SpecialtyFood.com

By Dennis Marrero

A bakery president bikes 1,500 miles to raise awareness for homelessness. A coffee company gives 400 goats to Rwandan farmers and supports a center for grieving children. What these companies and three others have in common is a desire to do more than simply create or sell great products—they each want to change the world just one little bit. Read on to learn their stories and discover ways you too can help.

The specialty food world has long been filled with motivated people whose passions extend far beyond the products they make and sell. Whether supporting food banks, the arts, environmental sustainability or other critical issues, our industry contributes to important causes. Yet in these truly challenging times, you would expect much of this support to be dialed back due to the realities of immediate business concerns—but that’s not the case. Instead, company after company is focusing on giving.

“Right now, like no other time in history, it’s time for good people to do good things in assertive ways,” says Wayne Zink, CEO of Endangered Species Chocolate, Indianapolis, whose philanthropic donations will equal more than $100,000 in 2009 alone. In addition to learning more about Zink’s company, Specialty Food Magazine shares the efforts of four other manufacturers and retailers to show how they’ve chosen to support local and global philanthropic initiatives. Click on the Read More links below to read the full stories.

Dancing Deer
Hitting the road for the homeless
While at a shelter in Charlotte, N.C., Trish Karter, CEO of Boston, Mass.-based Dancing Deer, sat with a homeless mother of two named Cynthia who shared a simple, yet powerful idea with her: “Everybody should help somebody every day.” That philosophy is not unlike the way Karter herself was raised. “My mother found something wonderful about everyone she met,” says Karter, which led to countless “$25 checks being written out even when we didn’t have the money.”

PCC Natural Markets
Practicing local and global community activism
PCC Natural Markets, which began as a food-buying club for 15 families in 1953, is now the largest customer-owned food co-op in the country with nine locations throughout Washington State and nearly 40,000 members. Nonetheless, this growth has not affected PCC’s dedication to the community, both at home and abroad.

Endangered Species Chocolate
Putting the brand name to work
Acompany name like Endangered Species Chocolate, says Wayne Zink, CEO of the Indianapolis-based chocolate maker, essentially tells the consumer “‘when you buy me, you’re doing something to help the planet,’ and that brand promise needs to have life.” Since the company’s inception in 1993, it has fulfilled this promise by donating 10 percent of net profits to 501(c) (3) non-profit organizations that support ESC’s mission of bringing balance between habitat, humanity and species.

Paramount Coffee
Taking inspiration from employee passions
Lansing, Mich.-based Paramount Coffee is an employee-owned company that has been manufacturing coffee products since 1935. It supports specific causes with proceeds from the sales of various product lines. Spanning all philanthropic borders, Paramount focuses on local, national and international initiatives that range from helping area children to supporting farmers in Rwanda. Susan Fritz, sales executive, believes that “business leaders need to look beyond their profits and picture themselves as a giant volunteer.”

Numi Tea Numi Organic Tea
Doing good in all aspects of business
Siblings Reem and Ahmed Rahim, founders of Oakland, Calif.’s Numi Organic Tea, are celebrating their tenth anniversary in business with an established non-profit foundation, a plan to support inner-city children and a carbon footprint that has been completely offset.