Among the company’s many commitments announced yesterday to help level the playing field for Black, Indigenous and People of Color is a seemingly small change that could have an outsized impact on the youngest generation – a decision to adjust its KIND Kids packaging to be more inclusive and reflect America’s diversity.
New packages of KIND Kids bars rolling out to retail now feature children with different color skin and hair playfully tossing or dodging chocolate chips or swirls of honey around giant snack bars whereas before the children featured on the boxes were almost identical across flavors. The change could empower young snackers by showing them positive images of diverse children.
KIND applied a similar ethos to the creation of its second-edition KIND EQUALITY bar, which features a wrapper that shows silhouettes of people with various skin tones “uniting together for equality,” a company spokesperson told FoodNavigator-USA.
Recognizing that the packaging changes are “just a small part of our larger commitment to address inequality facing Black, Indigenous, People of Color communities,” the spokesperson added that it takes “actions, big or small, each day to build” a world that is “diverse, inclusive and equitable.”
KIND pledges funds, food to support BIPOC communities
In addition to diversifying the representation on its packaging, KIND pledged yesterday to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars and one million of its bars to help level the playing field for BIPOC communities that have suffered systemic injustices.
The KIND Foundation committed to donate $100,000 to racial justice organizations, such as the NACCP Legal Defense Fund and Equal Justice Initiative, while KIND pledged to fund more than $100,000 in student scholarships as part of its “adoption” of the historically Black colleges and universities Florida A&M and North Carolina A&T State Universities.
Through the adoption, KIND also promised to create a program that offers students opportunities to earn internships, participate in career coaching and network with industry leaders, the spokesperson said.
In addition, KIND donated $25,000 to support the National Collaborative for Health Equity’s mission to tackle food security and injustice in local communities. With NCHE’s help, KIND also pledged to donate 1 million bars to food insecure communities.
In a LinkedIn post published Jan. 11 announcing KIND’s commitments, the company’s CEO and Founder Daniel Lubetsky called on others to join KIND in “standing up against injustice while also working to rebuild trust and empathy across our communities.”
He added: “Together, we can commit to celebrate both what we have in common AND what sets us apart. We can be proud of who and where we come from, while also recognizing that we will only realize our fullest potential as people and as a society by listening to, learning from and caring for one another.”