image from sfweekly
We love when successful businesses use their power to help make a
difference in the world. Ben and Jerry's ice cream has always been one
of our favorite tasty treats, but our love for them goes beyond the ice
cream. Ben and Jerry moved to Burlington, VT in 1978 because it was a
college town with no ice cream parlor, they figured no competition would
help their business blossom. The pair held social and political events
at their store aimed at the college crowd, and business began to boom.
In 1980, they began packaging their ice cream for sale in a stores. Once
Ben and Jerry began to taste success, they did the unthinkable for
young businessmen...they held a public auction of the company's stocks
in Vermont. Their idea was for their community to 'get a taste of the
action,' as their business was beginning to succeed as well as gaining
capital to invest in more equipment for producing ice cream. In 1984,
Häagen-Dazs tried to limit Ben and Jerry's distribution by threatening
to pull their product out of any store that would carry Ben and Jerry's.
As you can imagine, this did not settle with the pair. They immediately
launched the "What's the Doughboy Afraid of Campaign?" and became the
faces of the little guys getting squashed by big business. The media
storm that followed helped the pair gain recognition not only because of
the Häagen-Dazs ordeal, but also allowed them to share their important
philosophies and ideologies of how a business should be run. In 1985
the Ben and Jerry Foundation was created and received 7.5% of their
annual pre-tax profits to go towards community oriented projects. In
2000 the pair sold the company to food giant Unilever under one
condition, to keep going with their mission to give back to the
community through the Ben and Jerry's Foundation, as well as sourcing
all milk from Vermont cows. Though they don't oversee the company
anymore, Ben and Jerry are both active in the Ben and Jerry Foundation.
Ben lobbies in Washington to increase funds for education by taking a
minuscule amount of funding from the military. He uses cookies to
demonstrate how much funding the military is getting vs. how much
funding education is getting.
Click here to see what Ben and Jerry are fighting for these days and what you can do to help. What's your favorite flavor of Ben and Jerry's? We like Phish Food, but you probably already knew that! :)
Click here to see what Ben and Jerry are fighting for these days and what you can do to help. What's your favorite flavor of Ben and Jerry's? We like Phish Food, but you probably already knew that! :)
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