the simply organic giving fund: the bigger picture

The Simply Organic Giving Fund is one of a number of Frontier Co-op's charitable initiatives. For over three decades, Frontier Co-op has been a leader in promoting organic products and supporting organic agriculture around the world. It is a fitting continuation of this passion for organics, that our all-organic brand, Simply Organic, is able to support so many organic and sustainable farming communities in so many places. Simply Organic has given more than $1.5 million to organic communities and projects since 2001.  

Simply Organic provides an opportunity to use consumer buying power to support the environmental and social values of organic agriculture — both directly through the purchase of organic products and indirectly through assistance from the Simply Organic Giving Fund. The Simply Organic Giving Fund supports agricultural development, business improvements and educational opportunities in grower communities around the world and a wide variety of organic-based organizations here in the United States.

In 2010, the Simply Organic Giving Fund provided a $25,000 grant to help with the construction of an organic training center by our valued Well Earth partner, the 2,043-member cooperative Small Organic Farmers Association (SOFA) in Sri Lanka. The training center has been used to educate SOFA members and other farmers — some from other countries — about organic, sustainable growing techniques.

The 49 wells built in 38 vanilla-farming Madagascar villages in 2012 with Simply Organic funds Madagascar Wells 2012 made clean water conveniently available to nearly 25,000 people.

Many of the children in the communities where we source our Vietnamese Premium Cinnamon couldn't attend school simply because they live so far from them. Our 2013 Vietnam School Project, funded by Simply Organic, provided dormitory-style bunk beds for 200 kids to stay at their schools during the week, and also paid for cafeteria tables, books and school supplies.

Organizations researching organic, sustainable agriculture, such as The Organic Center and Rodale Institute are supported by the Simply Organic Giving Fund. The fund is a regular contributor to the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA)/Massachusetts Chapter a resource for the education and promotion of organic, sustainable agriculture since 1982. And the fund has provided an annual Apprenticeship Scholarship to the University of California Santa Cruz Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS) since 2009.

There's a long list of social organizations using organic growing to improve their communities that are supported by the fund. These organizations address the hunger of low income families, individuals, people with health challenges and school children with organic growing — home gardens, community gardens, food pantry farms and school gardens. Often the programs provide personal and employment opportunities for at-risk youth as well. Some of these caring and dedicated organizations Simply Organic supports are Farmshare Austin, Georgia Organics, Mesa Verde Gardens, Summer of Solutions, Valley Verde and the Ceres Community Project.

The Simply Organic Giving Fund is truly making a difference in the world through its support of organic and sustainable farming communities!