Model and fashion designer Lauren Bush is changing the world for millions of children by serving one meal at a time. At the age of 23, Bush founded FEED, a social enterprise that sells fashionable lifestyle accessories and uses most of its profits to offer meals to hungry children.
Bush became the Honorary Student Spokesperson of the United Nations World Food Programme in 2004 and saw firsthand the widespread reaches of child hunger while traveling around different countries. When she came back to the States, she felt moved to do something.
In 2007, FEED was founded. A considerable amount of the profits go to providing school meals to children in need. To date, FEED has donated six million dollars and provided over a hundred million meals to children through the UN World Food Programme and Feeding America. Their most popular product is the FEED bags that have a number on it that tells the consumer how many meals it is providing when purchased For some kids, the meal they receive at school is the only food they will receive all day. FEED partners with 63 countries around the world, including the United States. Buying these bags is a way that we can help fight world hunger, which seems like such a daunting problem to solve and brings it down to tangible steps we can take.
Bush’s story moves me. In 2009, Bush was named on of the Fortune Magazine’s Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs and one of Inc. Magazine’s 30 under 30 in 2010. She saw a problem and decided to act. She saw firsthand the hunger that plagues children and knew she had to do something to combat it. I love businesses that not only have beautiful products but have a social impact behind it. It makes me feel like I can make a difference and touch people’s lives through just buying a single product. I think that is pretty amazing.
https://dujour.com/lifestyle/feed-ceo-founder-lauren-bush-lauren-interview/
https://www.feedingamerica.org/about-us/partners/entertainment-council/lauren-bush-lauren
This seems like a great example of an entrepreneurial enterprise with a purely social dimension. The sale of bags and other accessories to fund the feeding of children is a noble cause and appears to be very effective if they have fed as many people as they claim. Interesting that they partner with the UN.
I think Entrepreneurs who address the issues in the social area are hugely impactful and seem to receive exponential growth. Lauren Bush is the perfect example of that and just how she was thinking of others and in return her company ends up receiving a partnership from the UN. Her story is truly remarkable and thoughtful.