A Christmas (Milk) Story

Heidi and Shane Fausel's eggnog isn't typical; it's Christmas Milk. And the story of how it got its name could warm the most frozen heart. It starts with a request from an eight-year-old boy, their first of four adopted children.

Today, Christmas Milk is a thriving business. The seasonal product has won fans for its rich taste as well as gluten- and hormone-free attributes. Inspired by the eggnog, which tastes a lot like melted French vanilla ice cream, the company also recently launched an ice cream line at the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York. The new frozen treats are available in three introductory flavors: Original French Vanilla Eggnog, Caramel Swirl, and Chocolate Swirl.

But remembering their company's origins is at the core of the Fausels' mission. The owners donate a portion of Christmas Milk sales each year to groups that help children in state care programs find their forever home, in particular Gladney Center for Adoption, a 100-year-old organization that supports children awaiting adoption, adoptive families and women planning adoption. Watch Heidi explain more about these efforts.

A Place at the Table

I recently saw “A Place at the Table,” a documentary about hunger in the United States. The film is an eye-opener into the pervasiveness of hunger. Nearly 49 million people in this country—one in four children—are food insecure, meaning they don’t know where their next meal is coming from. “A Place at the Table” attempts to put a face on the issue by introducing us to several people including Barbie, a Philadelphia single mother who struggles with poverty and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (also known as SNAP, or food stamps) and Rosie, a fifth grader from Colorado whose parents work three jobs between them, providing too much income to qualify for assistance but not enough to buy food every day.

One of the film’s contentions is that hunger and obesity are neighbors—stemming from insufficient ways for low-income populations to access food they need to stay healthy. Barbie must travel an hour on two buses to a supermarket to buy fresh food; often she resorts to shopping in neighborhood bodegas where processed foods are available and affordable. Rosie’s family is helped by donations from community food banks—which mostly consist of processed, high-sugar, high-fat packaged snacks.

“A Place at the Table” stresses that high-calorie foods are often the least expensive. In it, Marion Nestle, professor of food studies at New York University and author of Food Politics, notes that the price of fruits and vegetable has increased about 40 percent since 1980 while the price of processed food has decreased 40 percent. The film touches on factors such as hefty subsidies to industrial farms that grow corn, soy and wheat, crops that are largely used in processed foods.

Farm subsidies are just one of many complicated subjects referenced as part of the hunger problem: others include government allotments per person/per meal, school meal programs, healthcare costs and social stigmas.

Where “A Place at the Table” most succeeds is in moving us beyond the notion that hunger equates to images we’ve seen of famine and starvation in other parts of the world and showinghow widespread a problem is here, posing troubling social and cultural implications. Throughout, we’re shown the impact hunger has on children especially, derailing health, development and academic performance—in short, amounting to untold lost potential among the people who represent the future of our country.  

Effecting change on such an enormous issue is overwhelming, but small steps in food and nutrition education can add up. (The film features one moving scene of students around eight years old encouraged by their teacher to taste honeydew melon for the first time.) Some good news is the specialty food trade already boasts a notable track record in getting involved in these issues in their communities from chefs improving school lunch programs, to retailers holding in-store cooking classes, to producers arranging tours of farms to demonstrate where food comes from. These are areas where we can continue to donate time, effort and funds and work toward making a bigger impact.

Wine That Lets Shoppers Choose a Charity with Each Purchase

I was in Toronto last week for a conference where I picked up a Canadian magazine I don't usually read, Foodservice & Hospitality. It turned out to be worth it when it introduced me to a Toronto wine company, The Little Grape That Could, that donates all profits to a charity of the buyer's choice. Here's how it works: The company recently introduced a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Torrontes that retail for $11.95 at select retail stores in Canada. Buyers can log onto the winery's website and donate the profit from the sale of the wine they purchase to a list of charities.

The magazine writes that the idea came from TLGTC founder Brett Preston's blate father, who told him to ask himself, why raise funds for a single cause when there are so many worthy causes? As an added touch, each wine bottle celebrates a person on the back label; buyers can nominate their own choices. I love that idea alone, as well as the whole concept of letting shoppers pick their own charity to support as they make their purchase.

Confections Shop Turns Youth with Criminal Records into Chocolate Makers

Dale Anderson created his livelihood around employing the hard to employee. When he conceived the idea of Confections With Convictions, his Kalamazoo, Mich., chocolate shop, he was not only highlighting his use of premium sustainable ingredients. The name also refers to his commitment to hiring youth who may not be able to find work elsewhere due to their criminal records. Today, his four employees all have felony records.

Anderson was a licensed professional counselor and a mediator in the court system since 1996, but he wanted to do more. A taste of artisan chocolate and a few classes later and an idea was born. "Many of the juveniles I counsel are kinetic learners. They sit there taking apart the stapler on my desk while we are in a counseling session. They need to be moving, doing things while learning," says Anderson, who maintains that court-ordered counseling ends up deeling like more punishment. "No matter how well-meaning, it's a system that is deficit-based, not strength-based."

Anderson's convictions extend globally as well and are engrained in his business practices. He sources chocolate from Ecuador and Peru rather than other countries where child labor is used. "We use organic and fair trade chocolate because if we are trying to help youth here, we don't want to abuse youth elsewhere," Anderson says.

Worthwhile Things I Do That Sometimes Mentally Exhaust Me, But That I'll Continue to Do Anyway

1. Remember to carry a reuseable bag.
2. When I forget, drop off plastic bags I do collect in recycling boxes.
3. Support charities I like that send me seemingly endless packages of personalized address labels even though I hardly mail things anymore.
4. Cut the images off all those address labels and give them to my niece and nephew as stickers.
5. Store tote bags I collect from trade shows until I have enough to send a box to a foster kids' charity in New England.
6. Haul bags of my discarded clothes or household goods to Housing Works. Repeat if I forget to check that they are actually open when I arrive.
7. Compost my teabags to support my office's green initiative. (Even when the regular trash is right next to me at my desk. And I'm busy. And tired.)
8. Buy the Secret Santa gift the child wants even if it's obscure and expensive.

Tween-age Chef Committed to Getting Kids Cooking

I am in awe of a 12 year old. Last week Haile Thomas appeared on Today to share her commitment to helping kids make better food choices. In her segment with Al Roker, Haile, who has been cooking since age five in her mother's kitchen, prepared a black bean and corn quinoa salad with garlic shrimp and avocado, the same recipe she recently prepared for First Lady Michelle Obama as part of the first Kids’ State Dinner.

Intrigued by watching food documentaries, Haile "started asking questions about where my food comes from and what I was eating," she told Today. She signed up for the youth advisory board of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, an organization that tries to combat childhood obesity, and soon started working with local chefs doing cooking demonstrations. Haile now hosts her own online show, “Kids Can Cook,” where she offers online kids cooking classes on how to prepare nourishing meals from with simple ingredients.

In addition she's partnering with Hyatt Hotels & Resorts to help the chain come up with healthier kid-friendly menu items. The Tucson native is the founder and director of the Tucson-based HAPPY Organization, Inc., which serves to improve the health and wellness of Arizona youth and families.

Amid alarming statistics about rampant childhood obesity and lack of cooking skills among young people, Haile is setting an inspiring example by showing peers that preparing good food does not have to be complicated. It all comes down to healthful ingredients, simply prepared. “I hope to make a difference by inspiring other kids to embrace a healthy lifestyle, and become educated about how good and bad food affects their bodies, overall health and quality of life,” Haile said.

Whole Foods and Safeway Named to World's Most Ethical Companies List

Food supermarkets Whole Foods Market and Safeway are leading proponents of corporate social responsibility. Individually, they've instituted philanthropic programs such as Whole Planet Foundation, which creates economic opportunity for food producers in developing countries, and the Safeway Foundation, which supports charitable efforts toward hunger relief, education and assistance for people with disabilities. Now, they've officially been named among 2013's World's Most Ethical Companies.

The designation is courtesy of Ethisphere Institute, a think tank dedicated to advancing best practices in business ethics, anti-corruption and sustainability. For the past seven years, it annually selects companies in a variety of industries for its official list. Company executives, industry peers, suppliers and customers nominate businesses, which are then evaluated by Ethisphere for investment in sustainable practices, codes of ethics and corporate citizenship activities. This year 145 companies were named from three dozen industries including retail, insurance, aerospace and alternate energy.

Other food companies named to Ethisphere's 2013 list include Starbucks, UK's Marks and Spencer and New Zealand's All Good Organics. The list is published in the current issue of the quarterly magazine Ethisphere and is available here.