Chipotle’s Invitation: Send Us Your Junk
Web-based Fundraiser Turns Junk E-mail into Healthy and Nutritious Meals for Schools Nationwide
Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG), the national chain of burrito restaurants, wants all of the e-mail you don’t want. Through its “No Junk” campaign, the company is encouraging Americans to forward their junk e-mails to [email protected] where each forwarded piece of e-mail will help provide nutritious cafeteria meals for school children around the country through a partnership with the nonprofit organization, The Lunch Box. (www.thelunchbox.org)
“I am thrilled that Chipotle is helping get better food into schools with their ‘No Junk’ campaign and its collaboration with The Lunch Box.”
The more junk e-mail received, the more money Chipotle will donate. For every 100,000 junk e-mails Chipotle receives, the company will donate $10,000 to The Lunch Box, which will help to give approximately 32 million school children at 100,000 schools nationwide access to 100 school-tested, junk-free recipes created by Chef Ann Cooper, the Renegade Lunch Lady. The “No Junk” campaign launches on June 25 and is slated to run through August, or until Chipotle reaches its goal of 500,000 junk e-mails received, which releases its maximum contribution to The Lunch Box of $50,000.
Chipotle is committed to using premium quality ingredients from more sustainable sources in its nearly 1,000 restaurants nationwide. That includes more naturally raised meat (from animals that are raised in a humane way, never given antibiotics or added hormones, and fed a pure vegetarian diet) than any other national restaurant company, increasing amounts of local and organically grown produce, and dairy products made with milk from cows that are not treated with the synthetic hormone rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone). Chipotle calls this commitment “Food with Integrity” and it is one of the ways the company is changing the way people think about and eat fast food.
“Through our commitment to Food with Integrity, we are making sustainably raised food available and affordable so everyone can eat better,” said Steve Ells, founder, chairman and co-CEO of Chipotle. “But better eating should go beyond what we do. With The Lunch Box, we have found a like-minded organization that shares many of our beliefs and is committed to getting better, more sustainable food into our nation’s schools. That is something that’s easy for us to support.”
The Lunch Box provides necessary and tangible tools for school nutrition directors, school districts, parents and advocates seeking to create change within their own schools and communities. TheLunchBox.org is a project that utilizes web technology to build community and enable access to all of its resources to speed up school food reform - all free of charge.
“Our children's health should be our nation's number one priority,” said Chef Ann Cooper, The Lunch Box founder. “I am thrilled that Chipotle is helping get better food into schools with their ‘No Junk’ campaign and its collaboration with The Lunch Box.”
No e-mail addresses will be automatically captured when junk e-mail is submitted through its no junk campaign, and the content of e-mails will not be read. People who participate in the program will have the opportunity to opt in to Chipotle’s e-mail list, learn more about Chipotle and its commitment to serving “Food with Integrity” on the company’s website, or link to TheLunchBox.org to learn more about that organization and its programs.
