Registry

Does Osem support Israel?

Owned by Nestlé Records for the parent company are kept separately.

Support documentedupdated 2026-09-26

Yes — Osem has documented support for Israel on record, including $142,000 in donations. Every claim below links to its source.

Filed under: Food & beverage brands · Companies that support Israel

Background

Osem is the Israeli half of a widely misread pair. It is a wholly Nestlé-owned subsidiary, trading as Osem-Nestlé since the Swiss group bought out the last minority shareholders in February 2016, and almost everything circulated online as 'Nestlé donating to the IDF' was in fact done by this Israeli company: food and water to soldiers and rescue forces in October 2023, tens of thousands of products to the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel's Soldiers, baby food to Sderot, and a multi-million-shekel fund for Sderot residents. Nestlé S.A. in Switzerland made no equivalent corporate donation; its own first publicly reported step was a precautionary shutdown of an Israeli plant for a few days. Osem's Sderot factory, a kilometre from the Gaza border, is the physical centre of the story: it lost an employee on 7 October, reopened under rocket fire two weeks later, and housed displaced staff so production could continue. Because the Osem brand is Nestlé-owned, boycott lists that name Nestlé and boycott lists that name Osem are usually pointing at the same underlying facts.

Walla Finance (Hebrew) Ynet (Hebrew, Osem-Nestlé branded content) — inside the Sderot plant Nestlé — official M&A page Reuters via ThePrint — Nestlé temporarily shuts Israeli plant

Timeline of documented support

193819501962197419861998201020221942 — Operations in Israel: State of Israel (taxes, employment, national food supply)Operations in Israel19422016-02 — Acquisition: Nestlé S.A. (buyer) — Osem Investments Ltd. minority shareholders (sellers)Acquisition2016-022020-05 — Donation: Magen David Adom and the Friends of Magen David Adom in Israel (intensive-care bus project)Donation2020-052021-04 — In-kind support: Latet — Israeli Humanitarian Aid, the national food bank, and the families and elderly people it suppliesIn-kind support2021-042023 — Donation: Residents of Sderot, with emphasis on young people affected by the 7 October attack (Osem Sderot fund)Donation20232023-10 — In-kind support: IDF soldiers and rescue forces; the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel's Soldiers; residents of Sderot; southern families via the Latet aid organisationIn-kind support2023-102023-10 — Operations in Israel: Israel's food supply chain; Osem-Nestlé employees displaced from the Gaza-border areaOperations in Israel2023-102024-05 — Government contract: EDF Renewables Israel (supplier) — power for Osem-Nestlé's own Israeli production sitesGovernment contract2024-052025-12 — Partnership: IDF Manpower Directorate and the Manufacturers Association of Israel (the programme's organisers)Partnership2025-12

Documented support

TypeDateAmountRecipientSources
Operations in Israel1942—State of Israel (taxes, employment, national food supply)
Osem is one of Israel's largest food manufacturers and the maker of some of the country's most recognisable brands, including the Bamba peanut snack, Bissli, pasta, soups, sauces, baked goods and baby food. Founded in Israel in 1942, it runs five production plants in the country. The largest is in Sderot, a rocket-exposed town beside the Gaza border, opened in the late 1970s, employing about 520 people and producing some 50,000 tonnes of food a year; a dedicated Bamba plant opened in Kiryat Gat in 2019 and produces more than a million bags a day. This page covers Osem as a brand and subsidiary; its Swiss parent is documented separately on Nestlé's own page.
Acquisition2016-02$840,000,000Nestlé S.A. (buyer) — Osem Investments Ltd. minority shareholders (sellers)
Osem is wholly owned by Nestlé. The Swiss group built the position gradually — first investment and exclusive Israeli distribution rights in 1995, majority control (50.1%) in 2002, 58.76% by 2012 — and in February 2016 bought the remaining 36.3% for about $840 million (€752 million, ILS 82.50 per share), delisting what was then Israel's largest publicly traded food manufacturer from the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. The Israeli business now trades as Osem-Nestlé. Attribution note: actions by Osem-Nestlé in Israel are the subsidiary's, and should not be presented as decisions of Nestlé S.A. in Switzerland.
In-kind support2023-10—IDF soldiers and rescue forces; the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel's Soldiers; residents of Sderot; southern families via the Latet aid organisation
In the first days of the October 2023 war Osem-Nestlé sent dry, ready-to-eat food and water to Israeli soldiers at staging areas and to rescue forces, organised deliveries of tens of thousands of dry-goods products to the Association for the Wellbeing of Israel's Soldiers, and sent a dedicated shipment including baby food to residents of Sderot, with further products distributed to families in the south through the Latet aid organisation. Attributed to Osem-Nestlé, the Israeli subsidiary, and not to Nestlé S.A. in Switzerland, which made no equivalent corporate donation.
One source
Operations in Israel2023-10—Israel's food supply chain; Osem-Nestlé employees displaced from the Gaza-border area
Osem-Nestlé's Sderot plant, which had run continuously for 45 years, shut when gunmen were on the ground on 7 October 2023 and reopened about two weeks later, operating under continuing rocket fire and with a depleted workforce so that basic products — pasta, sauces and soup mixes — stayed on Israeli supermarket shelves. The company rented apartments and hotel rooms for displaced employees and provided vehicles so they could reach the production lines. One plant employee was killed in the 7 October attack and others were left traumatised. Attributed to Osem-Nestlé management in Israel.
One source
Donation2023—Residents of Sderot, with emphasis on young people affected by the 7 October attack (Osem Sderot fund)
Osem-Nestlé established a fund of several million shekels to support residents of Sderot after the 7 October 2023 attack, with emphasis on young people traumatised by it, and formally launched it as the Osem Sderot Fund at an event on 31 March 2024. Maariv reported that the fund, set up with Sderot municipality and academic institutions, would award dozens of study grants a year to Sderot residents taking engineering and technology courses, alongside certificate tracks for technicians and engineers, vocational courses, and a paid summer internship track called "From Studies to Industry" that places grant holders in factories across the south and not only in Osem-Nestlé's own. Maariv gave no sum; an Osem-Nestlé-sponsored article on mako said the fund would invest NIS 2 million a year, which is a self-reported annual figure rather than a verified total, so no amount is recorded in this row. Attributed to the Israeli subsidiary Osem-Nestlé.
Donation2020-05$142,000Magen David Adom and the Friends of Magen David Adom in Israel (intensive-care bus project)
Osem-Nestlé donated NIS 500,000 — about $142,000 at the Bank of Israel rate of 3.518 shekels to the dollar on 11 May 2020 — towards building Magen David Adom's "ambulance bus", an intensive-care coach that evacuates up to 13 patients at once, two of them in a section equipped for ventilated patients and eleven seated at the rear. Ynet carried the figure in a news report; the recipient side, the Friends of Magen David Adom in Israel, separately confirms a donation towards funding the project but names no sum. Attribution: the vehicle itself was donated by the Dan bus company and converted with the help of soldiers from the IDF's Land Technology Brigade, so Osem-Nestlé's part was money towards the conversion; the launch ceremony was held at the company's Shoham headquarters on 11 May 2020, with its own employees acting as patients in a drill. This is the Israeli subsidiary's donation, not Nestlé S.A.'s.
In-kind support2021-04—Latet — Israeli Humanitarian Aid, the national food bank, and the families and elderly people it supplies
Osem-Nestlé has supplied Latet, Israel's national food bank, with donated food for about two decades. In an Osem-Nestlé-sponsored article Ynet published on 14 April 2021, Latet's resource-development and food-rescue manager, Roni Aviri, said the company donates food products worth millions of shekels a year together with cash donations, and that its employees volunteer at Latet through the year packing and handing out food parcels; in the same piece the company's chief executive, Avi Ben Assayag, put the food-rescue effort at about one million shekels of food a year. The two figures do not agree, so no amount is recorded here. A second sponsored Ynet piece of 4 September 2022 describes the partnership as nearly two decades old, with thousands of food boxes donated before each holiday and employees packing tens of thousands of boxes. The 2021 article also describes Covid-era giving: financial support for Latet's emergency fund, parcels for elderly people, and hundreds of parcels a month plus a hot-food truck for hospital medical teams. Both articles are branded content — the company's own account rather than independent reporting — and the acts are the Israeli subsidiary's, not Nestlé S.A.'s.
Government contract2024-05$80,800,000EDF Renewables Israel (supplier) — power for Osem-Nestlé's own Israeli production sites
Osem-Nestlé signed a ten-year electricity supply agreement with EDF Renewables Israel under which it will buy about NIS 300 million of renewable power — roughly $80.8 million at the Bank of Israel rate of 3.713 shekels to the dollar on 8 May 2024 — from dedicated Israeli solar fields with storage. Supply is due to begin in 2026 and is meant to cover 100% of the electricity the company's Israeli production sites use, cutting 30,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases. Calcalist reported it on 8 May 2024 and ice on 11 May 2024, both from the same company announcement, so this is one report twice published rather than two independent confirmations. This is a commercial supply contract between two companies operating in Israel — not a donation, and not a payment to the Israeli state — and the commitment is the Israeli subsidiary's.
Partnership2025-12—IDF Manpower Directorate and the Manufacturers Association of Israel (the programme's organisers)
Ynet reported on 16 December 2025 that Osem-Nestlé was among the first organisations to say it was ready to join a programme drawn up by the Manufacturers Association of Israel and the IDF Manpower Directorate, under which soldiers who serve a week on base and a week at home — mainly transport drivers and cooks — would be able to work officially for civilian employers alongside their military service from the start of 2026. The programme belongs to the army and the association: it was initiated by the head of the Manpower Directorate, Maj. Gen. Dado Bar Kalifa, and the association's president, Ron Tomer, and the other organisations named were Elbit, CBC Israel, the Fattal hotel chain and the Garages Association. No money changes hands in it, and as reported Osem-Nestlé had declared a willingness to take part rather than begun taking part.
One source
Donations total$142,000

Frequently asked questions

Did Osem donate money to Israel or Israeli causes?

Yes. Documented donations total $142,000, including $142,000 to Magen David Adom and the Friends of Magen David Adom in Israel (intensive-care bus project). Each donation is listed on this page with its date and source.

How much has Osem given?

Documented donations total $142,000. The largest single recorded item is $142,000 to Magen David Adom and the Friends of Magen David Adom in Israel (intensive-care bus project) (2020-05).

Where does this information come from?

Every record on this page links to its source — news reports, official company statements, tax filings, or government records. 16 distinct sources are cited for Osem. Our methodology page explains the full verification process.

Sources & citations

Record last updated: 2026-09-26

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