FeelGood: A new approach to fight hunger

FeelGood: A new approach to fight hunger from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

Have you heard of FeelGood? It’s an innovative nonprofit social enterprise, based on 27 college campuses, that offers a new way to make a difference in the fight against hunger.

The program transforms students social entrepreneurs and responsible global citizens. Its goal is simple: End world hunger in our lifetime. They do it one grilled cheese sandwich at a time. Founded in 2005, FeelGood empowers college students to run nonprofit delis on their campuses, specializing in grilled cheese sandwiches that are given away for a voluntary donation. At the delis, students develop business skills, launch effective educational campaigns and initiate dialogues about the root causes of and solutions to poverty.

Fully 100 percent of the profits the students raise are invested in organizations with a track record of eradicating extreme poverty and empowering self-reliance. And here’s a remarkable stat: Every $100 invested in FeelGood yields $120 for certified organizations working to end global hunger.

I ran into FeelGood’s founders, Kristin Walter and Talis Apud-Martinez, at the last Social Capital Markets conference. (The next one will be Oct. 4-6 in San Francisco).

Watch, embed or download the video on Vimeo

You’ll be able to tell from the video that I knew little about FeelGood before our interview. And, one reason I’ve delayed posting this is that we had the most production challenges I’ve ever encountered in a shoot: jet planes and helicopters roaring overhead, an SUV that backed up and interrupted our shoot and a white balance that wouldn’t cooperate, all in the space of a few minutes.

But Kristin and Talis’s passion and dedication to a great cause are on full display, and I’ll be supporting FeelGood’s efforts as much as I can in the years ahead. Their goal is to take FeelGood to every U.S. college campus.

FeelGood in the Chase Community Giving Challenge on Facebook

Update: I just heard from Kristin, who says: “We are competing to win $20,000 today in the CHASE Community Giving Challenge on Facebook. Voting ends tonight and we need to recruit about 250 more votes in order to secure our win.”

Here are the steps:

(1) Visit: http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/760765873-feelgood

(2) Click “get started to vote” and then the “like” button (looks like a thumbs up) & allow access to the Chase Community Giving application.

(3) Click the green “VOTE” button.

(4) Once your vote goes through, the green “VOTE” button will turn into a “Share with friends” button. Please do!
JD Lasica, founder and former editor of Socialbrite, is co-founder of Cruiseable. Contact JD or follow him on Twitter or Google Plus.