As a human rights organization first and foremost, we’re committed to fighting for the most basic human right— access to enough food & nutrients to grow and thrive.

Systemic racism is a root cause of hunger and food insecurity. In 2020, according to Feeding America, nearly 22% of the Black community may have experienced food insecurity. That staggering number includes one in four Black children.

Last June, amid a humbling and long-awaited national reckoning around racial injustice, we announced our three first actions as part of our broader commitment to antiracism. Now, one year later, we’re revisiting these commitments, as well as other actions we’ve taken as a company to dive deeper into anti-racist work, support marginalized communities, and prioritize difficult conversations.

We’re endlessly proud of our team, this community, and all that we have accomplished by working together, but this is still only the beginning. There’s so much more good (and more work) to be done.

Read our statement from June 2020 and revisit our first three actions here.

Our Actions & Updates

Since June of 2020, we’ve prioritized important work to further root ourselves in our brand values and examine the undeniable links between our mission of fighting childhood hunger and systemic racism. By examining and acknowledging these deep-rooted links, we can make a bigger impact in the fight against hunger and a bigger impact overall, in ways that extend beyond providing school meals.

• Through a direct donation from FEED, as well as donations from our Black Women in History Tote, and donations at checkout, we were able to donate $10,000 to the NAACP to support their work.
• As part of our ongoing commitment to this antiracist work – and to celebrating the Black community – we are bringing back the Black Women in History Tote as part of our evergreen collection. Every tote sold will make a $5 donation to the NAACP.
• Amid the crippling COVID surge in India, resulting in a dramatic increase in hunger and food insecurity, this community helped provide over $3,000 to support GiveIndia.
• To support the Asian American community amid an increase in racism and targeted attacks, we were able to donate nearly $1,500 to the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, thanks to donations at checkout and a FEED 48 hr match.
• We partnered with Every Mother Counts to create a limited-edition collection of totes supporting their work to make pregnancy & childbirth safe for every mother, donating over $1,000. This work has a particular impact on women of color, as Black and Indigenous women in the U.S. are two to three times more likely to die from pregnancy and childbirth than white women.

Over the past year, FEED’s entire team has prioritized making space for open, honest, and at times, difficult, conversations through training, education, and the sharing of resources.

• To guide this process and ensure it was educational, structured, and provided the opportunity to dive deep into implicit bias, diversity, non-discrimination, and antiracism we all participated in a DEIA training over the course of several months, led by a DEIA Consultant and Organizational Development Practitioner with a PH.D in Social-Organizational Philosophy.
• Coming out of this training, FEED is now developing a road map for its DEIA organizational strategy, which includes hiring, conflict resolution, and continued learning and conversation.

It is incredibly important to us to not only give back to and support marginalized communities, but to ensure that our visuals, models, representatives, and spokespeople are diverse and reflect our values. In June of 2020, we made some specific commitments to continue to do so – and to do even more and even better.

• We committed to hiring 50% BIPOC models. Since last June, 64% of the models we hired were BIPOC.
• After formally launching our Ambassador Program last June, we now have vibrant, kind, and driven brand ambassadors that are 65% BIPOC. We commit to maintaining at least 50% BIPOC ambassadors moving forward.
• We plan to do more to spotlight the BIPOC community and share the voices and perspectives of women of color in our community. We’re actively working on ways to do so – stay tuned for more.

Last year we committed to the 15% Pledge for the FEED Shop & Cafe for our FEED Finds (third-party curated goods that do good). Currently, we have 15.38% FEED Finds in stock from black-owned businesses.

• One of the largest ways we are able to support marginalized communities is through our incredible giving partners. No Kid Hungry, our domestic giving partner, is particularly attune to the systemic injustices that see Black families disproportionately impacted by poverty and childhood hunger. During the pandemic, to combat the rise in hunger and food insecurity, particularly in communities of color, two thirds of their grants were given to schools and organizations supporting these communities.
• We recently added a third giving partner to reach one of the largest global populations, home to over 15% of the world’s undernourished population. Thanks to Akshaya Patra, the largest provider of the midday meal, every FEED purchase now reaches kids in need in India.
• We have long standing relationships with artisan collectives, but in recent years have been increasing the percentage of our production done by artisans, supporting the livelihoods of artisan makers (many of them female), their families, and their communities in India. This year, over 65% of our assortment will be artisan made.