Whether it’s donating one product for every product sold or donating a portion of profits, companies that aim to make a social impact have popped up for all types of businesses. TOMS shoes, Warby Parker glasses, Ark Collective school supplies, and many more. And while the buy one, give one model has been criticized, the prevalence of small businesses that set out on a mission to do good in the world has shed light on what consumers truly desire—and it allows us to take a closer look at brands who are doing it right, like The Soulfull Project.
The Soulfull Project not only provides nourishing food to those who purchase their products, but they also make donations to food banks to help those who are less fortunate. One-sixth of Americans don’t have enough food to eat, and The Soulfull Project aims to tackle this issue and promote healthy, wholesome eating for all. Chip Heim, Co-Founder and Head of Marketing, The Soulfull Project, sat down to chat more about how he runs a business with a buy one, give one model, how they stay connected to the community, and to help us understand why more and more consumers these days want to put their money towards something good.
Chip Heim: We are all about our mission: to provide good, wholesome food to those who need it most and inspire people to get involved in their own communities. We make it easy to make a difference. For every serving of our multigrain hot cereal you buy, we give a serving of our 4 grain blend to a food bank in your region. How great is it that you get to enjoy wholesome, amazing tasting food and someone in need gets to do the same? It’s that thought that inspires us every day. We launched in August 2016 at a handful of Wegmans stores in the Philadelphia area. The sales there benefitted our first three giving partners (Philabundance, Food Bank of South Jersey and Community Food Bank of NJ). We have already donated 42,000 servings, but we aren’t stopping there. We just expanded to 64 Wegmans stores up and down the East Coast including Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. As we grow, so does the number of giving partners we can help. We have begun partnering with more than 200 food banks across the country. We track our sales in each region and work with the food banks to determine how much and when to make our donations.
