Whole Planet Foundation 2012 Annual Prosperity Campaign

Be Green Packaging is a proud supporter of the Whole Planet Foundation. The Foundation helps women worldwide lift themselves out of poverty by offering microcredit loans to help fund businesses and community projects.

By Lauren Evans

Do you believe that small change can bring big change? We do! Read on to find out how you can share your story in our Facebook essay contest for a chance to win a trip for two to India, courtesy of Intrepid Travel.

So far, we’ve supported more than a million people in 50 countries in changing their own lives. Did you know that we fund projects right here in the United States? Watch how Whole Planet Foundation’s partner Grameen America puts microcredit into action. Grameen America, a nonprofit microfinance organization, follows the successful model of Nobel  Laureate  Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank.  To date, they have reached over 8,500 low-income borrowers across New York City, Omaha NE and Indianapolis, IN.  We can’t wait to watch them grow!

With your help during our Annual Prosperity Campaign this year, we can empower a million more people to lift themselves out of poverty! Now through March 31st, we hope that you will join fellow Whole Foods Market® shoppers, team members, Supplier Alliance for Microcredit partners and online donors in raising $4.1 million to help impoverished people living in communities around the globe where Whole Foods Market sources products.

With your help, we empower the very poor with microcredit loans to create or expand home-based businesses, such as small-scale farming, food carts and raising livestock, providing an opportunity to lift themselves and their family out of poverty in a sustainable way. Microcredit loans are small, usually $300 or less, and require no collateral or contract. Providing impoverished women access to this type of credit enables them to escape the vicious cycle of poverty by using their own energy and creativity to help themselves.

What makes microcredit so amazing is the fact that the loans are repaid and reloaned again and again, and when you make a donation, 100% of your contribution benefits microcredit clients because Whole Foods Market covers all operating expenses for Whole Planet Foundation. If you’re not near one of our stores, you can donate online or start your own campaign on Whole Planet Foundation’s website and spread awareness to your friends and family about how together we can help people change their own lives.  Read the stories of women who have benefitted from this support.

This year’s prosperity campaign focuses on how big change can come from small change. We’re giving you the chance to do something small that could turn into something big: share a small story in our Facebook essay contest and you might win a big trip to India! From now until March 18th, you can go to our Facebook page for a chance to win a trip for two to India. (You’ll need to have your own Facebook account and “like us” to enter.) You’ll be asked to write a short essay, no more than 350 words, describing how a small change you have made has had a big impact on the world around you. Feel free to include links to web pages, Facebook pages or other online locations that help tell the story. And what’s really cool is that I will get to join you on your trip to help connect you personally to the women you support!

A group of finalists will be chosen by Facebook fans’ votes, and the Whole Planet Foundation team will select the final winners. For a full list of contest rules and criteria, visit the Whole Planet Foundation Facebook contest page.

One lucky winner and his or her guest will travel to India (with me!) to witness firsthand how microcredit has changed the lives of so many women, like Vanaja (pictured here), as well as learn about the Kerala region where Whole Foods Market sources cashews.

We thank you for your support!