Organic Cotton FEED 100 Bags
June 3, 2008 by Peggy
FEED 100 Bag is a great concept: For $29.99 you get an organic cotton reusable bag, and a full $10 of the purchase price is used to feed 100 children in Rwanda a school lunch through the UN World Food Program. The bags are sold elusively at Whole Foods.
Want to see a video of the bag with Lauren Bush and Ellen Gustafson (pictured right), partners in the FEED 100 Bag project? Then, go to ecorazzi!
Some info on the FEED 100 Bag:
•Organic cotton with three pockets inside
•Comes folded up in a burlap “purse” with a zipper closure
•Once unzipped, the burlap serves as a sturdy bottom for the bag
•Easy to fold back up for storage
Why is this bag important? A meal provided at school is often the only meal a child in Rwanda may receive all day. Some children in Rwanda eat mud mixed with sugar to help curb hunger.
Watch the FEED 100 video below for more details:
Image of Lauren and Ellen from Newscom. Used with permission.
What a great cause, looks like I’ll be getting another canvas bag! I just recently bought one from a local nonprofit, Africa Bags who are doing similar work in Malawi. Check out their website: africabags.org. I like the one with the 3 women walking to market. I’m off to Whole Paycheck on my bike.
I like the Feed bags, but they’re kind of spendy for a grocery bag, and I don’t like them enough for a dream bag, so… I guess that’s where I’m at with them. Although, I do like the story behind it.
Diana, Glad you like them.
Jennifer, I think if you take off the donation part, $10, then $20 isn’t so bad for an organic bag that has pockets inside and folds up to a zipper pouch. It’s meant to be used as a fashion tote as well as a grocery bag, so I can see how it might be a expensive if you just want to use it for groceries.
Ah, yeah, as a tote, not bad. I wouldn’t use it for that though. So, there’s my issue. I’m more of a cuter, hippie-like tote girl. I’d only use this one for groceries.
I don’t know, I have to admit the display for these at Whole Foods put me off a little bit. The huge “FEED 100″ printed on it, and the copy about it being the “hot, new accessory” of the season just felt ostentatious in a way I’m not very comfortable with. It’s great to spread the word, but there was a certain “check out how ethical I am” vibe that didn’t sit right with me. I’d gladly donate 30 bucks to the cause and skip the bag though.
Hi Liz. I think the bags are supposed to look like UN food bags, hence the big type. Maybe they were thinking if they made the bags seem like a hot fashion accessory more people would be interested. I’m not sure.
Peggy:
Yeah, I recognized the UN food bag look, which was a cute reference, and they’re almost certainly right about making it fashionable. Green shopping bags and donating to charity absolutely should be hot fashion accessories, and if it encourages people to buy it, that’s great, but for me it just felt too much like the socially-conscious equivalent of Juicy Couture, where the important thing was the label. It’s unreasonable perhaps, but in my area there’s a lot of ostentatious displays of eco and socially conscious behavior, and it gets a little tiresome after a while.
Mud cookies are a “staple” in Haiti right now. A google image search for “mud cookie” reveals a shocking glimpse.
When I first saw this post, I was tempted to get a FEED 100 bag, but after thinking about it, I came to my senses and said, “We don’t need another tote bag!” If my family can afford to give $30, why buy a tote bag with only $10 directly going to meet the needs of the poor?
The more I think about this, the more confused I get about the whole idea: are we so steeped in prosperity and consumerism that someone has to market the concept of humanitarian giving to us?
Katherine, you have a good point. If you don’t need another bag, why not donate the whole $30?
Does it take fashion accessories and models to draw attention to hungry children? I hope not, but we are a very consumer-driven, celeb-loving society. : (
Whole Foods does seem to be concerned about charity though. If you take your own bags, you will receive wooden nickels that you can deposit in the container for the charity of your choice as you leave the store.