Partnering with Whole Foods – Day Two

By Donna Khalife

Our second day at Whole Foods was great! The store’s Marketing Manager was kind enough to set us up in a perfect location where customers first walk into the store. We had trouble attracting passersby at first, but thanks to some free bags of chips (from Whole Foods), people were practically standing in line to chat with us! I learned a very valuable lesson for those involved in social work: enticing people to hear about your cause is much easier if you offer them free food… It’s a lesson I knew would work on teenagers, but it is apparently equally effective on adults! I think it’s important for non-profit organizations to acknowledge these seemingly obvious challenges and find creative ways to attract the weary public, rather than feel rejected and give up. Our goal for the day was simply to build awareness about Grameen America and inform customers about tomorrow’s fundraising event. We stapled to the bag of chips a one-page summary about our organization, highlighting some stats and stories of our borrowers, and a small flyer describing the events for tomorrow’s 2-yr anniversary of the Whole Foods store in Tribeca. The technique worked out perfectly! People could read all about us at their leisure while enjoying their afternoon snack. I even found myself re-reading our one-page summary later that day when I opened my own bag of free chips!