May We All Breathe Freely

Dear ECOlunchbox community,

Normally, we’re sharing about our work to avert plastic pollution. As a green business, our voice has traditionally been loudest when it comes to environmental issues, but I’m reaching out to share with you that’s not the only thing we care about at ECOlunchbox. 

Like many of you, we are grieving the racist killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Breonna Taylor, Miles Hall, and so many more victims of civil rights atrocities. Before I share about the actions we’ve taken as a company to support the movement for racial equality and justice, I want to express our love and solidarity with so many people in our community on the front lines of the recent protests. We see you. We hear you. We stand with you. We send you this blessing.

MAY WE ALL BREATHE FREELY

George Floyd’s last cry “I can’t breathe” broke our hearts open. This simple blessing we’ve come up with, “May We All Breathe Freely,” has become a rallying cry for us at ECOlunchbox. We feel like these words succinctly express our organization’s deeply held values around both racial equity and environmental justice, linking current events to our plastic-free environmental mission.

I want to share with you unequivocally that at ECOlunchbox we believe black lives matter, and we stand for the rights of all people, regardless of race, to “breathe freely.” That means no more police choke holds. No more unjust exposure to toxic pesticides for Latino farmworkers. No more toxic factories spewing carcinogens in black and brown neighborhoods. Breathing freely is an essential human right that’s too often taken away from people of color. The civil and environmental rights movements are often waged separately, but these causes both sprout from the same root of injustices requiring remedy.

While talking about our company’s values is important, we are determined to take urgent action to join the wellspring of protesters and organizations rallying for a better, more-just world. So we asked ourselves what can we do to help? As part of our standard operating procedures, we follow non-discrimination hiring policies. We screen our business partners for racial and gender diversity as well as fair labor practices. Furthermore, our ECOlunchbox marketing photos feature our products in use by racially diverse people.

To build upon what we’re already doing, we decided to make financial contributions this week to @aclu_nationwide and @antipoliceterrorproject and @consciouskitchn. In addition to our cash donation to @consciouskitchn, we’ve extended our ECOlunchbox online fundraiser for the non-profit’s free organic lunch program for underserved black, brown and hungry communities in Marin County, California. If you’d like to have a percentage of your ECOlunchbox purchase go towards this lunch program, we have details on our Instagram page here.

While we don’t have the answers, we want our community to know we care. We are leaning in now to a process of studying how we can “breathe” support into the noble efforts of the activists striving to reform our racist society. We would welcome hearing from our community, so please email us at team@ecolunchboxes.com with any comments or questions.

With love,