Global Search
Whole Story
The Official Whole Foods Market® Blog
Feed 100 Bag Helps Rwandan School Children
| Meet the Blogger | More Posts by Paige Brady
Sometimes I find gift giving especially challenging. With all the need in the world, why the heck should I get Aunt Mary Lou a new apron? She has 10 already! What I really want to do is make a donation or give a charitable gift in her honor. But then there’s nothing tangible to unwrap and somehow the family turns me into the Scrooge of the season. “Why can’t Paige give normal gifts like everyone else?”
If a version of this story plays out for you, the Feed 100 Bag just might be the perfect option. Here’s the deal: you buy the Feed 100 stylish reusable shopping bag to give as a tangible gift and part of the proceeds go to providing 100 meals to hungry Rwandan school children. Win-win, right?
The Bag
Designed solely for Whole Foods Market, the FEED 100 reusable bag is made of organic cotton and natural burlap and is produced with a commitment to ensuring fair treatment of workers, livable wages, overtime pay and safe, clean working environments. It is a lightweight, fresh white tote that collapses easily into its base, which is a zippered rectangular burlap pouch emblazoned with the FEED logo and the number 100. An eco-friendly fashion statement that helps educate people about hunger and what we can do to alleviate it. It’s perfect to use for your groceries and for about 50 million other things too.
The Good
Each bag purchased provides 100 nutritious meals to hungry school age children in Rwanda through the United Nation World Food Program’s School Feeding Program. In 1994, Rwanda lost 800,000 men, women and children to genocide; as a result, the nation’s economy and social structures were decimated. School feeding is one of the most effective solutions to stopping hunger and breaking the poverty cycle. Since 2003, the World Food Program has provided free, nutritious school lunches to Rwanda’s children in 300 schools in the most food-deprived areas. Each hot, nutrient-rich meal draws boys and girls to school, helps them learn, and may be the only meal they have all day. School attendance has grown from 63 percent to 93 percent, and to help close the educational gender gap, girls with good attendance may receive extra rations to take home to their families. Girls with just a few years of education have fewer children, have them later in life, and are better prepared to care for and educate them.
The Cost
When a Whole Foods Market customer buys a FEED 100 bag, $10 is donated by the FEED Foundation to the World Food Program’s Rwanda School Feeding operation, with the remainder going to cover the costs of making the bag and oversight of the program by the FEED Foundation. The bags are produced with high-quality, 100% organic cotton and natural burlap. All FEED bags are made as eco-friendly and fairly as possible in audited and certified fair labor facilities. To further help the initiative, Whole Foods Market is not making any profit on these bags – in fact many of our stores are offering this bag for a special price of $25 for the holiday season – kicking in our own donation to help feed hungry children. If you aren't close to one of our stores, check out online ordering through FEED.
Hope this helps make your holiday shopping (and gift unwrapping) more rewarding!
To learn more about the FEED Foundation, visit their website or check out this video.
114 Comments
Comments
We use dish towels rather than paper towels; glasses/mugs instead of styrofoam cups; cold water for most everything; recycle; turn off all lights/furnace whenever possible; when shopping for just a couple items, place them in your purse rather than using a bag; combine your errands and run them on the way to or from work, instead of making a separate trip; and try to work from home as much as possible. The list is endless!!
04/22/2009 7:55:05 AM CDT
I'm already recycling cans/bottles at work and at home. We've changed out most of our unit light bulbs to CFLs and it made a positive change in our electric bill. Now, I'm attempting to get our condo to switch out a lot of floods they have in various places in the 180-unit building to CFL floods, which should impact their electric bill greatly
04/22/2009 8:02:21 AM CDT
Generally to recycle more & go organic in my veg. garden.
04/22/2009 8:17:22 AM CDT
I like these bags....before this, I would collect and recycle my grocery bags. Don't have to anymore....
AND the bag makes me aware of the Whole Foods environment!!
04/22/2009 8:24:13 AM CDT
I am using cloth bags at all stores to help cut down on waste. I also started a compost pile to get rid of kitchen waste my garden looks great after three years of work. I think small things hehelp MOTHER EARTH.
04/22/2009 8:42:24 AM CDT
Make my own coffee in a reuseable mug in the morning and bring my lunch in a reuseable container opposed to plastic baggies.
04/22/2009 8:49:45 AM CDT
We compost to make our own soil for our garden. Recycle, reuse, and trying to conserve energy. :)
04/22/2009 9:04:14 AM CDT
Walk to physical therapy. Take quicker showers. Eat less quantity of food.
That's a start.
04/22/2009 9:06:40 AM CDT
I'm looking at the earth through my heart and my own body through the language of love. I am seeking the foods that feed me well with less consumption and provide me with greater energy to do more without stress. I am making my body feel comfortable with its issues until they improve or dissolve. I'm linking my heart to the work of other who need my support with willingness to take steps to back them with my new-found strength.
04/22/2009 9:06:58 AM CDT
My wife and son have food limited diets and I was surprised to find the variety and good pricing at Whole Foods!
04/22/2009 9:15:56 AM CDT
Bring your own plastic containers when eating out for leftovers..keeps the styrofoam out of the landfills.
04/22/2009 9:20:08 AM CDT
what a good idea!
04/22/2009 9:27:58 AM CDT
My resolution: investigate installing a green roof on my home - I've got a flat roof, so with some additional structural support it should be do-able!
04/22/2009 9:34:41 AM CDT
I always use canvas and cloth bags instead of plastic or paper shopping bags and will be replacing standard lightbulbs with energy saving ones.
04/22/2009 9:40:42 AM CDT
I got involved with Transit Chek on the job and I use mass transit 7 days a week.
04/22/2009 9:45:45 AM CDT
Replacing my most of my lawn (grass) with more water resistence plants & other landscaping.
04/22/2009 9:48:13 AM CDT
Two months ago we purchased 4 3 gallon buckets for only $2.59 each. We have one at the kitchen sink and the other 3 are for the showers. Every time we turn on the faucet we get about 2 1/2 gallons of water in the bucket before the water gets hot. With two teenagers and two adults we estimate to save 10,000 gallons per year! We have been refilling the outdoor jacuzzi and fountain in addition to watering indoor plants and the vegetable garden.
04/22/2009 9:48:44 AM CDT
Debra - I have been using cloth napkins for the last six months and not buying paper ones anymore. I use microfiber cloths instead of reaching for a paper towel. I can wash both and reuse easily.
I have been baking gifts for my friends and family for awhile and I cut them into usable sizes (like half loaves, a quarter of a round corn bread); they are easier to wrap and accented with a recycled ribbon. I put them in a party bag that I have saved or even a small paper food bag with added colored pen decorations - add a piece of white tissue paper that can also be reused...add a bow to the handle and voila - a nice homemade gift made with caring and love. We are also able to get water from a well and put it in reusable gallon bottles that I get from my friend. Also my friend gets cut up fruit in glass mason jars and she saves those for us as well to reuse. We share them with others for fall canning and Christmas gifts of eggnog. We also had nitrogen added to our tires this winter when it was offered Free at an oil change and we find that the tire pressure remains stabilized during the extreme temperature changes thus helping us with gas mileage. We also do errands all at once with a route and not daily. Thanks, let's keep cleaning up our planet.
04/22/2009 10:12:41 AM CDT
Make every effort to use by reusable bags rather than paper or plastic. Get more organic in my eating and buying habits
04/22/2009 10:41:21 AM CDT
I am planting an organic garden just like the Victory Gardens of the past. I will donate to my local food pantry. I have been collecting cloth tote bags for decades and I use them whenever I go shopping at each and every store no matter what it sells. I now have my entire family using cloth bags. I am sure someone will enjoy receiving this bag as a gift. I even take my cloth bags in my luggage when I travel so that I can use them instead of having to figure out what to do with the plastic or paper bags at my hotel. I sew, and make cloth tote bags for gifts all the time.
04/22/2009 10:48:36 AM CDT
I think it's a wonderful thing, being able to help feed children. It's no fault of their own that they are poor. If we can save a few lives we can be very proud!
04/22/2009 10:52:09 AM CDT
I've created a xeric garden in my backyard where there used to be a grass lawn. Colorado plants and some others that are resistant to drought are being used which means a lot less water than the grass that it replaced.
04/22/2009 11:13:14 AM CDT
I am being frugal and sharing all that I can.
04/22/2009 11:41:22 AM CDT
I started using cloth napkins many years ago when I realized that I was already washing clothes, adding napkins to the wash was no big deal.
We had to have a water softner in our new home. I think one of the unexpected impacts on the enviornment is that we use much less soap and detergents. We can use less harsh cleaning products too.
04/22/2009 11:42:03 AM CDT
My Resolution is to unplug unused items, use my recycle bags every time I shop and only turn on lights when needed. My sister and I have started recycling at our parent’s home. I will make an effort to purchase more recyclable products, learn more about how I can help our planet and encourage my husband to do the same.
04/22/2009 11:51:45 AM CDT