As of late I find it difficult to be proud of corporate America. It’s too easy to think of the accounting messes created by Enron, Arthur Anderson and Tyco that resulted in the obliteration of so many savings and retirement accounts.  The current sub-prime mortgage debacle is certainly on my mind too; due to the implementation of such lending practices, the nation’s banking giants and investment houses are merely hanging on, while their customers have either lost their homes or are on the verge of losing it all. I’m reminded of Exxon Mobil, the giant oil company whose Exxon Valdez tanker, incompetently commanded by Captain Joseph Hazelwood, ran aground in Alaska spilling nearly 11 million gallons of oil. We’re still reeling from that one, but thanks Supreme Court, for awarding us people a mere $500 million last month in response to a company that destroyed a coastline, severely damaged the larger environment and imploded the Alaskan and surrounding economies.

It’s for these reasons I’m proud to comment on a national corporation that “thinks green” and engages in educational partnerships, one that finds importance in addressing the atrocities enacted on the land we live by less-concerned corporations, but most importantly, one that makes it a priority to advocate and educated locally, not internationally and not with the hope of the media picking up their sound bites.  Whole Foods Market is that company, and here’s why.

Your local Whole Foods Market, located on Pacific Coast Highway just east of Second Street, is quite innovative in their goal to build better communities. In a current program entitled Reduce Reuse Reward, customers are asked to think conservatively when shopping; reduce the amount of bags they use, reuse a recyclable bag, and thereby reward an organization addressing needs in the community.

For every bag refused at the Whole Foods checkout line, customers will be rewarded five cents to save or donate to Children Today, Inc., a Long Beach non-profit that provides free, licensed child care, preschool and other support services to families experiencing homelessness. The organization was founded in 1998, opened its first Play House in 2000, opened another Play House in 2008, and is in the planning process for opening a third Play House in the next two years.

Children Today, like many non-profits, operates from the benevolence of private donations and government support. Being sought out by a corporation (that’s right, Whole Foods found Children Today, not the other way around) is exactly what the organization and others like it need. Corporate America should take a lesson from Whole Foods and adopt a proactive policy of community giving. Non-profits, schools, and other non-governmental organizations are poor, operate with little or no staff, and are constantly thinking creatively to earn more dollars for vital programs.

Whole Foods is setting an example in the private sector for companies to do their part for local organizations like Children Today, for local communities like Long Beach. By accepting the responsibility of thinking creatively, Whole Foods is addressing a huge need: providing services to the most innocent victims of homelessness – children.  

The Whole Foods “Reduce Reuse Reward” program will operate for three months, ending September 28.