Whole Story

Our annual Whole Planet Foundation 2012 Prosperity Campaign runs for just two more weeks, and we hope you’ll join us in the home stretch to reach our goal of $4.1 million!

Thanks to your generosity along with major support from our vendor partners and team members, $4 million has been donated so far!  That’s enough for 26,845 microloans! These microloans will support 158,389 people with a chance to lift themselves out of poverty.

Like microcredit, where small loans empower women to start or expand home-based businesses, our annual Prosperity Campaign empowers Whole Foods Market® team members to harness their creative energy to help reach their store’s fundraising goals.

Whether it’s through creating larger-than-life in-store displays, hosting community fundraising events or creating email campaigns, our stores and facilities truly go above and beyond to raise awareness and funds for Whole Planet Foundation.

Here’s a quick look at some of the amazing fundraising happening in our stores!

• The Chattanooga store built an amazing display (show on the right) to promote the Supplier Alliance for Microcredit.

• The Roseville store in Northern California has a display that depicts the life of one of our recipients before she received support from Whole Planet Foundation, through the lending process, to what her life is like now that she is a microloan recipient.  Store Team Leader Marty Jenkins said, “We wanted to create something that was going to be a conversation starter. I couldn’t be more proud of my team and their efforts to support this amazing program.”

• Our Oklahoma City store partnered with a local TV station to showcase some of our borrower-inspired recipes, including South African Pickled Mango.

• In Dallas, the Lakewood store Team Members raised money through pint glass sales at their in-store bar.

• The stores in the Denver metro area came together to host their first annual Bowl for a Cause fundraiser. The teams competed on the lanes and raised $870.

• The Montclair store in New Jersey organized an art auction with all art pieces donated from team members around the region. They raised $1,400 for Whole Planet Foundation and also invited our microlending partner, Grameen America, to be a part of the event and to speak on the foundation’s behalf.  Check out this video to see Grameen America’s US projects in action.

• Our Los Angeles area stores hosted the first ever Beer Festival to Benefit Whole Planet Foundation at Golden Road Brewing. The 250 people in attendance sampled beer, took a tour of the facilities and learned about home brewing. The event was a smashing success and raised $4,337. Golden Road owner Meg Gill is the youngest female craft brewer owner in the world, and her support through this event will give thousands of women across the world the opportunity to realize their own dreams of starting a business.

• In Scotland, Team Giffnock is riding a bicycle to Ghana, virtually. That’s 4,600 virtual miles and they’re raising money all along the way. Check out this video they made to explain the challenge.

• Our store’s support facilities are also really engaged in fundraising.  In fact, the highest grossing Whole Planet Foundation event to date happened at our Rocky Mountain regional office, where they raised $7,428 through a silent auction of goods donated by local and national supplier partners.

As you can tell, we’re so proud of the work of all of our supporters. A huge thanks to the Whole Foods Market team members, customers and supplier partners that help us help a million more people to change their own lives!

It’s really easy to donate at the registers in our stores or you can donate online.

You can even start your own campaign on our website or through our partnership with Rally. Now, let’s keep going and make it to $4.1 million!