bonhappi-T is TWO! Here's How We Celebrated Our Birthday!

In August, bonhappi-T turned TWO! Instead of celebrating on our own we decided to share the happiness with the people we’re in business for - those you feed for a month when you buy one of our bonhappi-T shirts. Our people-feeding partner, FoodForward SA, supply food to over 600 beneficiary organisations, who feed people every day, thanks to food and monetary donations.

Some of the little people from Little People's Den

One FoodForward SA beneficiary is Little People’s Den Educare Centre in Milnerton. This pre-school serves disadvantaged children from the surrounding areas whose parents cannot afford to pay pre-school fees. The centre aims to provide foundation-phase education to these children, ensuring their early development is not compromised. In addition to this, they provide their learners with adequate nutrition to aid the learning process. Partnering with FoodForward SA has freed up funding for the school to take the children on monthly educational excursions around Cape Town, further enriching their learning experience.

Happy faces on their way to Intake Island

Choosing to spend our 2nd birthday with Little People’s Den was, therefore, a no-brainer. Each child received a party pack filled with sweets and toys and had fun with helium balloons and birthday cup cakes.

Want to share happiness when you #wearhappiness? Buy any tee from bonhappi-T.com and you will feed a hungry person or dog for one month.

#wearhappiness

Instalment 3: Addressing the problem

Instalment 3: Addressing the problem

Making it easy for people to help others and consistently linking the act to something meaningful, sounds hectic but, is very do-able

...and the social impact it can have is mind blowing :) 

SOCIAL IMPACT 1 - connecting

 We let you quickly and easily do good by making it possible for you to feed a hungry person or homeless dog for a whole month, at no additional cost to yourself. All you do is buy a good quality, fashionable, reasonably priced t-shirt from our bonhappi-T.com online store, instead of that one you were going to buy somewhere else. A fixed portion of your payment is transferred, on purchase, on your behalf, to one of our feeding NPOs. 

As one of our customer's said:

SOCIAL IMPACT 2 - feeding

All people-feeding is done through FoodForwardSA, part of the Global FoodBanking Network. They redistribute supermarket and food-company food destined for landfills but given to them instead. Your donation enables FoodForwardSA to supplement meals and get the food to 600 beneficiaries, 75% of whom focus on skills training/education as their feeding is taken care of. The donation amount required to feed someone for a month, that we send on your behalf, is calculated by FoodForward SA.

When you buy a bonhappi-T shirt and choose to feed a dog, we send your donation to the Do More Foundation, who deliver an 8kg bag of Bobtail dog food to the bonhappi-T dog charities: KZN Valley Dogs, Project Dog and Inanda Dog & Cat Project, on your behalf. #DoMore have also agreed to supply specific monthly dog food donations to our charities, irrespective of whether sufficient t-shirts have been purchased - how amazing and kind is that! 




So, we have made it dead easy for you to help out :) all we ask in return is that you do. Bonhappi-T only works if you buy one of our t-shirts - the ball is in your court.

Be happy.

Next Instalment, I'll show you how some corporates have involved themselves with bonhappi-T. Perhaps yours will.

Instalment 2: The problem we are helping to solve

www.bonhappi-T.com

Actually, it's 2 problems at once, with 1 thing - how cool is that 😀  bonhappi-T's DNA is 1bon+1T=2happi which means: 1 good person buys 1 bonhappi-T shirt and instantly makes 2 happy - the good person who gets a quick, easy chance to make a consistent difference in a life and the person/dog who gets food for an entire month (haha I studied Maths so makes sense that our brand essence is a sum!) Here it is in more detail...

PROBLEM 1:

The difficulty for people to regularly make a meaningful difference in the lives of those less fortunate, even though they would like to.

Rural community, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa

CAUSE

* there is little opportunity for everyday people to connect with the less fortunate as the 2 groups lead very different lives

Street Artist Giffy Duminy adds value by painting a wall at Zwakele Primary School

* generally small donations are pooled by consumer brands and then given as one combined payment from the company/brand - we enable people to make a meaningful difference all on their own

Tiffany fed someone for a month, just by buying a bonhappi-T.com shirt for herself :)

PROBLEM 2:

Widespread hunger

CAUSE

* the world produces enough food to feed everyone but poverty causes 1 in 8 people to go hungry every day

Alexandra township residents queuing for donated food

* underprivileged people don't have sufficient money to survive and often go without food

Philipine cooks meals from donated food for the hungry every day

Thankful for a lunch

* almost half of all edible food ends up in landfills

Our feeding partner FoodForward SA secures edible food before it is sent to a landfill for their 600 beneficiary organisations, feeding over 250 000 people a day

Next week, it's all about how we help you sort this out.

Be happy :)

Our Social Business Adventure

This has been a crazy first year for us :) so I thought I would break bonhappi-T up into 'instalments' to let you see...

Instalment 1: How we came up with the idea

A while ago Felix and I were chatting about the fact that most people, given the chance, love to help others in need but often simply don't know how to. So we decided to provide a global, simple, fun way to do it and make meaningful helping out a part of everyday life.

We would create happiness by being the link that quickly and easily connects people who can (all of us) with people who can't (the underprivileged).

We put together a simple mechanism. As most people buy t-shirts, we chose quality, fashionable Ts on the one hand and as hunger is widespread and something everyone can relate to, we chose feeding the hungry, on the other.

To be universal, we created a global eCommerce site and people around the world have created over 50000 days of feeding - so far.

Every time someone buys a bonhappi-T shirt for themselves they feed a hungry mouth for a month as well - not just a day or a week! If we couldn't have found a consistent way to feed for a full month, we wouldn't have started the company.

Our customers choose to feed either a hungry person or a homeless dog when they buy a bonhappi-T. We added dogs as they add value to many families.

We partnered with NPOs FoodForward SA and The Do More Foundation to feed.

We developed a mobile and PC website. We focused our priorities on: manufacturing proudly South African, quality, fashionable, affordable t-shirts; a user friendly online shopping experience that shows exactly who the customer is feeding for a month; local and international express courier partnerships which enable us to offer free shipping as a part of the selling price.

Hope you enjoyed reading this - keep an eye out for the next one :)

Celebrity Chefs' story

Celebrity Chefs join Fashion for Food

14 Celebrity Chefs at the Good Food and Wine Show joined the Fashion for Food happiness movement by choosing bonhappi-Ts and feeding a mouth for a month with every t-shirt chosen.

Australian Chefs George Calombaris and Reuben Davis loved their bonhappi-Ts and took 12 back to Melbourne for their Development team. Together they fed 28 hungry people for a month (we matched their feeding).

George Calombaris, MasterChef Australia judge, in his black Africa smiles bonhappi-T

Reuben Davis in his cobalt mock pocket bonhappi-T, Development Chef at
George's Melbourne restaurant, The Press Club

SA Celebrity Chefs loved the many meals bonhappi-Ts and wore them on their shows. They were each feeding someone for a month while they were showing people how to make many meals :)

Wanna Be Chef J'Something in his navy many meals bonhappi-T takes a selfie with a fan

     SA Chef Kamini Pather in her coral many meals bonhappi-T joins the Fashion for Food happiness movement

The 14 Celebrity Chef Fashion for Food followers, sharing happiness with their bonhappi-Ts, helped generate 7 688 days of feeding in 3 days - that's over 2500 days of feeding each day 😄

Fashion for Food

Fashion for Food

Everything you need to know about how to join the bonhappi-T Fashion for Food happiness movement.

Heart Stuff

our East Coast Radio interview

On 1 December 2016 we were fortunate enough to have this interview on the ECR breakfast show. Have a listen as we tell Keri Miller what our thinking is and how we started bonhappi-T in August 2016.

Project Dog's story

Waiting for a forever home

All the dogs that Project Dog look after receive as much love as possible. Volunteers and part time staff visit and walk the dogs several times a week. The dogs are looked after by foster parents wherever possible and some spend time in kennels.

Project Dog is passionate about finding every homeless dog a new best friend. Meanwhile they clean their kennels, wash their blankets and give them meals to keep them as happy as possible. 

DIsabled story

Happiness for the Disabled

Every day each member of this group is dropped off at one of FoodForward SA's beneficiaries for disabled people. They learn new skills, do corporate contract work when it is available and enjoy a lunch prepared for them.

Sbongiseni

Johana

Johana and her pupils are very proud of their vegetables and so they should be! They work hard in their vegetable gardens and new greenhouse every day.

Yum

Erin and Thato checking the veg

Irene's story

Irene loves what she does

Every day Irene makes elderly people happy.  She and her helpers serve everyone a delicious meal so they never feel hungry.

She provides the elderly with the opportunity to do things they are good at and supplies a place where they feel happy and at home and can be with friends.

Julie loves to knit

From the time he was a small boy, Aleck and his Mom spent most of their time on their own, so she taught him how to sew.  Every day he looks forward to the time he spends at Irene's old age home because he gets to sew. He makes cushions and peg bags that they can sell to help with funds. 

Aleck loves to sew

A little while ago, on Mandela Day, Irene went across the road and said to the elderly men who were sitting outside the bottle store that if they visited her old age home and helped with the garden, she would give them a meal. Today, they spend every day there because they enjoy being sober and helpful and spending time with the friends they have made.

Irene happily and proudly took the old age home over from her Grandmother, after whom she is named :) 

Ekujabuleni Kwabadala is one of FoodForward SA's beneficiaries.  

Philipine's story

Philipine is an amazing woman

She and her team prepare meals to feed hungry people every day. In her free time, Philipine does extra work for a company who pays her with fruit and vegetables, which she adds to the meals.

They prepare and serve their food in an old church hall in Alexandra, South Africa. Philipine says that no matter how many people arrive that day, they always have enough food :)  

After the meal, people have the chance to take a little food back home. On the day we visited, most people took a few rolls and a little fruit to share with others at home.

                          

In our first week 50 of these people could be fed for a whole month thanks to bonhappi-T happiness followers and FoodForward SA. You can join our Fashion for Food happiness movement and feed a mouth for a month just by buying an exclusive t-shirt from www.bonhappi-T.com :)