The snack company is donating 5p from every bar sold in WHSmith between December and March – committing a minimum donation of £50k towards supporting CALM’s lifesaving helpline that provides free, anonymous and confidential support to those who are struggling.
The helpline is operational from 5pm to midnight, 365 days a year.
Kind’s donation to CALM is being matched by WHSmith and Tesco, with talks currently being held with additional national retailers to jump on board.
“It’s absolutely fantastic to have the support of both retailers for our charity partnership,” said Kind’s UK marketing director John McManus.
“We are committed to helping support CALM’s lifesaving work, a cause that sits at the very heart of the KIND brand. This new initiative will support our ongoing efforts to champion the importance of exercising kindness given its mental health benefits of boosting confidence, happiness and optimism.”
Spread a little love
The move is part of Kind’s wider mission to spread kindness in the UK, at a time that it’s particularly needed.
And despite the challenges 2020 threw at us, research recently commissioned by Kind shows it proved to be one of the kindest yet. The index, coined the ‘Kind Curve’, found remarkable acts of kindness dominated news stories alongside rolling Covid-19 updates.
Surveying tweets from Brits for the entire year, the Curve revealed Marcus Rashford’s End Child Food Poverty campaign, Clap for Carers and Captain Tom’s 100 laps all significantly swung online chat for the better.
On the other side of the scale, national lows included the announcement of the second lockdown and the introduction of the three tier system.
With Covid set to remain a challenge in 2021, Kind Snacks is calling on the nation to ensure the wave of kindness continues into the new year.
Further commitments by the company include:
- The Kind Foundation is donating $100,000 to racial justice organisations, such as NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Equal Justice Initiative.
- Investing over $100,000 in Black student scholarships to create a programme that offers students the opportunities to earn internships, career coaching and networking.
- Releasing its second-annual Kind Equality bar, that represents a world that’s diverse, inclusive and equitable. Kind will also be donating one million of its bars to food insecure communities through NCHE and has made a donation of $25,000 to support NCHE’s Collaborative for Health Equity and Culture of Health Leaders Programmes.
- Adjusting its Kind Kids packaging to be more inclusive and reflect America’s diversity.
Free nutritional advice for Americans
Kind is launching RD Connect, a first-of-its-kind platform that pairs registered dietitians with Americans who are looking for credible nutritional support at no cost. The pilot programme will offer 3,000+ free sessions to Americans seeking support from the safety of their home. The participating registered dietitians are part Kind’s Nutrition Collective that was launched in 2017.
RD Connect was developed in response to Kind’s food & nutrition trend report, compiled from 5,000 registered dietitians’ predications for what’s to come in 2021. One of the key trends was the continued prevalence of telehealth services (which has seen a 154% increase), which are now expanding into other areas including nutrition and physical therapy.