A desire to help others by a few area retailers has been folded into a trending business model that still seeks profits. Askinosie Chocolate, Eurasia Cafe and Five Pound Apparel are three examples of Springfield-based companies actively working to improve the lives of people in countries such as Tanzania, Bangladesh and Nepal.
Shawn Askinosie, a former Springfield trial attorney who started Askinosie Chocolate in May 2007, returned this month from his annual trek to Tanzania with a group of 12 high school students who were working to learn about entrepreneurship and the viability of social enterprises. Launched with a passion for chocolate and the knowledge that the business could be a vehicle for change, Askinosie Chocolate ships 25 metric tons of chocolate to more than 300 stores, including Whole Foods.
Askinosie said the Tanzania group, which included three Drury students and support personnel, had three missions: Buy the perfect cacao beans for the next year of production; deliver six laptops with 3,000 Kahn Academy instruction videos downloaded for a school of 1,100 children and roughly a dozen teachers; and kick-start a sustainable lunch program supported by Askinosie’s sale of Tanzanian rice, all while introducing future Springfield entrepreneurs to the culture and challenges of a developing country.
“If we can expose young people to the developing world, there’s a chance that will change their lives and give them inspiration and imagination as to what they might be able to do in the future,” Askinosie said.
Askinosie’s work is in line with the growing number of social enterprises as defined by The Institute of Social Entrepreneurs. In a 2008 report, the institute said social enterprises “directly confront social needs through their products and services rather than indirectly through socially responsible business practices.”
The report, posted to Minnesota-based Social Enterprise Alliance’s website,
SE-Alliance.org, points to philanthropists such as Andrew Carnegie as forerunners of the movement that started to gain traction in the 1980s. Newman’s Own, started by actor Paul Newman, was among the notable early social enterprises through salad dressing sales in 1982. Built on the practice of donating all profits after taxes, the company has donated $330 million to charities worldwide, according to
NewmansOwn.com.
One of the co-founders of downtown Springfield’s Five Pound Apparel, Bryan Simpson, said he was inspired by social enterprises Toms Shoes, a shoe retailer, and Kiva, a microloan company, when he worked with friends to develop the company’s business model. With every purchase of its house brand T-shirts, Five Pound donates five pounds of peanut butter nutritional product through NepalNutrition, which sends supplements to children in Nepal. The effort has resulted in the retailer shipping 4,000 pounds of protein supplements.
Brothers Bryan and Matt Simpson and Bethany Forrester opened the retail shop in December 2010. Simpson said the co-founders loosely based their business on the humanitarian model of Santa Monica, Calif.-based Toms Shoes, which donates a pair of shoes for every pair purchased. In early July, Simpson said Five Pound reached an agreement with Toms Shoes to sell the shoes.
Five Pound Apparel also partners with several like-minded social enterprises, selling brands such as Feed, Crochet Kits International and Out of Print Clothing.
“With the other brands we carry we’ve been able to donate 1,800 books to children in Africa to help children get an education. Through another product we carry, we’ve been able to donate 10,000 meals to the World Food Program, and we’ve been able to raise more than $5,000 for local nonprofits,” Simpson said.
Eurasia Cafe’s social mission is to fight the proliferation of human trafficking through Europe and Asia.
Through Nunica, Mich.-based Magnum Coffee Roastery, the business sells coffee and tea products to 96 wholesale and retail customers across the country and works to identify support programs or initiatives that improve the lives of those living in its coffee and tea producing areas.
Ryan Dagen, director of operations and finance for Eurasia Cafe, said Eurasia has several projects it supports at any given time, and its longest-running relationship is with the Deepika Vocational Center in Calcutta, India. Eurasia donates a portion of proceeds from sales of its Freedom Blend to Project Rescue, which works to eliminate human trafficking. The school, Dagen said, serves as a rehabilitation center for women who have been rescued out of slavery and provides them with vocational skills.
Eurasia also supports the Bangladesh Uettems Place, a school for girls in the impoverished south Asia country, according to Dagen. He said company officials have learned from its suppliers that it is not uncommon for women in Bangladesh to be sold into human trafficking by family members.
“By focusing on the root of the problem, we are actually able to stop the cycle of human trafficking before it begins,” Dagen said.
Dagen said Eurasia raised more than $12,000 during the first six months of 2012 for Deepika and Uettems Place. The company, which began in August 2010 with five accounts, operates one kiosk inside the Assemblies of God National Leadership & Resource Center at 1445 Boonville Ave., and has plans to open its first full-service cafe and roaster by year’s end at 445 E. Commercial St.
At Five Pound Apparel, being directly socially conscious has not meant forsaking revenue growth. In its first full year of operation, Simpson said Five Pound generated $180,000 in revenue, and in 2012, the store is on pace to sell $300,000. “Springfield is such a great place to start something like this. What is neat about our community is that while it is still small, people really rally around (each other),” Simpson said.
