Whole Foods Market Helps Nonprofits Promote Nutrition Locally and Globally
Many companies make it a priority to use the success of their brand to give back to those in need. When it comes to giving back, Whole Foods Market goes above and beyond, with a multitude of programs in place to help nonprofits, children and food producers on both a local and global scale.
Through the company’s three foundations, Whole Foods Market has committed more than $50 million to local and global communities since 2005,” according to their website.
We’re highlighting some of the strides Whole Foods Market is making in the hopes that it will inspire similar efforts. The company is a trailblazer in giving back. Other companies that do not have similar programs should consider following suit. If every company or business would take the time to make even the smallest changes to help benefit nonprofits and the work they are doing, the world could be a much better place.
Whole Foods Market’s Three Foundations
Whole Foods Market has three official nonprofit foundations that provide grant funds to help improve nutrition and healthy-eating in communities (to which individuals can also donate directly).
1. Whole Kids Foundation
This foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit focused on helping children learn about nutrition. Eventually, the goal is to get to the point where children would actually enjoy making better food choices. Whole Kids Foundation offers many grant funding opportunities, along with a website and blog where families and teachers can get healthy eating tips, resources and recipes.
Some of the grants this foundation offers are as follows:
School Garden Grant Program
According to the Whole Foods Market website, Whole Kids Foundation helps more than 2,000 school gardens with this grant program. The grants are for $3,000 for nonprofits and schools to turn outdoor spaces into ‘edible’ gardens or to help support existing educational gardens.
To be eligible, the garden must involve at least 10 children on a regular basis and edible plants must be grown in the garden.
A similar grant is currently listed on GrantWatch for schools to incorporate gardening and cooking ideas into K-8 school programming.
Get Schools Cooking Grant
This grant is available to medium-sized school districts that are eager to transform their school lunch programs to go from using processed foods to instead preparing ‘scratch-cooked’ meals. The program is worth around $250,000 per participating district. Applications will be accepted starting in early 2024.
GrantWatch.com lists similar grants for nutrition here.
Bee Grant Program
Another series of grant opportunities are available through the Whole Kids Foundation Bee Grants program. Grants in this program are for schools and nonprofits to teach children through educational programming about bees and their role as pollinators. It’s important for kids to know the ways in which bees are such a vital part of the food system. This program has three grant options:
- Monetary Grant: $1,500 monetary grant.
- Equipment Grant: Indoor Observation Hive.
- Equipment Grant: Traditional Langstroth (Honey-Comb) Hive.
The next Bee Grant cycle will open in September, 2023.
Salad Bar Grant
The Whole Foods Foundation also has In-kind grants for public and private schools to improve access to healthy and nutritious food. The purpose of this program is to promote the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables in schools by providing schools with salad bars.
These are only some of the grants available through the Whole Kids Foundation. For more information about other grants available, you can also visit this link.
2. Whole Cities Foundation
The Whole Cities Foundation is focused on making changes at the regional level. The foundation’s mission is to improve community health through education and additional programming.
The foundation was created in 2014. According to its website, it has partnered with more than 250 nonprofits across 130 cities in the United States and Canada since its inception and has helped raise more than $4 million for local communities.
Some of the projects spearheaded by the foundation include mobile markets, urban farms, cooking and wellness classes, and even community gardens.
3. Whole Planet Foundation
Unlike Whole Foods Market’s other two foundations, Whole Planet Foundation has a global-scale focus. The main mission of the foundation is to alleviate poverty around the world in countries where Whole Foods Market sources its products. The foundation does this by giving microcredit to people living in poverty in these areas to start or expand a home-based business and help improve their financial well-being.
According to the nonprofit’s website, the foundation has distributed more than six million microloans since its inception in 2005. 88% of their clients are women.
GrantWatch.com also lists similar grants for startups/entrepreneurs here.
Local Producer Loan Program (LPLP)
Whole Foods has also created the Local Producer Loan Program (LPLP). This program lends money to small-scale, local or emerging producers across the U.S. and Canada to help them grow their businesses. Whole Foods then works with these suppliers to arrange for their products to be sold in their stores.
This loan program has provided over 360 loans, according to the Whole Foods website.
GrantWatch.com lists similar grants for farming/agriculture here.
Overall, it is impressive to see the lengths Whole Foods – along with others – are going to give back to those in need. For those companies who have the resources to do so, more of them should make the effort to create and carry out a solid philanthropy plan. Though the end results are mainly of benefit to their community, in the long run, this could go a long way in positively making a difference in the world.
GrantNews Notes
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