As values-based buying continues to trend, companies may win consumers over by supporting causes near-and-dear to their hearts. Though Pride month, which honors and celebrates the LGBTQ+ community every year in June, is nearly through, these food makers are aiming to make an impact that lasts longer than just 30 days. Here are some of the ways that they are giving back and supporting their communities.
Serving Those in Need
Recently, Peanut Butter & Co. announced its One Million Spoonfuls initiative, which seeks to donate 36,000 pounds of peanut butter to food banks across the country.
“Peanut Butter & Co. is a certified LGBT-owned business by the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce and the issue of food-insecure LGBTQ people struck a chord with us,” Lee Zalben, CEO and founder, told SFA News Daily. “We saw an opportunity as a food company to give back and serve people in need, and from there we developed our One Million Spoonfuls food bank donation initiative.”
The initiative started this month in the company’s home base of New York City, where both the Food Bank for New York City and Sylvia Rivera Food Pantry will receive donations. Peanut Butter & Co. is also partnering with the local Orwashers Bakery on a limited run Peanut Butter Dream Bar, which customers can purchase to support the food banks.
“Orwashers Bakery is a special partner for us,” explained Zalben. “When our sandwich shop was open, Orwashers was our bread supplier for more than 18 years. I'm so appreciative of their hard work and creativity, and their overall effort to amplify what we're doing.”
After New York, Peanut Butter & Co. will work with food banks in Oregon and then Boston. Ultimately, said Zalben, the initiative aims to send peanut butter donations to 12 cities over the course of the program.
When asked how other food makers can help support underserved communities, Zalben unscored the importance of listening.
“When we were planning One Million Spoonfuls, I had a lot of ideas about how we should implement the program. Then I spoke with Bianca Wilson, the author of the UCLA Williams Institute study on food insecurity among LGBTQ people and she shared a lot of context, additional materials, and feedback that helped me understand the need more accurately. A desire to support underserved communities is great, but coming from a position of privilege, we can sometimes miss out on important nuances and details.”
Defining Queer Business
Single-origin spice company Diaspora Co. used this year’s Pride celebration to create a Queer Business Manifesto, outlining 10 principles that guide the company work and values. These principles range from being rooted in equity, empathy, and transparency, to proudly admitting that company communications will always contain emojis, smiley faces, and exclamation marks.
In a company blog post, Namita Chandra, wholesale manager for Diaspora Co. said this about the manifesto, “Being a queer business means doing things differently than the average exploitative business by being accountable to our farmers, the environment, our customers, and each other. It means we are rooted in community and we are connected to everyone and everything that contributes to our success, from the soil and the farmers to the stores and the jars on your kitchen counter. It means embracing our mistakes and learning new ways of doing because we envision a radical restructuring in how spices and food are grown and distributed throughout the world. It means we take the time to connect and care about everyone on the team as full people, with honesty, trust, mutual learning, and love.”
Looking to the future, Diaspora hopes that the world outgrows the need to create declarations like this. “We want the future to make us redundant,” reads the last principle. “For the future to be so queer that this manifesto only serves as an archive of a different, transitional time.”
Celebration and Reflection
Amanda Parker, who was named Cowgirl Creamery’s managing director after founders Sue Conley and Peggy Smith retired in January, shared her thoughts on Pride in a blog post on the company’s site.
“This month, I’m thinking about the nature of Pride as a celebration—though, lest we forget, what we now celebrate as Pride began as a riot, trans women of color who stood their ground behind the broken glass and barricades of Stonewall. I’m thinking about inclusivity, which we work hard to improve every day at Cowgirl, celebrating all of our people and our communities. And I’m thinking about integrity, and heart, values that we strive to uphold in our daily work and that I am always reminded of when I think of the struggles to do what’s right, the fight to act for the greater good that got us to a month of celebration. For that, I am proud.”
Though the cheese community has long had strong LGBTQ+ representation, Parker names Conley and Smith as pioneers in both the LGBTQ+ and the agricultural space.
“Twenty-four years ago, our founders Peg and Sue, themselves a part of the LGBTQ+ community, sought to create a company that would celebrate overlooked communities—for them, their flag was planted firmly in the underserved agricultural communities that were at risk of disappearance.”
However, Parker did make a note that there is room for growth in the industry’s diversity efforts.
“While we are proud and inclusive on this front, we have a long way to go in improving diversity and equity in other areas—namely, race," she said.
Related: Retailers Diversify Shelves with Black-Owned Brands; Giant Food Uses Shelf Labels to Identify Minority-Owned Businesses.