Whole Foods Market Team Members Vote on $552,350 in Foundation Funding
Earlier this year, over 36,000 Team Members across Whole Foods Market participated in the Foundation's annual Choice 4 Change (C4C) vote. Team Members used their voice to help the Foundation determine how to invest an additional $552,350 in food access programs. Each of the eligible organizations are existing partners that the Foundation Team identified as strong candidates for additional funding. Now, we are happy to announce this year's Choice 4 Change partners who will help to increase the number of salad bars in schools, support smallholder farmers, and amplify the efforts of healthy nonprofit food retailers.
Chef Ann Foundation Salad Bar
Improving Children’s Nutrition
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$294,300
Chef Ann Foundation’s goal is for every school in the United States to have a salad bar as part of their school food service program so that every child—from elementary school to high school—has daily access to fresh, healthy food. CAF will use their Choice 4 Change award to give 134 salad bars to 58 schools from their waiting list.
Regional Environmental Council’s Mobile Farmers Market
Expanding Healthy Food Access
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$50,000
Regional Environmental Council (REC) is a grassroots food justice organization that was founded in 1971 and has been dedicated to building healthy, sustainable and just communities in Worcester, MA for more than 50 years. They will use their Choice 4 Change funds to support continued operations and expand efforts to increase food access through their Mobile Farmers Markets. Funding will also support increased outreach and access points for community members to use the Healthy Incentives Program (HIP) leading to an increase in overall community food security.
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$50,000
Fresh Truck has been a trusted source of fresh food in Boston since 2013, providing a reliable and dignified shopping experience for communities that lack access to affordable, quality produce. The Foundation’s Choice 4 Change Funding will be used to support Fresh Truck’s ongoing efforts to deliver fresh, quality, and culturally relevant produce weekly to 18+ communities with limited access and high rates of food insecurity and to meet increased demand at its current locations and expansion to two new locations.
Environomica Seedlings
Alleviating Global Poverty
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$52,770
AMAATI is a Ghanaian social enterprise that works with farmers, mostly women, in producing and processing Fonio. AMAATI’s services provide a path out of poverty and inequality by providing skills training and income generation to women in the Northern region of Ghana. Choice 4 Change funding will allow AMAATI to organize 100 Village Savings and Loans groups with the smallholder women farmers it works with, who will meet regularly to save money and take loans from the seed capital provided through this project.
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$52,600
Environomica is a nonprofit that provides agroforestry kits (which include farming tools, seedlings, and irrigation systems), technical assistance, result-based payments, and market access to indigenous communities living in the forests of Colombia’s Sierra Nevada mountains. Environomica will expand its core agroforestry program by engaging more families to plant 15,000 native fruit and timber trees, with the aim of enhancing their food security.
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$52,680
Kula Project is a non-profit that works with coffee communities in Rwanda. Kula runs a 12-month poverty graduation fellowship that joins regenerative agriculture support with entrepreneurial development and business coaching, empowering coffee farmers to increase their household income and move out of extreme poverty. Kula will use the Choice 4 Change Award to provide coffee farmers with in-depth agronomy training using a regenerative approach hands-on business coaching to identify new business opportunities, and supporting trials of organic pesticides.