More than 20% of children aged 6–11 and more than 18% of children aged 12–19 were considered obese in 2008, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These children face a higher risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes as adults. Help encourage healthy eating habits among children with this Grassroots campaign: for $15, you get a hot-sauce gift box with shipping included from Co-op Sauce (a $28 value), with all proceeds going to its Chitown Chefs Program.
Co-op Sauce employs natural ingredients from local growers to create quality, handcrafted sauces, each one marked with the name of the farm that produced its fresh components. Volunteers follow seasonal recipes to mix each series of short-run sauces in 10- to 20-gallon batches, creating unique products that can't be reproduced from one season to the next. Then, youth employed by parent organization Co-op Image help bottle the sauces for sale online. Each hot-sauce gift box contains a four-pack including poblano, jalapeño, pumpkin, and mole sauces. Typically, half the proceeds from the sale of Co-op sauces goes to support Co-op Image’s youth art center and community arts initiatives in Humboldt Park. However, with this campaign, 100% of the proceeds will benefit its Chitown Chefs project.
Chitown Chefs is a program of Co-op Image that connects youth with urban agriculture, healthy eating, and culinary-arts training through a weekly cooking show. Youth cultivate herbs and vegetables in a community garden and then prepare the produce live on the show, which is also filmed and produced by teens. 100% of the proceeds from this Grassroots campaign will go toward funding equipment and supplies for Chitown Chefs' new youth-run café.
You can follow the progress of this and other Grassroots campaigns at the Groupon Grassroots website.