FEED’ing the World with the WIA Summit Conference Bag

By Michelle Pelletier Marshall, Women in Agribusiness Media (May 3, 2022)

This year, the conference bag that holds the Women in Agribusiness Summit goodies also will be the conduit to 8,000 meals being served to less fortunate school children around the globe. That’s because it is a FEED bag, which is an impact driven lifestyle brand where each product purchased provides a certain number of meals to children.

Each of the 800 bags purchased for the 2022 Summit will provide funding for 10 school meals to a child, so thousands of children will benefit from the WIA bag purchase, which is sponsored by Nationwide as it has been for many years. These meals reach kids in need in the U.S. and all over the world through FEED’s nonprofit partners, which include the UN World Food Programme, No Kid Hungry, and Akshaya Patra. To date, more than 120 million school meals have been provided by this women-owned company.

“We take every opportunity to have all that we do have meaning, to use the power and reach of our WIA community to add value not just to the ag sector, but to the world around us,” said Joy O’Shaughnessy, COO of HighQuest Partners and event director for the WIA Summit. “The inclusion of this unique bag at WIA is one small way we can have a direct impact, and we are grateful for Nationwide’s support of this endeavor.”

For sponsor Nationwide, choosing this bag was a no-brainer. “Anything to do with hunger, food and feeding the world, we are in,” said Krista Soda, senior consultant for Nationwide. “One of the main advocacy programs we work with is Feeding America. As a company with roots in agriculture, we protect those who feed, fuel and clothe the world so helping with hunger and food insecurity are huge to us here at Nationwide.”

Nationwide has supported the Women in Agribusiness Summit for nine years and has been the bag sponsor for eight years. “While we’ve been pleased with all of our sponsored bags, what we love about this year’s bag is that it is more substantial. It helps feed children and tells a story,” said Soda, noting that their nearly decade-long affiliation with WIA is more than a sponsorship, it’s a partnership. “We seek out connections that help shine a light on diversity in ag, and the WIA Summit has always hit the mark for us on that.”

FEED, which was founded by Lauren Bush Lauren in 2007, has provided over 100 million meals since its inception, thanks to purchases such as this. As of 2021, 74 percent of its durable, functional, reusable totes and accessories will be made using GOTS certified organic cotton or rPET (recycled polyethylene terephthalate – aka, recycled plastic). And the company works with artisans from Kenya to India for a growing number of its collections. Learn more here.