The last four generations of my family were born and grew up in Hawaii; island living was built into my DNA. We realized early on that limited amounts of resources affect the cost of those resources. When I moved to the mainland after my parents divorced, every kid in my school had more stuff than I did. Living on a single-mom income, money was tight, and I grew up hungry and sometimes the only meal I received was the free one from school. As I got older, I took a hard look at what food insecurity did to me personally and what it’s doing to the nation and I decided to make an impact.
One of the reasons that Fed By Threads is committed to feeding a million meals a year and eliminating food insecurity came out of my childhood fears. I was sleep-deprived, trouble focusing, and was personally ashamed of being poor. It is a tragedy that anyone should have those feelings, especially a helpless child.
As the owner of Fed By Threads, I have 34 years of working in the apparel industry and I have developed a keen understanding of the manufacturing world. Our company chose to focus on Circularity, we’ve migrated our business to make a positive difference in a circular economy as our core principle. We are trying to do the maximum amount of good and offset anything that is questionable. Our business operates in a totally Earth-positive way: wages, social, emotional and physical (toxicity, supply chain, fuel source). We look at everything with a keen eye on the impact of the planet. That shift in ideology has transformed me personally and set the direction for the rest of my life.
There is something about feeding people that I think is the most innate good we can do. At our office, we celebrate all success and milestones with a healthy meal together. It is the core meeting place for families and friends to connect. It’s a simple good and it never gets old.
We aim to get people helping to feed America's hungriest mouths, those that are barely getting by. That's the core foundation of who we are and we are proud to support Feeding America.
