Get a Cool Bag, Feed 100 Kids

Last week I forgot my reusable shopping bag (AGAIN!) and was at checkout when I noticed. Usually I can stuff a lot of items into my swanky, ancient vintage Chloe bag, but I had already crammed 2 bottles of organic Shiraz in there for the friends we were expecting for dinner.

So I had a few choices:

1. Be stinky and use the store bag (though my store doesn't give out plastic anymore, I could still do the piggy thing and contribute to deforestation by asking for paper)
   Cost: $0, but some moderate eco-guilt


2. Buy another great, and cheap, reusable grocery bag, (like the 5 I forgot and left home) Cost: 99 cents, and it is a great bag--but get another?...


3. Pony up for a cool, albeit expensive option, the FEED bag. Cost $29.99--whoa, not cheap!! Plus, though I try to stay apolitical in my writing, this is frankly not the political family I would normally align with.

So, seem like a no-brainer in this new tight economy?

Not exactly, i found out I can feed 100 kids a hearty school lunch for the $29.99 bag.

Here's how it works:

The United Nations World Food Program has teamed up with Whole Foods Market to sell the FEED 100 bag. Made of organic cotton and natural burlap, this lightweight, long-lasting, carries-a-ton bag can make you look good and feel good, too. Every bag funds 100 meals for Rwandan school children through the United Nation's World Food Program's (WFP) School Feeding Program. And in case you think this is some weird greenwashing idea to stock the coffers, Whole Foods is not making any profit of this--it's all going to the kids...

So grab your bag, get some healthy and yummy eats from Whole Foods (it's where Emeril picks out his goodies and shoots his new series) and at the same time make a huge difference for 300 schools in the most food-deprived areas of Rwanda.

According to Josette Sheeran, executive director of the United Nations World Food Program "Hundreds of thousands of Rwandan children, who might have gone to school hungry, will now do nourished and ready to learn."

Lynda Fassa is Planet Green's babies and family expert. She's the founder of Green Babies organic cotton baby clothes and the author of Green Babies, Sage Moms: The Ultimate Guide to Raising Your Organic Baby, and the forthcoming Green Kids, Sage Families: The Ultimate Guide to Raising Your Organic Family, both from Penguin NAL. Read her previous posts here.