, cultural opportunities, open green spaces, medical services, public
transportation, economic opportunities, safe neighborhoods, religious communities, education
and learning programs, sustainable employment, and family relationships.
Long before the push for healthy communities in the mid 1980s, Milton S. Hershey had a
vision of what a utopian society would look like and set out to create it in 1903. He selected the
rural township of Derry Church, Pennsylvania, to create his unique town centera chocolate
factory. This decision completely changed the economic and social environment of this area
forever. This paper will focus on how Milton S. Hershey accomplished his dream and created a
model community powered by a highly successful corporation that was devoted to the welfare of
its people. [His community] has withstood every economic, social, and political challenge and
still thrives today.2
Derry Church was an isolated rural community with many family-owned farms of less
than 100 acres and relatively unknown to the general population of Lancaster County. It lacked
the basic infrastructure needed to run a chocolate factory but had a clear water stream, significant

limestone deposits, and lush pastures needed for dairy cowsall essential resources for his
business. He initially purchased 1,200 acres and in the spring of 1903 broke ground and began
construction on his factory. Because he had no intention of creating a factory town, he
concurrently began building homes near his factory on Trinidad Avenue and Chocolate Avenue
for his employees.
To ensure that his community did not look like a factory town in any shape or form,
Hershey instructed his builders to use a variety of house designs, make them comfortable in size,
and include the luxuries of indoor plumbing, electricity, and central heating. He also wanted the
homes built on enough acreage to be set back from the street and provide a comfortable distance
between each house. These houses were built and then sold to his employees at cost because he
wanted them to be able to afford their homes. In addition, he had 100 lots available for people to
purchase and build their own homes. These lots came with certain specifications stating that the
homes had to have a pitched roof and be two stories tall. Property owners could not build
saloons, blacksmith shops, fences, or have chickens or pigs on the property.
His concept of homeownership was very different from most company towns that only
provided rental housing. His approach of encouraging homeownership resulted in economic
growth because these homeowners in essence became investors in this growing community.
Owning a home meant that they would be more inclined to keep up their properties, stay working
at the factory, not move from the town, and be financial contributors to the growing economic
development of the town.
Hershey also enhanced the natural environment of the town by planting shrubs, trees, and
flowers and creating a delightful place in which to live. A study conducted by Frances E. Kuo,
founder of the Human-Environment Research Laboratory that studies the connection between the

physical environment and people, found that arboriculture plays a significant role in creating a
socially healthy community. Some of Kuos findings suggest that green cover is indeed related
to the amount of social interaction in residential outdoor spaces [and] trees do in fact strengthen
neighborhood social ties. In addition, the study implies that trees encourage residents to be
engaged in their community and that successful residential outdoor spaces are pivotal in the
healthy social ecology of a community, and trees are a key element in creating successful
residential outdoor spaces. By planting trees in his community, Hershey created a safer and
stronger community. Kuo also discovered that trees invite children to play outside, which brings
out the parents, who become the eyes in the neighborhood. She then stated that there is a link
between trees and a lower incident of incivilities and a decrease in crime.3 Even though Hershey
lacked academic knowledge regarding the role trees play in a healthy community, his vision to
include trees in his utopian society aided in creating sustainable happiness for his employees.
Catherine OBrien, Ph.D., associate professor of education at Cape Breton University in
Nova Scotia, Canada, developed the concept of sustainable happiness and states that there is a
powerful ability delightful places have for helping us feel connectedto ourselves, to our
environment, to other people, our community, or a sense of divinity. Research [tells] us that this
experience of connection nurtures both emotional and physical well-being.4 OBrien mentioned
that some social activities found in delightful places include nature watching, swimming, and
walking. As she interviewed people, she learned that specific sounds such as dogs barking, fish
splashing in ponds, or butterflies fluttering in the air were also associated with peaceful places.
In addition, the smells of specific scents such as pine trees, freshly cut grass, or chocolate were
linked to happy places. The pleasant aroma of chocolate is definitely detected in the air of
Hershey, Pennsylvania, making it the sweetest town in America.

The town of Hershey became this type of delightful place because one of its designs was
to foster social interactions and provide Hershey employees with recreational and cultural
opportunities. Hershey understood the overall physical, emotional, and social need for a balance
between work and play. Thus, he set aside land in his model community for recreational
purposes.5 Hershey Park was the first major recreational outlet for his employees and opened in
the year 1907. It began as a place for families to have picnics together. Within three years, the
park would include a childrens playground, swimming pool, bowling alley, band shell,
amusement park rides, and a zoo. Since this was the era before television, Hershey built his zoo
for educational purposes. It allowed his employees and their families to learn about animals
outside of their community. Admission to the park was free for Hershey employees and their
families. This 150-acre park eventually became a major tourist attraction and created a second
major source of revenue for the community. Today, over three million people visit the park each
year.
Unlike his contemporaries, Hershey chose to build his own private residence in the town
he created. He could see his beloved chocolate factory from his front door and was able to walk
to work. His mansion was considered relatively modest for the time period when compared to
the exorbitant prices Henry Ford, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and John Rockefeller paid for their
mansions. His home cost $50,000 to build, had 22 rooms, and was staffed by 3 people. Because
of his great love for his wife, Catherine, he spent $40,000 to create a flower garden on the
property. The splendid gardens were opened to the public and fostered a sense of culture and
community. In later years, this original garden became the inspiration for creating what has
become Hershey Gardens and is the home to a butterfly house.

Another factor to a healthy community is employment. Edward F. Diener, an emeritus

professor of psychology at the University of Illinois, and Martin Seligman, pioneer of Positive
Psychology, have addressed the issue of employment and well-being. They discovered that
losing income may have a greater influence on well-being than gaining income does. Their
research also indicated that people obtain pleasure from their jobs, even from mundane jobs
[and] job satisfaction depends not on absolute pay, but on pay relative to other workers with the
same education and job classification. In addition, life satisfaction [also] drops dramatically
around the time of their layoff [and] they do not recover to their former levels of life satisfaction
even after several years, even after most of them have obtained a new job with pay almost equal
to their pay before being laid off. These findings suggest that the unemployed are scarred by
the experience of losing their jobs.6
Hershey understood how employment sustains life satisfaction and results in a happy
community. In his caramel factory in Lancaster, employees found the factory a good place to
work. The pay was better than they would have received at many other local manufacturing
plants, and the mood was pleasant. They were even allowed to hold dances in the building:7
Once he built his chocolate factory in Hershey, Pennsylvania, wages for males and females doing
the same type of job were equal.
Perhaps his greatest insight regarding how employment correlates to happiness came
during the Great Depression when he engaged in a great building endeavor in his town. The
story is told that one day during the construction of the Hershey Hotel he was observing a steam
shovel in action. The foreman bragged that this piece of machinery was capable of doing the
work of forty men. Hersheys immediate response was to get rid of the steam shovel and hire
forty workers instead. During this time period, Hershey provided work for the community by

building a community building, adding attractions and rides at Hersheypark, constructing a

theatre, erecting a sports stadium, and updating facilities at the zoo. He also hired Maurice
McCarthy, a golf architect, to design a golf course for the community. In essence, he used the
downturn of the nationals economy in order to help his town survive and emerge as a tourist
destination.8
Milton Hershey felt that education was an important element for the citizens of his model
community. This might have resulted from the fact that he lacked a proper education and left
school at the age of 13 with hardly any skills in reading and writing. He firmly believed that the
youth are the future itself, growing up before our eyes9 and the only way to move forward was
through quality education. Consequently, he helped to improve the Derry Township school
district by donating land and money to build a high school. This was very unusual because this
was a rural community and the common practice was for children to work on the farms instead
of obtaining a high school education. In 1938, Milton created the Hershey Junior College and
offered two years of free tuition for residents of Derry Township and employees in his company.
Milton and Catherine Hershey were devastated by the fact that they could not have
children and one day Catherine suggested that they take in four orphan boys and provide them a
home and an opportunity to gain an education. Thus, on November 15, 1909, they established
the Hershey Industrial School for orphan boys with the goal of nurturing and educating these
impoverished boys and helping them gain a useful occupational skill. This school was very
successful and eventually resulted in what is today known as the Milton Hershey School (MHS).
This is a private school designed for socially disadvantaged children. The student body is close
to 2,000 students, ranging from ages 4 to 18. Tuition, food, clothes, and housing are provided
free of charge for all students. The students live in residential homes close to campus and are

nurtured by houseparents. Biological parents also remain in contact with their children who are
attending the school.
The schools curriculum is based on academic and social learning for elementary
students. During fifth through eighth grades, focus is placed on helping students through the
transitional years. The high school program is designed to include experiential learning along
with challenging academic courses. Students also explore career options through the Career
Technical Education program, and in the classes of 2012-2014, 100 percent of graduating
seniors earned at least one industry-recognized certification in his or her area of study.10 Those
who graduate receive a new set of clothes, a new set of luggage, and a $100 bill. The $100 dates
back to a time in Milton Hersheys life when he found himself in a predicament and was able to
get out of it by paying $100. Thus, he believed anyone could do likewise.
Dr. Mak Mitchell, associate professor of educational leadership at Seattle University,
partnered with three other superintendents and was instrumental in gaining grants for the
achievement of better coordination of community services to student families. He believes
that the school people see the student at the center of a healthy community, capable of higher
academic achievement only if his or her social needs are met. For educators, creating a healthy
community is a means to the desired end: a happy, productive, well-nurtured student. Through
their program they came to realize that our student-centered efforts had the power to leverage
the entire system of health, social service, recreational, religious, governmental, community, and
legal entities.11
MHS has created this type of healthy community. One of their programs focuses on
wellness education, which empower[s] students to take an active interest in their own health as
they learn to make wise eating choices and enjoy an active lifestyle. The school also provides

free quality health care, including dental and social work services.12 In 2014, the Alliance for a
Healthier Generation recognized MHS for its commitment to the health status of its students and
staff by revising menus, increasing physical activity, and educational programs on the lasting
effects of a healthy lifestyle.13
Dr. Mitchell learned that the students who benefited from the healthy community which
his grant was able to provide soon began giving back to their community. Many MHS alumni
are also giving back to their communities in a variety of ways, including being a houseparent,
volunteering, or teaching at the school. Some graduates have gone on to become a business
owner, pediatric cancer researcher, lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force, chief of
Occupational Safety and Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
psychology counselor, vice president of a financial institution, and president of MHS.
Shannon Cummings Butler, who graduated in 1998 from MHS, has many fond memories
of her time at the school and the sense of community she felt while growing up in such an
environment. The greatest memories would have to be the friendships that were created from
my houseparents, to the teachers, to lifelong friends. These relationships are ones that cannot be
found in any other school system because we grow as brothers and sisters. We are family!14
Pamela Ebstyne King and James L. Furrow, Center for Research in Child and Adolescent
Development, Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary, examined the role
of religion and how it impacts adolescent well-being. They drew upon the social capital theory
in their study to explore socially embedded religious influences on moral outcomes in
adolescents.15 Their findings referenced an article written by Dale A. Blyth and Nancy Leffert16
who found that religious activity was a vital community strength. Communities in which the
majority of adolescents attend religious services at least once a month were found to be twice as

likely to be identified among the healthiest communities [and] identified religious services as one
of the primary community strengths found to have a significant relationship to overall
community well-being.17
Milton and Catherine Hershey understood that a belief in God and prayer was essential to
a students well-being and would translate into making a healthy community. Thus, at MHS
students are required to attend weekly Judeo-Christian religious services on Sunday at one of the
buildings on campus and participate in daily devotional programs in their campus homes in order
to stir thinking about God, spiritual things, and the [students] life and character.18 Students are
also given an opportunity to attend other religious events such as concerts, lectures, or retreats as
a means of promoting faith in God.
In 1918, Milton put all of his company stock (valuing $60 million) in a trust fund to
support the financial needs of MHS and its students. Today, each time an individual buys a
Hershey product or a ticket to a Hershey attraction, that money goes directly into the schools
trust fund and economically benefits the community. Even though he loved MHS, he also wanted
to provide for the communitys public school system. In his will, his final wish was to create a
trust fund that would help relieve the tax burden of maintaining the Townships public schools.
This fund has grown to $33 million and plays an important role in supporting the high level of
public education valued in the Hershey community.19
The Hershey Trust Company plays an active role in preserving Milton Hersheys vision
of his ideal community. Commitment has been made to safeguard farmland and green spaces
while balancing the need for future growth and development necessary to remain a healthy
community. . . . Today, Hershey Trust Company stands alone as being the same company doing

business in the same town for one hundred years. And their unique ownership structure virtually
assures that they will continue doing business that way for the next 100 years.20
Though Milton Hershey has been dead for 70 years, his utopian society continues to
thrive. His hard work despite many setbacks and eventual success in building his chocolate
empire along with his desire to build a model community has impacted many lives socially and
economically. Truly, Hershey, Pennsylvania, is a sweet place to live and visit.

Works Cited
1. Norris, Tyler, and Mary Pittman. The Healthy communities Movement and the Coalition
for Healthier Cities and Communities. Public Health Reports (2000): 119. Print.
2. DAntonio, Michael. Hershey:Milton S. Hersheys Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire,
and Utopian Dreams. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007. 8. Print.
3. Kuo, Frances E. Social Aspect of Urban Forestry: The Role of Arboriculture in a
Healthy Social Ecology. Journal of Arboriculture 29.3 (2003): 150-52. Print.
4. OBrien, Catherine. Footprint of Delight Exploring Sustainable Happiness. NCBW
Forum Article (2006): 4. Print.
5. Milton Hershey: The Man & His Legacy 1857-1945. Mounds View Public Schools.
Web. 21 Nov. 2015.
6. Diener, Edward, and Martin Seligman. Beyond Money Toward an Economy of WellBeing. (2004): 10-12. Print.
7. DAntonio, Michael. Hershey:Milton S. Hersheys Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire,
and Utopian Dreams. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007. 74. Print.
8. See HersheyArchives@30-13 Hire the Forty Men. Hershey Community Archives/
M.S. Hershey Foundation. 19 May 2015. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
9. Quoted in video- School History- Milton Hershey School Milton Hershey School
School History Comments. 2014. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
10. Academics-Milton Hershey School. Milton Hershey School Academics Comments.
2014. Web. 10 Nov. 2015.
11. Mitchell, Mak. Schools as Catalysts for Healthy Communities. Public Health Reports
115 (2000): 222,225. Print.

12. FAQ-Milton Hershey School. Milton Hershey School FAQ Comments. 2014. Web 21
Nov. 2015.
13. See-Milton Hershey School Receives National Recognition for Health & Well.
PRWeb. 21 May 2014. Web. 21 Nov. 2015.
14. Alumni Stories. Milton Hershey School Alumni. Web. 21 Nov. 2015.
15. King, Pamela Ebstyne, and James L. Furrow. Religion as a Resource for Positive Youth
Development: Religion, Social Capital, and Moral Outcomes. Developmental
Psychology 40.5 (2004): 703. Print.
16. See- Blyth, Dale A, and Nancy Leffert. Communities as Contexts for Adolescent
Development an Empirical Analysis. Sage Journals. Web. 21 Nov. 215.
17. King, Pamela Ebstyne, and James L. Furrow. Religion as a Resource for Positive Youth
Development: Religion, Social Capital, and Moral Outcomes. Developmental
Psychology 40.5 (2004): 704. Print.
18. Religious Programs. Milton Hershey School. 2011. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.
19. Hershey Trust Company. Hershey Community Archives/ Hershey Trust Company.
Web 21 Nov. 2015.
20. Hershey Trust Company. Hershey Community Archives/ Hershey Trust Company. Web
21 Nov. 2015.