Guest Blog Post by Lauren Walters and Will Hauser, co-founders, Two Degrees Food, San Francisco, CA
Note: This is the first in a new series of blog post I wil feature on social entrepreneurs in the field. I hope you find their stories inspiring, helpful and proof that we can build a better world through better business.
These are exciting times for social entrepreneurs. We’re witnessing a welcomed broadening of the criteria for true business success, which encourages the sustained wellbeing of employees, shareholders and the world at large.
We founded Two Degrees Food in 2009 to be part of that movement. Our goal? To help the feed the world’s 200 million hungry children. It’s a big goal, yet also concrete, and the more we learned about global hunger, the more we knew we had to try.
Our strategy: start the first ‘one-for-one’ food company. For every Two Degrees snack bar YOU BUY, WE GIVE a meal to a hungry child. The meals are made possible through our highly respected, global non-profit partners, such as Partners in Health, Valid Nutrition, the Akshaya Patra Foundation, Relief International, IMA World Health and Action Against Hunger. In 2011, our first year on store shelves, we sold 250,000 bars. That number means that you, the customers, gave 250,000 meals to hungry children all over the world. In 2012, our goal is to give two million meals.
We plan to expand our food offerings, beyond our snack bar, to increase our reach and impact. We’ll reach new customers, give more meals, and we think our current customers will stick with us as we grow. Research–and experience–shows that consumers want to make an impact with their dollars, and will consistently choose to purchase products with positive social impact over products without. What a wonderful thing: people want to help. And we want to be part of it.
The ‘buy one, give one’ model is strong. We want to prove JUST how strong it can be.