Whole Story

Do you believe that small change can bring big change? We do!

Read on to find out how you can share your story in Whole Planet Foundation's Facebook essay contest for a chance to win a trip for two to India, courtesy of Intrepid Travel.

Whole Planet Foundation funds poverty alleviation through microcredit in the US and abroad. So far, we’ve supported more than a million people in changing their own lives. With your help during Whole Planet Foundation’s Annual Prosperity Campaign this year, we can empower a million more people to lift themselves out of poverty!

Now through March 31st, we hope that you will join fellow shoppers, team members, Supplier Alliance for Microcreditvendor partners and online donors in raising $4.1 million to help impoverished people living in communities around the globe where Whole Foods Market® sources products.

The foundation was born out of Whole Foods Market's desire to give something back to those who have helped us succeed while focusing on the persistent problem of world poverty and hunger.

With your help, we empower the very poor with microcredit loans to create or expand home-based businesses, such as small-scale farming, food carts and raising livestock, providing an opportunity to lift themselves and their family out of poverty in a sustainable way.

Microcredit loans are small, usually $300 or less, and require no collateral or contract. Providing impoverished women access to this type of credit enables them to escape the vicious cycle of poverty by using their own energy and creativity to help themselves.

Whole Planet Foundation currently funds microcredit for 200,000 clients (92% of them women) with a repayment rate of 97%! Including the families of our borrowers, we are supporting more than a million people with $17 million disbursed through trusted microfinance institution partners.

We support the very poor in 50 countries across Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

What makes microcredit so amazing is the fact that the loans are repaid and reloaned again and again, and when you make a donation at the register at your local Whole Foods Market, 100% of your contribution benefits microcredit clients because Whole Foods Market covers all operating expenses for Whole Planet Foundation.

If you’re not near one of our stores, you can donate online or start your own campaign on Whole Planet Foundation’s website and spread awareness to your friends and family about how together we can help people change their own lives.  

Read the stories of women who have benefitted from this support. This year’s prosperity campaign focuses on how big change can come from small change. We’re giving you the chance to do something small that could turn into something big: share a small story in our Facebook essay contest and you might win a big trip to India!

From now until March 18^th, you can go to Whole Planet Foundation’s Facebook page for a chance to win a trip for two to India. (You’ll need to have your own Facebook account and “follow us” to enter.) You’ll be asked to write a short essay, no more than 350 words, describing how a small change you have made has had a big impact on the world around you.

Feel free to include links to web pages, Facebook pages or other online locations that help tell the story.

A group of finalists will be chosen by Facebook fans’ votes, and the Whole Planet Foundation team will select the final winners based on:

• 50% expression of the contest theme
• 20% creativity of the submission and clarity of the description of the entrant’s efforts
• 30% impact the entrant’s efforts had

For a full list of contest rules and criteria, visit the Whole Planet Foundation Facebook contest page. One lucky winner and his or her guest will travel to India to witness firsthand how access to microcredit has changed the lives of so many women, like Vanaja (pictured here), as well as visit the Kerala region where Whole Foods Market sources cashews.

We thank you for your support!