New Windsor, New York-based Café Spice announced it has donated $31,700 to Whole Planet Foundation, a nonprofit founded by Whole Foods Market, with a mission to end poverty worldwide through microcredit.
Cafe Spice’s contribution will help directly fund the Foundation’s mission to provide poor entrepreneurs in developing countries with a chance to lift themselves out of poverty through microlending programs.
“I was extremely pleased with the outcome of our first philanthropic promotion with Whole Planet Foundation,” says Sameer Malhotra, Café Spice’s co-founder, “which we viewed as having two goals. First, to raise money for the provision of small business loans to women in need. And second, but equally important, to raise awareness about poverty and how microcredit can empower and change peoples’ lives.”
Café Spice’s donation will help to fund small loans in developing communities around the world, providing the working poor with an opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty through microcredit.
On average, Whole Planet Foundation supported loans in the developing world are around $225, which means Café Spice’s $31,700 donation will provide 142 loans to poor women entrepreneurs to empower them to change their own lives, and on average five family members, positively impacting more than 840 people around the world.
In September, Café Spice’s co-founder Payal Malhotra joined Whole Planet Foundation on a program mission to Peringmala in Kerala, India, where she met a number of women entrepreneurs directly benefiting from the microloans through the Foundation.
“Regardless of their financial status, the prevailing spirit in Peringmala was not one of despair, but rather energizing hopefulness,” Payal Malhotra says. “I was honored to be on this mission with Whole Planet Foundation, humbled by the industrious women we met, and thrilled that Café Spice can play a role in making a difference.”
In 2005, natural and organic retailer Whole Foods Market established Whole Planet Foundation as an expansion of its mission to be an active participant in the global community. The nonprofit provides grants to microfinance institutions in poor communities where the grocer sources products.
“Kudos to Café Spice for joining Whole Planet Foundation in the fight against global poverty,” says Philip Sansone, president and executive director for Whole Planet Foundation. “Thanks to the generous contributions of companies like Café Spice, we’ve been able to provide loans to more than 177,000 microcredit clients around the world, supporting more than a million people in their fight against poverty.”
To date, the Foundation has authorized $26.1 million and funded more than $15 million in microfinance programs in 48 countries, positively impacting more than a million people worldwide.
