Each Friday, the another jennifer blog shares stories of those who incorporate philanthropy into their everyday lives – personally and professionally – in a creative and unique way. If you have a story you’d like to share, please contact Jennifer. You can view past posts from the series here.
As the cab door shut, I saw a woman telling the driver she was also going to O’Hare.
It was the end of the last day of BlogHer ’13 at McCormick Place in Chicago. It was time to go home.
We decided to share a cab to the airport, though I had originally planned on taking a quick ride to the blue train to avoid Chicago traffic.
I introduced myself and asked the woman where she blogged. Turns out Lisa was representing Lean Cuisine at BlogHer. She gave me a quick spiel about what she was promoting at the event and handed me a coupon. I told her I’d give it to my husband, who does the grocery shopping in the house.
Lisa was promoting the Lean Cuisine Honestly Good line of frozen foods. They are 100% all natural with no preservatives or artificial ingredients. She told me to tell my husband to look for it in the natural frozen meals section. Being a busy entrepreneur who grabs frozen meals for lunch on a regular basis, I was intrigued.
When she heard of my interest in philanthropy and giving back, she handed me a carrot-shaped flash drive with a media kit on it. She noted that I might want to read up on the Honestly Good Giving program.
The trip to the airport took a good 45 minutes, so we had time to talk. After we got past our who we are and what we were doing a BlogHer ’13 pleasantries, we started talking about our kids and where we were from. It was a nice, unforced conversation.
While I had walked by the Lean Cuisine booth a couple of times, I hadn’t stopped. They were giving out food samples, so it was pretty crowded.
There were several booths like this in the expo at BlogHer. Ones where bloggers were clambering for samples or to talk to the representatives about how they could work together.
Not being a food blogger or one that does many reviews and giveaways, I breezed by some of these busy booths and searched for exhibitors who had time for a conversation. My aim was to find those sponsors who were making a difference with their business model, making giving back a priority.
I’ll be honest, it wasn’t easy to find exhibitors who had a strong philanthropic focus. While I did find a few, whom I will most likely feature over the next few weeks, I found myself having to ask about sustainability efforts and giving programs.
Giving back isn’t always the number one selling point for consumers. Most people are looking for a good product at a good value without thought about the impact of buying the product. (I’m no different, by the way. I’m still learning about how my purchases make a difference.)
Back to the Lean Cuisine Honestly Good Giving program. Turns out that the Honestly Good entrees are made with ingredients from select farmers. A portion of the vegetables grown for the Lean Cuisine Honestly Good meals are donated to local communities. In it’s first year, Lean Cuisine says it will give one million servings of vegetables to those in need.
Had I not shared a cab with Lisa as I left BlogHer ’13, I would not have written about the Lean Cuisine Honestly Good frozen food line. I typically reserve this space for smaller companies and everyday people who make a difference under the radar.
But, as I mentioned in my Save the Children and video recap posts, it’s those simple interactions within a big event that make the biggest impact.
I haven’t tried the dinners yet, but they are on the shopping list for next week.
Here’s a printable coupon to save $1.00 on any 1 LEAN CUISINE Honestly Good™ variety so you can try them out as well.
Oh, and after our cab ride, Lisa was kind enough to pay for the full fare. Thanks, Lisa!
