Our Food Fuels Our People
Our Businesses Fuel Our Communities
One Heart Fund Fuels Our Food Businesses
One Heart Fund invests in and provides resources to help growing health-focused food and beverage CPG businesses. We aim to bring greater diversity and affordability to the market while supplying the growing demand for protein, healthy-fat, and allergy-friendly options. We’re excited we’ll also be supporting the growing wave of food producers along the way. Our focus is on regional and local distribution channels to bring our food sources closer to home for everyone while reducing transportation emissions. We see the benefits of these gradual changes will be to move us away from a subsidy and profit-informed food supply, towards a nutrition and wellness-informed one. Building upon the systems already in place, we are certain we can contribute to building a sustainable and nourishing food supply that is beneficial for our farmers, people, businesses, and planet alike.
OUR NON-NEGOTIABLE VALUES
Excellence
Delivering and Maintaining
Excellence In
Taste, Nutrition, and Experience.
Love
Living the Principles of
»Higher Purpose
»Stakeholder Orientation
»Conscious Leadership
»Conscious Culture
Sustainability
Utilizing Regenerative
Rather Than
Value-Extraction
Models of Business
Our Humanitarian Initiatives
One Heart Fund also exists to fund and help deploy global resources to help provide solutions to some of our world’s most pressing needs.
Project #1: Mental Health Care - Accessible For All
Objective: To create an expert-led, donation- based platform, where guidance through the self-EMDR process is given in small group and one-on-one onboarding sessions along with ongoing, weekly sessions for guided walk-throughs and continued support. We forecast this project will be self-sustaining and funding its own expansion within 3-4 years of being launched.
Intention: We hold the vision of a world where we are all mentally well, in harmony with ourselves and the world around us, where explicit mental health services are no longer needed. We see this platform, where high- quality mental health care is readily available for everyone, as a part of the process to bring about a world of harmony.
It’s no secret that our nation is facing a mental health crises. According to Mental Health America’s 2023 State of Mental Health Report(23SMHR) from 2019 to 2020 20.78% of adults were experiencing a mental illness, over 50 million Americans. Even in the state in the lead for care access currently, Montana, 40% of those in need did not receive care. Through the US, 54.7% of adults (over 28 million people) with a mental illness do not receive treatment. 42% of adults with a mental illness reported they were unable to receive necessary care because they were not able to afford it. These numbers translate into people turning to other measures in order to cope. 15.35% of adults had a substance use disorder in the 2023, however, 93.5% reported they did not receive any form of treatment.
These challenges are now affecting our youth as well. 16.39% of youth (age 12-17) report suffering from at least one major depressive episode in the past year, while 11.5% of youth (over 2.7 million youth) are experiencing severe major depression (23SMHR). According to the CDC, in 2019, amongst people ages 15 24, suicide was the #2 cause of deaths. The #3 cause of death in that same age range is homicide. In 2019, suicide was also the #2 cause of death amongst people ages 25-44. Pew Charitable Trust shares that one of the main hurdles to delivering this care is engagement.
“Solving for engagement requires intervening early (before hopelessness, avoidance, and denial set in), meeting people where they are (not asking someone to wait six weeks for a clinic appointment), and building trust by offering something of value (not simply a diagnosis) at the first meeting. But that’s not how our health care system works. Health care has been built for payers and providers who need a diagnosis for reimbursement. It has not been built for patients and families looking for efficient and effective care.”
– Thomas Insel, M.D.
Psychiatrist and Neuroscientist
A donation-based self EMDR platform, facilitated by experts, is an opportunity to bridge these gaps in engagement and access while maintaining the high quality of care and personalized attention required to be a desirable and effective solution for many who would not otherwise get the help needed to thrive. There are many studies showing the effectiveness of both EMDR and self-EMDR. The department of Veteran Affairs has deemed it a best practice for treating veterans with PTSD and it has gained the approval of the World Health Organization and government organizations in the UK, Australia, and Germany, among others.
¤ Accessible: can be used as an early-care approach and can be done at one’s own pace.
¤ Empowerment: puts the patient in charge of their healing journey, while they learn to be responsible for their emotional well-being
¤ Holistic: provides early access to a treatment that is both natural and handles the issue at the root of the problem, while avoiding adverse side-effects.
The mental health of our nation and world is a multi-faceted challenge we face. It will require collaborative, root-based solutions. Together, we can reach a space of equilibrium and harmony, within ourselves, and with our planet. This platform is not the entire solution, by any means, but it will be another paramount step in the right direction, providing a much needed solution to countless individuals and families.
Project #2: Periods In Peace
Objective: To provide an ongoing supply of sustainable and safe period-care products to everyone in need, first in the United States, then worldwide.
Intention: To transform period poverty into period richness – acknowledging it for what it truly is – the blessing that gives life. We all enjoy the richness of a collective society. This is a responsibility that we can all share in the joy and blessing of providing for.
In the United States, it is estimated 16.9 million menstruating women in the United States live in poverty, and that two- thirds of those are low income and food- insecure women who cannot afford basic menstrual care products. That’s 11.2 million people in our country who do not have the means to take care of their basic monthly needs and often have to choose between sanitation products and food. This is a situation that leads to a variety of other complicated psychological, financial, and physical problems.
Diagram from Journal of Health Reports
This is partially a means problem and partially an education and adoption problem. There are now period underwear and sanitation cups which, along with proper sanitary measures, can be used to take care of someone’s menstruation needs for several years to a decade or more. Many women who have adopted these means prefer them due to their superior experience with these products. The majority of single-use tampons and pads in the United States are authorized to have dyes in them that are not permitted in European countries. These dyes are found in paint products and cause serious short- term and long-term complications.
Studies have shown a difference in financial circumstances can equate to a 13 point drop in IQ, limiting the bandwidth of a person to get themselves out of those same circumstances.
“Past research has often blamed (poverty) on the personal failings of the poor. They don’t work hard enough; they’re not focused enough. What we’re arguing is it’s not about the individual. It’s about the situation.”
– Jiaying Zhao, University of BC
Professor and Researcher
Globally, the numbers are even more dire, reports estimate that 500 million people globally do not have access to sanitation products, often turning to leaves, dirty rags, and other unsanitary means, leading to other serious, yet avoidable health complications.
Data from an HIV cross sectional survey of 3418 menstruating females, ages 13- 29 in rural kenya reported 10% of 15 years olds engaged in transactional sex in exchange for money to buy sanitation products. Girls 15 years of age and younger were significantly more likely to report this kind of transactional sex, compared to those aged over 15.
If it’s happening in Kenya, it’s likely happening in many other parts of the world, particularly in those areas where there are vulnerable populations of migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers trying to re-establish themselves and secure their futures.
Let us save any of our world’s daughters from transactional sex being a part of their rite of passage through this sacred transition in their development.
When ample supplies are given, this is a downward cycle that can be turned around, gifting that person with a more stable future for themselves and their family, for generations to come.
Diagram from Journal of Health Reports
Project Kesher is able to take care of menstruation needs for a person for 10 years, for just $10. They are one of the many examples in place that we can help support in their efforts. Together, through collaborative efforts and sharing of global resources, the lifethreatening cycle of impovershment and suffering can be turned around. We see sustainably meeting the world’s menstruation needs completely, allowing for everyone to have Periods in Peace, Safety, and Dignity, as a step in the right direction.
You Are Invited!
We are excited to see all One Heart Fund will do over the years to come, from farm to table!
You are invited to join on us on this exciting journey! Sign up below to stay informed of our developments, including when we announce our first round of funding.