Whole Foods Market has grown into a nationwide chain by catering to consumer desires for healthier foods and environmentally sensitive farming methods. Along with selling these products, the company m

Whole Foods Market has grown into a nationwide chain by catering to consumer desires for healthier foods and environmentally sensitive farming methods. Along with selling these products, the company makes a commitment to actively participate in its stores’ communities. Whole Foods not only donates 5 percent of after-tax profits to not-for-profit organizations but also financially supports employees who volunteer their time for community service projects. Many Whole Foods stores donate food and household supplies to food banks in their local communities.You are the manager of the Whole Foods Market on Ponce de Laon Avenue in Atlanta. You developed a program for donating surplus food to local food banks. Because of the success of that program, top executives have asked you to help other Whole Foods stores coordinate this effort into a chain wide food donation program, “Whole Foods for Life.” Ideally, by streamlining the process chain wide, the company would be able to increase the number of people it helps and to get more of its employees involved.You have a limited budget for the program, so the emphasis has to be on using resources already available to the stores and tapping into employees’ creativity to come up with locally relevant ideas.

Task: Write a persuasive email message to all managers at Whole Foods Market, explaining the new program and requesting that they help by pooling ideas they’ve gleaned from their local experience. Even if they don’t have food-donation programs currently in place, you want to hear ideas from them and their employees for this charitable project. With their help, you’ll choose the best ideas to develop the new Whole Foods for Life program.