In June, we announced our commitment to addressing systemic racism. We said this work will be ongoing, and we want to share our recent progress in the spirit of holding ourselves accountable to the ethical business standards in which we wholeheartedly believe.
As we spent time listening to our crew members and educating ourselves through readings and stakeholder conversations, we decided to place our near-term focus on organizations that advocate for racial justice, impact Black youth and youth of color, and people who are food insecure. We also looked inward, realizing change must start from within, to address diversity across our crew.
Over the past two months, we have:
- Teamed with Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization to donate $1M of our pasture-raised eggs (4.4 million eggs) to 17 food banks that serve Black populations and communities of color with high rates of food insecurity that has grown exponentially during the pandemic. This includes food banks in Atlanta, Houston, New Orleans, Memphis, and Birmingham. We began delivering eggs to food banks in August and expect to complete the deliveries in the coming weeks. These eggs will help children and families who face hunger.
- Donated $100,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, supporting its mission to expand democracy, eliminate disparities, and achieve racial justice in a society that fulfills the promise of equality for all Americans.
- Donated $100,000 to the Boys & Girls Club across the country to include chapters in Austin, TX, Springfield, MO and St. Louis, MO. Because our crew is primarily based in Texas and Missouri, these communities are close to our heart as a business. In addition to our monetary donation that will support Club youth programming including gardens in Austin and the culinary center at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis Teen Center of Excellence in Ferguson, MO, our crew will have the opportunity to volunteer such as through virtual farm “field trips” and on-site construction of gardens (in Austin).
- Partnered with National Diversity Council, a national non-profit focused on sustainable diversity, equity, and inclusion best practices and strategies. The goal of our partnership is to begin understanding how we can build a more diverse and inclusive crew, and work with their experts to build thoughtful plans against these learnings.
As we’ve said before, this work will never end. We recognize the magnitude of racial injustice and will continue to listen, learn, and challenge ourselves to take action on issues related to diversity, equality, and inclusion.
As always, we will keep you updated along this journey.
