Don’t you hate it when you bite into a freshly made Chipotle burrito and get a mouthful of just rice or just beans? Wouldn’t you love to find a hassle free way to donate to charity? Are you wondering how these questions are related and where the hell am I going with this? Okay, okay, I’ll stop with the not so rhetorical questions.
If you answered yes to the above questions (and live in the Los Angeles area), then you are in luck. I was driving home last night, flipping radio channels until I landed on program called the Community Council on KIIS FM. I’ve listened to this program a few times before whenever I happen to be driving late on a Sunday night; it features unsung heroes, nonprofits around the area, etc. This time, I tune in just in time to hear something about 2 burrito connoisseurs studying for their masters at the USC School of Social Work who wanted to combine their love for burritos with social entrepreneurship - something they're learning about in school. Unfortunately I missed much of the explanation of their actual concept and but was able to catch their opinions about where the best burritos can be found. (C’mon, guys. The answer is Chipotle.) Anyway, my interest piqued, I looked up the Burrito Babes to learn more about who they are and what they're about.
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| Photo From iloveburritobabes.org |
Burrito Babes is very new social enterprise concept still in its developing stages. In fact, Sarah and Taleen only publicly pitched their idea as a final project last semester in December 2011. From their website aptly named www.iloveburritobabes.org, the Burrito Babe mission is to
“build stronger communities by providing local, sustainable, Mixican Style gourmet world burritos that bring social awareness and the opportunity to make a large-scale change with each burrito purchase.”
Note: Mixican is not a typo. I fell for that too. Think back to the first question! The only way to get the perfect bite of a burrito is to mix the ingredients first before putting it together. Clever huh?
Here’s how their giving model works. When a customer makes a burrito purchase, they receive a small, heartshaped token. With that token the customer can decide which of the three charities of the month (one from each category of food/hunger, local, international) they want a portion of the Burrito Babes profit to go to. And instead of a winner take all strategy, at the end of the month Burrito Babes divides the profit according to what percentage of the vote each charity got. There are a few things that I love about this particular giving model. First, it makes giving back so easy and intuitive. Second, the decision of which charity to choose requires a little bit of learning about each one. This empowerment to choose also give the customer the sense that they are more invested in the cause. Lastly, Burrito Babes supports multiple nonprofits on a rolling basis. This allows repeat customers to learn about different nonprofit causes each time they come in.
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| Photo From iloveburritobabes.org |
So what’s next for these Burrito Babes? Sarah and Taleen are both finishing up their degrees in May and just began marketing Burrito Babes this month on their Twitter, Facebook, radio stations etc. A couple of fundraising events are also in the works. Both are gearing up to run in the Hollywood Half Marathon and 5K to raise money for additional startup funds. Finally, next month Burrito Babes will be hosting a Burrito Eating Contest on April 21 in Santa Monica where half of the proceeds will go to the Westwide Food Bank.
Links:
Sarah and Taleen's video campaign for Burrito Babes
Donate to their Half Marathon Efforts
Burrito Babe's Feeding America Virtual Food Drive Donation Page
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