+
upworthy
Sunshine For All

How your food is made matters. Here’s why.

How your food is made matters. Here’s why.
Photo from Dole
True

As you sit down to eat your breakfast in the morning or grab an afternoon snack, take a minute to consider your food, how it was made, and how it got to your plate.

The fruit on your plate were grown and picked on farms, then processed, packaged and sent to the grocery store where you bought them.

Sounds simple, right?

The truth is, that process is anything but simple and at every step in the journey to your plate, harm can be caused to the people who grow it, the communities that need it, and the planet we all call home.

For example, thousands of kids live in food deserts and areas where access to affordable and nutritious food is limited. Around the world, one in three children suffer from some form of malnutrition, and yet, up to 40% of food in the United States is never eaten.


In addition, the plastic packaging used to transport and store your food is made with fossil-fuels, which emit greenhouse gases and contribute to climate change. Then, that packaging is tossed away, ending up in landfills or as litter into our environment and waterways.

It's easy to feel overwhelmed thinking about all of this, but here's the good news: some companies are working to change all of this.

They're working towards environmental sustainability, while still providing nutritious foods to everyone. One of those companies is Dole Packaged Foods.

There is a Japanese philosophy called Sampo Yoshi that states that all businesses should have a Three-Way Satisfaction: it should be beneficial to the customer, the seller and society. This is the philosophy that inspired The Dole Promise.

Dole, together with their partners, promises to work towards six goals that will make their business not only good for them, but also for the people who eat their food and the planet as a whole.

Here are the promises:

  1. By 2025, they will contribute to good nutrition for 1 billion people by helping improve education around nutrition. They'll also increase the affordability and availability of their products. This will help combat malnutrition rates and food deserts.
  2. They pledge to reach zero fruit loss on their farms by 2025 in order to combat food waste.
  3. They commit to use zero processed sugars in their products by 2025.
  4. They are moving towards eliminating fossil fuel-based packaging, like plastics, by 2025.
  5. They are working towards carbon neutrality by 2030 by using 100% renewable energy in their processing facilities and by reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.
  6. They promise to value all of their stakeholders equal opportunity and increased benefits to everyone who works for them.

But they don't stop there.

Dole will also be donating $10K each to help further the missions of youth activists who are working to combat food waste, plastic packaging, and food access, including Josh Williams who founded Joshua's Heart Foundation, the Angeletti siblings that started back2earth, and Melati Wijsen, the 19-year old founder of Bye Bye Plastic Bags.

The end game of The Dole Promise is simple: bring "sunshine for all." Not only will it mean more nutritious food for you, but their entire business will strive to do good for communities all around the world and the planet as a whole.

To learn more about Dole, the Dole Asia Holdings group of companies, and their goals for better nutrition and environmental sustainability, visit SunshineForAll.com

Education

A school assignment asked for 3 benefits of slavery. This kid gave the only good answer.

The school assignment was intended to spark debate and discussion — but isn't that part of the problem?

A school assignment asked for 3 "good" reasons for slavery.



It's not uncommon for parents to puzzle over their kids' homework.

Sometimes, it's just been too long since they've done long division for them to be of any help. Or teaching methods have just changed too dramatically since they were in school.

And other times, kids bring home something truly inexplicable.
Keep ReadingShow less


Teacher Bret Turner thought he'd kick off the morning with his first-grade students using a little riddle.

On the whiteboard in the front of the class, he scrawled it out in black marker:

"I am the beginning of everything, the end of everywhere. I'm the beginning of eternity, the end of time & space."

One student raised their hand, the first to venture a guess.

Keep ReadingShow less
Identity

Non-Americans are sharing the ‘dead giveaway’ someone is American and they are pretty right

The dead giveaway is when they call me "honey" or "sweetie" or "darling."

via Flickr, Flickr, and Flickr

Three American tourists enjoying the sights.

One of the most interesting things about traveling the world is noticing how people from your country are a bit different from the place you’re visiting. In America, you’re mostly around fellow countrymen so it’s hard to notice the things that make us stand out.

But when you travel abroad, you quickly notice that no matter how hard you try to blend in, there are a lot of dead giveaways that show people you’re from the states that go way beyond your accent.

Keep ReadingShow less
Parenting

Teenage girl shamed for her ‘distracting’ outfit fights back in a very funny way

“[Because] she has a figure she was told she had to change.”

Photo from Facebook page.

A clever message written on her T-shirt.

A Lawton, Oklahoma, student who goes by the Facebook user name Rose Lynn had the last laugh after being sent home from school for wearing an outfit deemed "distracting." Rose Lynn believes her outfit attracted the attention of school officials because of her figure.

She proved it by posting a photo on Facebook of her modest outfit, which consisted of black leggings, a t-shirt, long cardigan, and boots. In her post, she wrote that she was sent home "because I'm developed farther than the average girl my age," and because she's a "CURVY woman." Rose Lynn also thinks the appropriate response shouldn't have been to tell her to cover up, but to teach boys to "to respect the boundaries of young ladies."

Keep ReadingShow less
Science

She tattooed half her face and you'd never know it. Her skills are just that good.

This incredible medical tattoo technology is giving renewed hope to burn victims.

All images via the CBS/YouTube

Basma Hameed runs a tattoo shop, of sorts...


Meet Samira Omar.

The 17-year-old was the victim of a horrific bullying incident.

Keep ReadingShow less

Taylor Swift at 2022 Toronto International Film Festival Red Carpet Day 2.

The wordsmiths over at Merriam-Webster have announced their official “Word of the Year for 2023,” they say it’s something we are “thinking about, writing about, aspiring to, and judging more” than ever.

The word is authentic.

According to the dictionary, the most common definitions of authentic are “not false or imitation,” “being true to one's own personality, spirit, or character,” and “worthy of acceptance or belief as conforming to or based on fact.”

Merriam-Webster says the word saw a “substantial increase” in lookups this year. That’s probably because we now live in a world where artificial intelligence, deepfake technology and questionable memes challenge our basic notions of reality.

Keep ReadingShow less