An Entrepreneur With A Social Conscience
You've probably seen the now-iconic totes and "FEED"-stamped T-shirts. "I founded FEED initially to help provide school meals for children in need in 62 countries around the world—places I'd visited as an honorary spokesperson for the United Nations World Food Programme in college," says Lauren. Every purchase provides a specific meal donation, and since its inception, the social business has donated nearly 60 million school meals to children globally.
"While I was focused on hunger internationally, I knew hunger was a significant problem in the U.S.," says Lauren. The need became too great to ignore, and after five years of feeding mostly abroad, she wanted to do something to support her neighbors. This summer, Lauren launched a new line of FEED apparel, accessories, and housewares in an exclusive partnership with Target. The goal: Provide 10 million meals to Americans in need via Feeding America, the country's largest hunger-relief organization.
"This is a solvable issue," says Lauren. And you can be part of the solution: Women's Health and The FEED Foundation have joined forces. Find out more here.
A Grocer For The Greater Good
Carrie Ferrence's first retail space, Stockbox Neighborhood Grocery, was just 160 square feet, the size of a small shipping container. Which, incidentally, it was. "I created a business model in which grocery stores could be set up inside abandoned shipping containers so they could be easily placed wherever there was a need," says Carrie. "The idea was that you don't need a lot of space or resources in order to offer a community fresh, healthy food choices."
The model, which she developed as part of her MBA project on building sustainable communities, also turned out to be an ideal solution for one of Washington State's largest food deserts. "We launched our store in 2011, in the South Park area of Seattle, knowing that this was a community cut off from the rest of the city," says Carrie. "The neighborhood is accessible only by bridge, and it has a small population, so other stores didn't want to come here. We were able to offer a range of fresh produce to residents who didn't have convenient access to it."
Carrie has since expanded to a 500-square-foot storefront model—still no match for the 30,000-square-foot supermarkets, but spacious enough to accommodate an increase in inventory without sacrificing quality.
This summer, Carrie and her business partner Jacqueline Gjurgevich opened a second store in Seattle's First Hill neighborhood, also in King County. The densely populated, heavily walk-dependent neighborhood, which includes public housing projects as well as high-income developments, has been without a grocery store for more than two years.
Within the next three years, Carrie hopes to add another store in California and to expand nationally soon after.
"Our motto is simple," she says. "'Where neighbors and good food meet.'"
Putting A Face On The Problem
Lori Silverbush knew a bit about the hunger problem in New York City. Her husband, chef and TV personality Tom Colicchio, had been fund-raising for hunger charities for years. But it was the filmmaker's volunteer experience as a mentor for a young inner-city girl that really opened her eyes.
"She was struggling," says Lori. "She had problems with her health, and there were huge gaps in her learning." After Lori helped the girl get into a small private school that catered to kids with learning issues, she got a call. "They found her foraging for food in a trash can outside the building," she recalls. "I had unknowingly cut her off from the free public-school breakfast and lunch that I later learned had been her only meals of the day."
Lori began researching the issue of hunger in the U.S., and the more she learned, the more concerned she grew. "I started thinking, For all the money we're raising in philanthropy to solve the problem, hunger keeps getting worse." It was time to step it up a notch.
Idea in hand, Lori reached out to documentary filmmaker Kristi Jacobson, and the two women began filming A Place at the Table, which chronicles the lives of food-insecure families across America. "You might not have hunger in your home, but if you scratch the surface in any community, you will find families suffering from hunger," says Lori.
The documentary, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, has taken on a life of its own: Groups around the country are holding screenings in their local community centers and churches to raise awareness about hunger. "We've been approached by people volunteering at food banks who are frustrated and desperate," says Lori. "They say, 'We can't keep up with the demand.' So we feel change begins with people understanding that there's a real crisis here."
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What It's Like to Be Stranded in a Food Desert
How to Fight Food Waste
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