Each time you buy a Simply Organic spice, seasoning or mix, you make a small contribution -- that when combined with many others -- provides significant support to organizations and projects that research, develop, teach and promote organic agriculture.
We Give Back One Percent!
One percent of sales on all Simply Organic spices, seasonings, flavors and mixes goes to support organic agriculture – through research, education and grower development.
The SO1% fund -- determined as a percent of sales, not profits -- is having a remarkable impact both here in the U.S. and internationally. For over three decades, Frontier has been a leader in promoting organic products and supporting organic agriculture around the world. It's logical that our all-organic brand, Simply Organic, funds many worthy organizations and events that support organics. We're proud to offer consumers the opportunity to contribute directly to the continuing growth of organics with the purchase of high-quality Simply Organic products.
The SO1% fund is spent each the year in a variety of ways – sometimes on specific projects, sometimes for a special need within an organization. We do have some long time favorites we support from the fund every year.
Here are three organizations we regularly donate to because we believe strongly in their missions and recommend their work.
The Organic Center. We first donated to The Organic Center in 2004 when the organization was just getting started. In addition to our on-going support, the SO1% fund donated $30,000 in 2008 towards a Center project to research the collapse of honey bee hives. Learn more.
The Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF). We stepped up our support for the Foundation's work in 2002 with a major donation of $50,000. We have continued to support the Foundation’s research on organic farming methods. Learn more.
The Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Service (MOSES). We have been a long-time participant and supporter of the nation’s largest organic farming conference held every February by MOSES. And in 2008, we awarded MOSES a $10,000 grant to support the launch of their Help Wanted: Organic Farmers Program. Learn more.
UCSC sustainable farming apprentice scholarship
A $70,000 SO1% donation, along with another $60,000 from the Frontier Foundation, has established a scholarship award in perpetuity for the Apprenticeship in Ecological Horticulture at the University of California, Santa Cruz. This exciting program at the UCSC Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems (CASFS) -- the premiere sustainable and organic training program in the country -- is helping develop the next generation of leaders in sustainable agriculture.
The scholarship will provide tuition assistance for apprentices to learn better organic farming techniques, develop and evaluate new ideas to tackle issues of inequality in the food system, and integrate social and natural science research, academic and experiential education, and public service to transform the food system. These apprentices will help provide the leadership needed to achieve a sustainable food and agriculture system that can feed the world while remaining in balance with nature.
Learn more about CASFS and why Simply Organic supports it.
Training farmers in India on organic farming techniques
In the mountainous regions of Southwest India, tribal farmers grow a variety of crops on just a few hectares of land. In 1980, a charitable organization formed to help the tribal people, marginal farmers and women and children of the region, by becoming involved in the promotion of indigenous medicines and community health, watershed management, programs for the development of women and children and organic farming.
This organization, a Well Earth certified supplier, supplies us and other companies committed to sustainable sourcing with organic spices grown by these farmers. SO1% granted them nearly $30,000 last year, to provide organic training to all 790 spice farmers. In January we took a trip to evaluate the results of the training program.
Read about our trip and what we learned.
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