Nicole H. Tyson

Shhhh…I’ve got a secret. Have you heard of Whole Foods Market? They have a Whole Kids Foundation whose ultimate goal is to end the childhood obesity epidemic. The Whole Kids Foundation is a part of Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools, an initiative to fund and grant 6000 salad bars to schools across the nation by 2013. $1.4 million was raised in 2010 through Whole Foods Market shoppers which enabled Whole Foods to award 564 salad bar grants. Because of the overwhelming response Whole Foods Market pledged an additional $1 million to the program. But who knew?

Although I’m not a frequent shopper at Whole Foods, I would definitely be a supporter of this program if I knew about it. Guess the marketing team is not doing a great job of marketing this program. Because I’ve never seen a commercial for Whole Foods Market, I wouldn’t expect that this would have a full blown marketing campaign, but come on! I know $1.4 million is a lot in one year from a customer base with very little or no advertising, but think of how much more in funds could be raised if there was some type of marketing campaign outside the four walls of the store. When I placed a call to my local Whole Foods Market to inquire about when this campaign is promoted, I was advised someone would have to call me back. I will update you on a response when or if I hear back.

In the meantime, having children in school and remembering what we were fed, would you support this program even if you are not a Whole Foods Market shopper?

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