Whole Foods Market
GVI Corporate Alliance enables corporations and organizations to supply funding and manpower to legitimate long-term sustainable development and micro financing projects in the areas they trade with and to increase the culture and knowledge exchange between different areas and cultures of our world.
GVI Corporate Alliance was selected by Whole Foods Market to manage this program to engage Team Members in Whole Foods Market core values in action. The mission of the Whole Planet Foundation, a Whole Foods Market foundation, is to create economic partnerships with the poor in those developing-world communities that supply their stores with product. Through innovative assistance for entrepreneurship - including direct micro-credit loans and tangible support for other community partnership projects - they seek to unleash the energy and creativity of every human being we work with in order to create wealth and prosperity in emerging economies. This program offers Team Members a chance to understand and connect with the global community and the mission of the Foundation.
GVI Corporate Alliance is coordinating the entire overseas volunteering program in coordination with Whole Foods market. Team Members volunteer for 30 days, including travel, in the communities where Whole Foods Market is sourcing product and the Whole Planet Foundation is micro-lending, in order to learn language and culture, experience the impact of micro-credit, and fulfill community volunteer wishes (teach children literacy skills, dig water trenches, build stoves, collect turtle data, reforestation, for example). Team Members return to their home store/facility and bring this global knowledge to the local environment, sharing their experience to increase support for the Whole Planet Foundation and make a difference in their own localities.
The Whole Planet Foundation is an alliance of global organizations aimed at reducing world poverty. GVI Corporate Alliance is a key member of that team and charged with coordinating the volunteer program for Whole Foods Market. So far, we have jointly developed programs in Costa Rica and Guatemala, with program plans in Honduras, Nicaragua ind India. Other global supporting partners include the Grameen Trust and Global Giving.
For specific details of these projects, please see the list of projects below:
John Mackey
Chairman and CEO
Whole Foods Market
"As we have done business around the world, increasingly we feel we have the responsibility to contribute back to those communities we are trading in. Our partnership, through the Whole Planet Foundation, with Global Vision International, will help our Whole Foods Market Team Members contribute to our mission."
