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Thanks to their humanitarian efforts, Vitamin Angels is an organization that holds a special place in the heart of Whole Foods Market. Discover the ways they are profoundly changing the lives of children around the world and how easy it is to get involved. Want a quick way to help? Post a comment below telling us what you think about Vitamin Angels and we'll donate $1 for every comment received in September, 2011. Listen to Howard Schiffer, founder of Vitamin Angels, share his passion.

Howard Schiffer, founder of Vitamin Angels, was honored with the Dietary Supplement Education Alliance’s Hero Award in 2003 for his work in “making a difference in the lives of so many children throughout our country and around the world.” Vitamin Angels was founded through the vision and passion of natural products industry veteran, Howard Schiffer:

• Vitamin Angels began in 1994 with Schiffer’s desire to translate his industry connections into helping children around the world.
• Schiffer developed a mantra, “what you don’t know can be your greatest ally”, after he learned that vitamin A could help prevent a child from going blind and that 1/3 of all child and maternal deaths were due to chronic malnutrition.
• The children who benefit the most from Vitamin Angels’ work are the ones who are most vulnerable: children under 5, who are living in rural areas in extreme poverty and who no one else is reaching.
• Today, Vitamin Angels is reaching over 20 million children in more than 40 countries and is literally improving children’s lives every day.

The work of Vitamin Angels helps children thrive, not just survive and includes two powerful programs:

• Schiffer states that “Most children born in the developing world today will never reach their full intellectual or structural capacity from the day they are born due to the chronic malnutrition of their mothers before they were even conceived.”
• The damage that gets done before a child is 2 years old is often irreversible. Conversely, getting to the children early enough can have a profound impact on the rest of their lives.
• Thrive to Five is an international program to get children’s multivitamins to children under 5, and prenatal vitamins to pregnant women as early in their pregnancy as possible.
• Operation 20/20 focuses on getting vitamin A to children under 5 around the world. Two high dose vitamin A per child per year (at a total cost of 25 cents per child) will increase survival rates by 23%!

There are a variety of ways to get involved with Vitamin Angels:

• Choose supplements at Whole Foods Market that are tagged with the Vitamin Angels logo.  These companies donate a portion of sales or provide nutrients to the programs.
• Visit www.vitaminangels.org to learn more about the children, sign up for the monthly newsletter and check out personal fundraising pages.

Vitamin Angels strives for strong growth to reach as many children as possible:

• In the next three years, Vitamin Angels will reach 50 million children.
• In the next 5-10 years, they will reach 100 million children, which will be the majority of children who no one else is reaching and are the most in need.