Win a trip to Mexico to see Whole Planet Foundation’s work! See details at bottom of post.
Whole Planet Foundation, the social good arm of US-based Whole Foods Market, launched their 8th Annual Prosperity Campaign last week. With the goal of alleviating poverty by providing microcredit in communities around the world that supply Whole Foods Market stores with products, this year’s Prosperity Campaign aims to raise enough money to help 250,000 people and runs from February 20-March 31st. The Prosperity Campaign is Whole Planet’s largest fundraising drive providing 80% of their revenue that is given back to their suppliers.
On the first day of the campaign, Whole Planet Foundation raised $190,000 in just 24 hours and this year the goal is to raise $7 million to help fund 40,000 micro loans and reach 250,000 people around the world.
So why microcredit?
Microcredit is a vehicle to help invest in a future without poverty by providing access to small loans for impoverished entrepreneurs living in communities where Whole Foods Market sources products. Each dollar that we raise to support microlending programs around the globe will be repaid and re-loaned again and again, creating additional prosperity for future generations, like Anoma and her family.
-Whole Planet Foundation
Let’s meet Anoma.
Anoma, Sri Lanka. Photo credit: Whole Planet Foundation
Anoma is a microcredit client of Whole Planet Foundation’s partner BRAC Sri Lanka, where Whole Foods Market sources tea. The loan enables Anoma to support her bakery business and sell dishes like Egg Hopper, a daily hot-selling item and a recipe learned from her mother as a young girl.
Anoma is currently in the process of receiving her second cycle loan from BRAC Sri Lanka, and she used a portion of her first loan size of 20,000 LKR ($152 USD) to purchase a gas stove which replaced the kerosene stove she was previously using. This cut down the costs of gas used and is a much more efficient way to cook she says. She plans to purchase a grinder with the second loan amount of 30,000 LKR ($228 USD), to be used to grind the rice into flour, as she currently she has to pay for this service. She has been doing this daily business for five years now, but recently has been able to expand and improve the quality due to the microcredit loans. (Source: Whole Planet Foundation)
Islande, Haiti. Photo Credit: Whole Planet Foundation
I have always been a strong supporter and believer in the value of microcredit. For year’s I’ve been helping people around the world with microcredit loans on KIVA and I also have been a huge supporter of Whole Foods Market and Whole Planet Foundation. In fact, it is hard for me to shop anywhere else given Whole Foods Market’s commitment to giving back and fair trade. I have written about Whole Planet Foundation’s work here in case you would like to learn more. They are an amazing, innovative organization and I wish there were more grocery stores like Whole Foods Market (Currently there are over 340 Whole Foods Market stores in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Scotland).
The eighth annual Prosperity Campaign will run from February 20 through March 31, and here’s how you can get involved:
- Donate through the registers at any Whole Foods Market store
- Donate online at wholeplanetfoundation.org, where you can choose where your money goes: to India, to the USA or to all of our projects around the globe
- Check out your local Whole Foods Market store’s events calendar, where there will be chances to visit the store and your local community to support the Campaign
- You can even create your own online fundraising page, where you can invite your friends, family and network to give a hand up
- Learn more about Whole Planet Foundation’s top supplier group, the Supplier Alliance for Microcredit. Collectively, they have committed $800,000 to fund poverty alleviation projects this year.
WIN A TRIP TO MEXICO!
This year, Whole Planet Foundation and our partners Intrepid Travel will send one lucky winner and his or her companion to Mexico for a six-day trip in May to meet microcredit clients of our partner Pro Mujer, learn about Whole Foods Market produce sourcing and do tourist activities. To be eligible to win and for a full list of rules, visit Whole Planet Foundation’s Facebook page from February 20 through March 10 and submit an essay (25-500 words) describing how you are helping to invest in a future without poverty. Once on Whole Planet Foundation’s Facebook page: Just click the ‘Essay Contest’ tab above or follow this link: https://www.facebook.com/wholeplanetfoundation/app_515720611858523
To learn more about what the trip to Mexico includes, click here. It sounds like a fabulous opportunity!
Related posts:
Whole Planet Foundation: Giving Back Around the World via thirdeyemom
Did not about their efforts, and will donate at the register on next visit.
Microcredit is such a powerful way to help so many.
Thanks so much for sharing this, Nicole. I didn’t know that whole foods did microfinance. This is wonderful to know.
Have a great weekend, Nicole! And stay warm. Heard you all got a lot of snow.
Hugs from Ecuador,
Kathy