The Nutty Providence Granola Project: We are officially going nuts. Help us launch this product and 20 refugees will enter the job market.

Beyond Nuts.

Okay, first check out this glamor shot of the premium glazed and spiced nuts we’re working on.  (They actually taste even better than they look.)  Can you think of a more ideal snack or holiday gift?

Now, think about this.  Would you believe that more people in the world are now displaced from their homes than at any time since WW2?

That’s about 60 million people. That means one out of every 120 of us on the planet has been torn away from what they care the most about: home, family, work, community, language, culture.  That’s way beyond nuts.  Without doubt it is one of the crucial moral issues of our times that should demand our attention.  Yet for many of us it seems far away.  And what can you or I do about it anyhow?

(Refugee Camp in Surac, Turkey)

Making granola to hire refugees.

About seven years ago we decided we’d try to do something, even it if was tiny. So we started a granola company. 

We knew that the few refugees resettling in our state (about 150-250 per year) were having a terrible time finding their first jobs.  So we decided that every employee in our company would be a refugee and every position would be paid job training.  

We started making the most delicious, healthy, all-natural granola we could.  We built relationships.  We told stories.  We opened a web store and began sending granola everywhere.  We set up booths at farmers markets where customers could buy granola and have a conversation with a refugee.  Our idea was to add incredible value to a delicious, nourishing product by producing it in way that changes people’s lives right in our own state and city. 

A nutty idea? Sure. The really nutty thing was that it worked. To date, we’ve provided training for over 40 refugees and almost every one of them has gone on to a better job.  Along the way we became our state’s premier granola maker with stores in MA and CT starting to pick us up.  One bag or bar at a time, we’re helping consumers have a small but personal stake in refugee resettlement and the lives of individual refugees.  And now we’ve set our sights on designing our company as a model for refugee job development which could be replicated in other refugee communities across the US and beyond.

Our nutty new campaign.

Just two years ago, with the help of 135 partners in our first Indiegogo campaign we launched a new product (granola bars) and grew our business.

We now feel ready to grow again.  In fact, within the next year we’ve set our sights on helping 20 refugees move into the job market. 

So what better way to make our nuttiness official than to officially go into nuts? Spiced nuts, that is. We’ve been working on prototypes. Thinly glazed with honey and a flavor that will knock your socks off. There’s nothing on the market quite like them.

Since we’re a partnership-minded non-profit, crowdfunding is an ideal way for us to move forward.  We get your input and support.  You get a stake in a mission that matters.  Together we’ll perfect a delicious product that we’ll all be proud of and that will introduce many thousands more to a concern for refugees. 

How we’ll use the money.

Launching a new premium product is never cheap. 

We plan to use the funding to upgrade our packaging system equipment (for all our products) in order to include lot numbers and dates. 

We will design professional packaging and labels that will better communicate the amazing story of refugees and resettlement. 

Most importantly, we will jump start production, and the training and marketing that goes with it.  This is how our growth cycle works: the only way we can expand our training program is by first expanding sales and production.  While much of the money we raise will go directly into making nuts and getting them out to you and your friends, your support will give us the much needed flexibility to get our production up to speed and will introduce our product to a large number of people in time for the holiday season.

The perks: what’s in it for you? 

Our perks are all ways to emphasize our priorities.

Other ways to help.

Tags:
Indiegogo, United States, Reward, English, Food, Food and Beverage, Industry verticals, Regions, Types of Crowdfunding deal, Language, Rhode Island