Whole Planet Foundation®
Whole Planet Foundation's mission is poverty alleviation in developing-world communities where Whole Foods Market® sources products. Through microcredit, we seek to unleash the energy and creativity of every human being we work with in order to create wealth and prosperity in emerging economies. Whole Planet Foundation® partners with microfinance institutions in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Learn more at www.wholeplanetfoundation.org.
Download for a Difference
Musicians for Microcredit™ is an initiative started by Whole Planet Foundation in 2011 as a way to engage the music community and its fans to raise awareness and funds. From digital album and track downloads to in-store performances and benefit concerts, we seek to partner with like-minded musicians and organizations to empower women around the world to change their own lives.
Through partnership with Inspire and Four Winds Trading Company, Whole Planet Foundation recently launched Download for a Difference, a digital download initiative that supports our mission through tracks from today's leading artists. $5 gives you access to tracks from Bonnie Raitt, The Civil Wars, The Alabama Shakes, Ingrid Michaelson, Andrew Bird, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, Matt Costa, Josie Dunne, Josh Ritter, Tim Hanaeur, Phox, Tyrone Wells, Katie Herzig, Wye Oak, OK Sweetheart, Deer Tick, Ivan & Alyosha and Foreign Fields.
Beehive Cheese
In 2005, brothers-in-law, Tim Welsh and Pat Ford, left the fast-paced world of software and real estate seeking a more simple way of life as artisan cheese makers. They traded in their grinding traffic commute for quiet mornings sitting with 500 gallons of farm-fresh milk. They gave up briefcases and laptops for the romance of making hand-crafted cheese: hours spent mixing and warming milk, feeling it thicken and envelope the room with the sweet smell of custard. Days spent following natural rhythms: waking before dawn to welcome new milk and feeling the tired ache of sore muscles at day’s end and months waiting with an artisan’s patience for their cheeses to ripen to perfection. Instead of creating a piece of software or a well-crafted contract, Tim and Pat now turn-out delicious hand-made cheeses they can savor and share with neighbors and cheese-lovers all over. Tim and Pat wanted to bring back the local creamery, so with help from the agricultural school at Utah State University, they opened shop in 2005. Beehive Cheese is among only a few artisan cheese makers in Utah.
From June through December 2013, Beehive Cheese is donating $0.25 for every pound of TeaHive sold in Whole Foods Market Utah stores to Whole Planet Foundation to support our poverty alleviation efforts around the glob. Released in 2011, TeaHive cheddar is a “feel good” cheese that is hand-rubbed with black tea and bergamot, the characteristic flavor in Earl Grey tea. The cheese has a bright aroma of citrus, and the flavor is sweet and balanced. Besides helping to give opportunity around the globe through the Whole Foods Market scanback program, Beehive TeaHive cheese is best in class for winning 1st place at the 2012 American Cheese Society competition! This will be our second ever cheese supplier partnership program, and we are so excited to be working with this special artisan cheese company to empower women around the world to change their own lives.
Team Member Spotlight: Lisa
Lisa has been super successful in raising full loans for Whole Planet Foundation during our 2013 Annual Prosperity Campaign. Here is what she had to say about her last day of collecting donations:
"Literally in the final hour yesterday, 2 of my friends who are regular WFM customers that I've been speaking with since our campaign began, shopped for their groceries and each donated a full loan. It totally blew me away.
Plus my online page brought in 2 full loans of $164 plus some more, totaling $358.
I believe my count of full loans donated is 10 plus the 6 matching ones, totaling 16 full loans and somewhere upwards of $5000 raised.
Having this be my focus, to have the opportunity to make a difference in peoples lives, both on the receiving side and the giving side of our customers and [WFM] Team Members, has inspired and touched me in ways I cannot really express fully in words right now. Definitely my experience of life has dramatically been impacted being part of the Whole Planet Foundation's fundraising campaign."
Thank you Lisa!
Learn more about why Whole Foods Market Team Members support Whole Planet Foundation.
Sharing the story of microcredit through food
Indonesian-Style Fish with Tamarind-Turmeric Sauce
Tamarind and turmeric give a warm, tangy flavor, and coconut milk adds richness to this vibrant sauce for fish. This recipe Inspired by microentrepreneur Zubaidah, a small restaurant owner from Indonesia and a client of our partner Komida.
