Vancouver – Capers Whole Foods Market announced today the launch of the FEED 100 reusable shopping bag at locations across the Lower Mainland to help provide nutritious meals for school children. Designed exclusively for Capers Whole Foods Market by Lauren Bush – former fashion model and niece of President George W. Bush – each purchase of a FEED 100 bag provides 100 healthy school meals for children in Rwanda through the FEED Projects’ FEED Foundation and the UN’s World Food Programme.
“By partnering with FEED Projects and the World Food Programme, we are helping to make a direct impact on the lives of children in need,” said Vicki Foley, PR Specialist for Capers Whole Foods Market. “Not only does this project help encourage environmental conservation with reusable shopping bags, but it also helps raise awareness about the very immediate issue of world hunger and how we can each do a small part to alleviate this widespread problem.”
The FEED 100 bag, which will retail for $29.99, is made from 100 per cent organic cotton and sustainable burlap. With each purchase, $10 will be donated directly by the FEED Projects’ FEED Foundation to the World Food Programme’s Rwanda School Feeding operation. Capers Whole Foods Market will not profit from the sale of the bags.
“The FEED 100 bag was created as a way to address child hunger and help the planet at the same time,” said Bush. “Capers Whole Foods Market’s commitment to care for the planet by encouraging reusable shopping bags makes it the perfect place to introduce the FEED 100 bag, which will enable the World Food Programme to provide millions of school meals to the children of Rwanda.”
FEED Projects was founded by Bush and former World Food Programme Communications Officer Ellen Gustafson.
“Each bag will give 100 full bellies to school children, encouraging education and leading to brighter futures for kids in Rwanda,” said Gustafson, executive vice-president of FEED Projects. “Along with Capers Whole Foods Market, our goal is to support the entire Rwanda School Feeding program for all of 2008, and we are well on our way as the first order of bags alone will provide more than 42 million nutritious meals at no cost to the families.”
About FEED Projects FEED Projects was started in 2006, when Lauren Bush, former fashion model and niece of President George W. Bush, designed a bag to benefit the UN World Food Programme’s School Feeding operations. Lauren teamed up with former World Food Programme Communications Officer Ellen Gustafson to launch a socially minded business with the hopes of feeding the world. Each FEED bag sold feeds children around the world in their schools. Hunger and malnutrition kill more people than AIDS, malaria, and TB combined. In fact, every five seconds a child dies because he or she is hungry. For hungry children, school is not even an option. FEED bags raise awareness about child hunger while giving an education, a full belly, and a brighter future to one hungry child at a time.
About Whole Foods Market® Founded in 1980 in Austin, Texas, Whole Foods Market (www.wholefoodsmarket.com) is the world’s leading natural and organic foods supermarket and America’s first national certified organic grocer. In fiscal year 2007, the company had sales of $6.6 billion and currently has more than 270 stores in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The Whole Foods Market motto, “Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet”™ captures the company’s mission to find success in customer satisfaction and wellness, employee excellence and happiness, enhanced shareholder value, community support and environmental improvement. Whole Foods Market, Fresh & WildTM, and Harry’s Farmers Market® are trademarks owned by Whole Foods Market IP, LP. Wild Oats® and Capers Community MarketTM are trademarks owned by Wild Marks, Inc. Whole Foods Market employs more than 53,000 Team Members and has been ranked for 11 consecutive years as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” in America by FORTUNE magazine.
About The United Nations World Food Program The World Food Programme is the world's largest humanitarian agency, feeding 88 million people in 78 countries around the world. Hunger and poverty still claim 25,000 lives every day, and 400 million kids go to bed hungry every night. World Food Programme's innovative food aid projects, including School Feeding, help the poor break out of the poverty trap and build a sustainable future.
