OAKLAND, Calif. – One in eight Americans—40 million people—struggles with food insecurity, which exists in every U.S. county, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Feeding America notes one in six children “don’t know where their next meal is coming from.”
Bloom Farms, PAX, Eaze, and thirty California dispensaries are doing their part to ease the suffering beginning on World Food Day, Tuesday, October 16. For an entire month, the participating businesses will work to raise consumer awareness of pervasive food insecurity, drive donations to local food banks, and support the United Nations’ mission of creating a zero-hunger world by 2030.
As part of the initiative, Bloom Farms will donate two meals to food banks for each sale it makes through participating dispensaries on October 16. The extra donation is in addition to the company’s ongoing one-meal-for-one-sale program. Bloom Farms began the 1-for-1 program in 2014 and to date has donated approximately 1.4 million of its five-million-meals goals.
“United Nations World Food Day may be October 16, but at Bloom Farms every day is World Food Day,” said Bloom Farms founder and Chief Executive Officer Mike Ray. “We invite our partners in the industry and customers to join us and encourage everyone to learn more about this staggering issue.”
To raise awareness and drive donations throughout the month, the company and PAX will host a series of promotional events in dispensaries: Customers who purchase two Bloom Farms PAX Pods will receive a free PAX Era vape pen that will be custom-engraved on-site. PAX also has earmarked $10,000 to fund meal donations.
Delivery service Eaze is promoting the campaign across its web and social media channels throughout the month and offering a 20-percent discount on Bloom Farms products October 16 to encourage sales and related meal donations.
Dispensaries participating in the promotions, PAX engraving events, and demos are listed on a calendar on Bloom Farms’ website.
“There are too many people wondering where their next meal will come from in every county in America, even those with significant wealth or great agricultural traditions like many counties in California,” Ray said. “We built Bloom Farms around two missions: to provide great legal cannabis products and to end food insecurity in the communities that we live and work in. We’ve made great strides so far and, with the help of so many community-minded members of the cannabis industry this month, we can move even further towards our goal.”
For information about how to join the company during volunteer days at food banks throughout the state, visit the Bloom Volunteers page on the company’s website.
