Orange and Green

Whole Foods gets charitable with reusable bags benefitting MANNA.

by Natalie Hope McDonald

Two bucks won't get you much in this city. Maybe a draught beer at Dirty Frank's or a food-cart egg and cheese. But since Nov. 6 and continuing throughout the holiday season, two dollars goes the distance at each of the six Whole Foods Markets in the region. For every reusable plastic clementine bag you buy at the organic superstore, the lump sum is donated to MANNA, a nonprofit that delivers meals to people living with HIV, AIDS, cancer and other serious illnesses right here in Philadelphia and surrounding areas.

"This is the first time we've done this with the bags," says Danielle Smith, marketing specialist for Whole Foods in North Wales. While Whole Foods introduced reusable grocery bags last fall, it's the first time proceeds will be funneled back into the community. "It's part of our campaign to reduce, reuse and recycle," says Smith. "The stores are hoping to raise $150,000" in the Mid-Atlantic region; about $30,000 to $50,000 will be earmarked for MANNA.

At the Whole Foods at 20th and Callowhill streets on a rainy day, women wearing Crocs and guys wearing slightly mussed oxfords swish through the automatic doors with their sushi lunches and organic apples. "Ideally we'd like these Whole Foods customers to become MANNA supporters," says Ann Hoskins-Brown, MANNA's director of development. The Fairmount location has, according to Whole Foods, sold the most bags so far.

"I'm totally on board with anything that will cut down on my current glut of bags," says J. Adelaide Fuller, a library assistant in West Philly who regularly shops at Whole Foods on South Street.

Two dollars times as many bags sold goes far for the grassroots organization, which relies on Pie in the Sky, its biggest fundraiser of the year, to feed families on Thanksgiving this month. "Unlike traditional hunger programs, the diet MANNA provides is specially designed as a basic building block for effective long-term disease management," says Hoskins-Brown. According to the National Cancer Institute, "patients who maintain good nutrition are more likely to tolerate the side effects of treatment."

Though each Whole Foods Market around the country has chosen its own charity to support this season, Philadelphia stores did something a little different. "All of the regional stores are on board with the same program," says Smith. "Philly stores are so closely knit we decided to work together and try to have a bigger financial impact."

When the small staff at MANNA heard they had been chosen as the beneficiary, Hoskins-Brown says there were a lot of high-fives. "It was completely out of the blue," she says, "and gave everyone a tremendous jolt of energy during our busiest time of the year."

(n_mcdonald@citypaper.net)