This Friday marks the start of September, and you all know what that means, right?!? You’re gonna want to break out the confetti and streamers because September is Whole Grains Month and we have a lot to celebrate!

We’re super excited to announce the return of our Good Grains for a Good Cause campaign, which is all about getting great, whole grain products to those in need. Join in by nominating your favorite charity for a chance to win cases and cases of whole grain food donated by our Whole Grains Council member companies. Any charity working to alleviate food insecurity qualifies, so send us the name of your favorite food pantry or food bank and tell us about the great work they are doing in your community. Already, 15 member companies have pledged to donate more than 50 cases of Whole Grain Stamped product to support the cause – check out our Whole Grains Month page to see a full list of our donors, and track our progress on social media.

Making a Food Pantry donation after our Whole Grains Conference in Chicago

So many Whole Grains Council members are incredibly generous with their donations of product, time, and expertise throughout the year. We thought that our Whole Grains Month kickoff blogpost was the perfect opportunity to reach out to a member company whose mission is very much aligned with the theme of this month’s giveaway, and get a little peek into the work they do year-round. Last week we called up Maria Gamble from The Soulfull Project to learn more about their New-Jersey-based cereal company.

The Soulfull Project is a public benefit corporation that was started in August 2016 with the aim of helping to address food insecurity and make healthy food more accessible and convenient to everyone, regardless of their economic situation. They do this by selling cups and pouches of hot cereal (whole grain, of course!), and by setting up regular volunteer events to assist local food charities. Using the buy-one-give-one model of companies like TOMS, for every serving of hot cereal The Soulfull Project sells, they donate a full serving of the same quality food to a local food bank. Their objective using this business model is to, “provide good, wholesome food to the people who need it most.”

We can probably all agree that it can be challenging to balance healthy, nutritious food choices with a busy schedule. For low-income families and individuals struggling to make ends meet, the added barrier of cost and the frequent lack of proximate access to fruits, vegetables, and whole grains can make finding healthy food options seem almost impossible. The folks at The Soulfull Project agreed that, “the best food shouldn’t only be available to those with time and money.” So, they went out and did something about it!

Maria believes, “breakfast really sets the tone for the day. If you make wholesome food choices for breakfast, you’re choosing the foods that will energize you throughout the day.” In their conversations with local food banks and food pantries, they learned that many of the breakfast foods available to those in need are packed with sugar and are very lean on nutrition, so creating a nutrient-dense product that would fill this void seemed like an obvious decision.

Since their launch a year ago, The Soulfull Project has donated 42,000 servings of their 100% whole grain Four Grain Hot Cereal made with rye, oats, barley and quinoa. Their distribution has grown from 14 Wegmans stores in South Jersey and Philadelphia to an incredible 165 distribution points across six states today. If you’re interested in giving their cereal a try – and contributing to a great cause – you can also find their Whole Grain Stamped products online.

We know there are lots of other companies doing amazing work in their communities and we’d love to hear more about their projects, too. Please tell us about your favorite companies and charitable organizations in the comments section below! (Caroline)