AUSTIN, Texas (Dec. 19, 2012) – Whole Foods Market has teamed up with long-time vendor partner, Nature’s Path to introduce two new, exclusive mueslis that not only help shoppers kick-start the day, but also help fund poverty alleviation and women’s empowerment worldwide through its Whole Planet Foundation.
The products include Nature’s Path’s organic and Non-GMO Project-Verified Heritage Mueslis which are packed with nutritious ancient grains and available in two delicious flavors – Raspberry Hazelnut and Wild Blueberry Almond. For every box sold, Nature’s Path will donate 2 percent of the retail price (up to $20,000) to nonprofit Whole Planet Foundation to fight poverty. Through grants to microfinance partners like BRAC and Pro Mujer, the foundation alleviates poverty in communities worldwide where Whole Foods Market sources products. Since its inception, Whole Planet Foundation has committed more than $34 million and disbursed more than $22 million in the U.S. and 53 other countries.
To bring Whole Planet Foundation’s impact to life for shoppers, Nature’s Path is also spotlighting the stories of women entrepreneurs who have changed their own lives through microcredit on the back of each box.
“Nature’s Path has really given Whole Foods Market shoppers an opportunity to not only give back, but see how microcredit loans as small as $200 can empower the poor to create or expand home-based businesses for the chance to lift themselves and their families out of poverty,” said Philip Sansone, president and executive director for Whole Planet Foundation. “We’re excited to also feature two of our amazing microfinance partners who receive our grants and then create loans to alleviate poverty through microcredit.”
The microcredit clients and partners featured on the back of the muesli boxes include:
- Thusitha, a microentrepreneur who used her microloan to support her business as a tailor, designer and painter. Thusitha is a client of Whole Planet Foundation’s microlending partner BRAC, the largest development operation in the world. The foundation currently supports BRAC’s microlending programs in five countries: Uganda, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. BRAC's partnership with the foundation has enabled it to deepen its commitment to entrepreneurship in developing nations by providing microloans tailored for adolescent girls. In Uganda, for instance, BRAC is now able to provide loans to 15,300 new adolescent borrowers over the next three years due to the foundation's support.
- Luisa, a microentrepreneur who used her small loans to produce artisan goods using fiber from the manguey plant. Luisa is a Pro Mujer client, which is one of Whole Planet Foundation’s partners in five Latin America countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru. Pro Mujer provides hardworking women like Luisa with the means to build livelihoods for themselves and futures for their families through smalls loans, savings and insurance, business and empowerment training and high-quality, low-cost primary healthcare. Currently, the organization serves more than 260,000 women and their one million children and extended family members. In addition to financial and educational services, Pro Mujer helps prevent and diagnose health problems through its in-center and mobile clinics to ensure that clients have immediate access to care when they need it.
The two new flavors of Nature’s Path’s Heritage Muesli will be available nationwide at Whole Foods Market for $4.69 a box while supplies last. For more information about Nature’s Path, visit: www.naturespath.com.
For more information about Whole Planet Foundation and the nonprofits microlending partners, or for more client stories, visit www.wholeplanetfoundation.org.
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About Whole Planet Foundation®
Founded in 2005, Whole Planet Foundation is a Whole Foods Market foundation that funds poverty alleviation worldwide where the company sources products. The nonprofit’s mission is to empower the poor living in developing-world communities with microcredit and the chance to create or expand a home-based business and lift themselves and their families out of poverty. As of December 2012, Whole Planet Foundation is funding microlending programs through microfinance institution partners in 54 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the U.S., supporting over one million people with a chance for a better life. To date, the nonprofit has authorized more than $34.5 million and disbursed more than $22 million through microlending partners worldwide. Learn more and donate online at wholeplanetfoundation.org.
About Nature’s Path
Founded in 1985, Nature’s Path Organic Foods is headquartered in Richmond, British Columbia and employs more than 350 people at its four facilities in Canada and the United States. The privately held, family-owned company produces breakfast foods and snacks sold in specialty foods stores and retailers in 40 countries around the world. The company’s innovative brands include Nature’s Path®, Flax Plus, EnviroKidz®, Love Crunch, Optimum® Qi’a, and Que Pasa. Visit Nature’s Path online at www.naturespath.com and www.facebook.com/naturespath. For the latest news and updates, follow us on twitter: @naturespath and @envirokidz.
About BRAC
BRAC is a development success story, spreading solutions born in Bangladesh to 10 other countries around the world – a global leader in creating opportunity for the world’s poor. What started out as a limited relief operation in 1972 in a remote village of Bangladesh, has turned into the largest development organization in the world. Organizing the poor using communities’ own human and material resources, it catalyses lasting change, creating an ecosystem in which the poor have the chance to seize control of their own lives. We do this with a holistic development approach geared toward inclusion, using tools like microfinance, education, healthcare, legal services, community empowerment and more. Our work now touches the lives of an estimated 126 million people, with staff and BRAC-trained entrepreneurs numbering in the hundreds of thousands, a global movement bringing change to 10 countries in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, with operations in our 11th country, the Philippines, being launched in 2012.
About Pro Mujer
Founded in Bolivia in 1990, Pro Mujer also operates in Argentina, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru and is headquartered in New York City. Over the past 22 years, Pro Mujer has disbursed more than US$1 billion in small loans and reached more than 1.6 million women and their 6.4 million children and family members with its integrated services. For more information, please visit www.promujer.org or join the conversation and subscribe to our blog, “Like” us on Facebook or “Follow Us” on Twitter. Pro Mujer is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt, nonprofit organization.
