Whole Story

If you haven’t tried Justin’s nut butters yet, then December’s the month to make it happen. Sure I’m a little partial to their outrageously yummy flavor combinations such as maple almond, honey peanut and chocolate hazelnut. And I really like the convenient, carry-anywhere squeeze packs I take on hikes. And I have a small bias because Whole Foods Market was Justin’s first retail outlet and we helped him grow his business with our Local Producer Loan Program. Yes, those are all great reasons but I really think you should try Justin’s this month because for every jar of nut butter sold in December, Justin’s will donate $1 to the Conscious Alliance! Conscious Alliance is a non-profit organization dedicated to feeding those in need in the U.S., particularly people living in impoverished American Indian communities. Since 2002, the Conscious Alliance has collected and distributed over 1,000,000 pounds of non-perishable food donations, all from the collaborative efforts of individuals, companies and musicians. They continue to follow their vision of not only providing emergency food relief and services but also facilitating sustainable economic development of American Indian communities. With food drives as their medium, especially at concerts and music festivals, they’re working to raise awareness that hunger and poverty still exists in America and they hope young people will be inspired to engage in some community participation. The Whole Foods Market and Conscious Alliance partnership goes way back:

• To date, we’ve donated over 500,000 pounds of food to their organization.
• For the last three years our Rocky Mountain region has partnered with the Conscious Alliance to provide 2,500 full holiday meals to four impoverished Native American reservations: Pine Ridge, South Dakota; Lame Deer, Montana; Tohajiilee, New Mexico and Houma, Louisiana.
• In 2008, our donation of 40,000 cans helped them set a Guinness Book World Record for the “Largest Canned Food Structure,” when they constructed a giant hand sculpture at Michigan’s Rothbury Music Festival out of nothing but cans. Of course, after the festival all of the food was donated to area food pantries.

So there you have it, a company and an organization we’re passionate about working with to support those in need. All you need to do to help out is buy a jar (or two or three) of Justin’s this month. If that’s not reason enough to give Justin’s a try, then I don’t know what is. Learn more about how you can support the work of Conscious Alliance beyond buying nut butter. Have you already tried Justin’s? What’s your favorite flavor?