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!
THAT was a fantastic chance meeting! (and YAY! A Lisa that gives Lisa’s a good name! Woot!)
I love Lean Cuisine, but I’ve never seen the Honestly Good line. I’m totally printing out that coupon and looking for them when I make my trip to the grocery this weekend. Bobby was doing some community service at the local food pantry yesterday, and the statistics he told me were surprising and depressing. So many people do not have food security. I love supporting groups and businesses that make a difference in this way. –Lisa
Yay for awesome Lisas!
The stats are pretty amazing. And that’s in our own back yard! I love it when I can help, even a little, with a simple purchase.
Of all the people you could have wound up sharing a cab with! How fortuitous! I’m always glad to hear of big companies like this doing something for people in need. Also, Ihave tried to stay away from frozen meals because of preservatives, etc, but these sound like something I’d like to give a chance! Thanks for the coupon!
My husband will only buy the frozen dinners that are truly healthy. They are more expensive, but worth the cost. I don’t eat them a lot, but sometimes that’s all I have time for! Did you catch the Honestly Good dinner options? They look so good! I can’t wait to try them out.
And, yes, the chance meeting was pretty fortuitous. Kind of like my chance meeting with Phil and Tanya of Save the Children in the elevator at the beginning of BlogHer!
I love that! Sometimes the people we meet completely by chance turn out to be amazing connections! I will definitely check this out!
It was a really great way to end BlogHer 13. I’m excited to try out the dinners as well!
Wow! That’s awesome. Yeah, you never know who you’re going to meet and I didn’t know about this. I eat frozen foods like this from time to time – I’ll have to check this out. That’s great to know they strive to give back, too. 🙂
Hi Cyndi! 🙂 As I noted, this was all by chance. I guess it was meant to be. Hope all is well with you!
I’ll admit, I didn’t talk to anyone at the Lean Cuisine booth (just had my husband grab a sample for me when he offered….which was very tasty, by the way), so I too had no idea about this aspect of the company. Although I don’t tend to eat a lot of frozen meals, reading your post definitely makes me consider buying the product. It’s great when you get to have these chance encounters that ultimately lead to a connection and learning new and helpful things. Thanks for sharing, Jennifer!
My pleasure, Bev. It’s tough to find frozen food meals that are worthy of a purchase. I was so surprised to hear they actually use fresh ingredients from local farms. Go figure!
I think my blogging existence is blessed with chance meetings, so I can so relate. And think of this: If either of you had your faces buried in your smartphones, you’d have missed out on each other. Lots of good lessons here.
Funny thing is that my smart phone was in my luggage during the cab ride. I didn’t notice that I dropped it in there when I was shoving my last minute swag before hopping in the cab. I didn’t even look for the phone until I got in the airport. Lisa didn’t either. Rare these days, right?
Sounds like SHE was the lucky one meeting you! She could have shared a cab with so many others who would have said “interesting” and moved on. You are now sharing and making a bigger difference!
Aw, thanks Leah. She sent me a lovely email after I thanked her (again) for paying for my cab ride and shared the post. It was just a nice connection all around.
I will check this out! I have never heard of this line either. I wonder if our stores have it?
It sounds like they are available everywhere. She said that they would be with the healthy foods and not necessarily with the traditional frozen meals.
I love that a chance encounter at the very tail end of the conference was such an impactful one for you. My spiritual side says yes, this was “chance” but how chance was it? I never knew this about Lean Cuisine and never would have known had it not been for this blog. And your blog is obviously the perfect vessel for them to get their message across. One million servings of vegetables to those in need? Count me in.
My BlogHer experience started and ended with very fortuitous meetings – from Save the Children to Lean Cuisine. I have to think that they were meant to be.
That’s awesome – I just got a klout perk this week and it was a free one of these meals. I was genuinely happy, and now more so! Not that I know anything about klout – but I do get those perks emails! Cool story – I love chance encounters and I have many. I’m excited to eat my free meail! Of course I’ll buy them too.
What a coincidence, Tamara! Gotta love those “chance” encounters. I tend to think there’s a bigger meaning behind them.