Ben & Jerry’s Foundation says it will shut down amid legal dispute with parent company - VTDigger
vtdigger.org
The move puts at risk $600,000 in philanthropic support to Vermont organizations in an ongoing fight over the ice cream company’s social mission.
  • anon6789@lemmy.world
    28·
    13 days ago

    Thank you for saying this more succinctly that I could. People get mad the B&J for “selling out” but they didn’t just take the money and run, they negotiated continuing money from Unilever and gave it to what they believed, and most of us here would likely believe, were good causes like supporting labor and LGBT rights.

    The final straw seemed to be sending money to pro Palestinian causes, which they have been fighting and suing Unilever/Magnum over for months.

    Ben and Jerry took millions away from a megacorp and helped way more people than all of us here likely ever will, and it still isn’t enough for some people.

    And this isn’t a shot at the parent of this thread. It is fair to say this wouldn’t have happened if they didn’t sell, but that really ignores the full picture and a lot of earned goodwill on the part of Ben and Jerry.

    • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.worldEnglish
      19·
      13 days ago

      If some big evil company said, “I’ll give you a quarter century of money to fund bunch of big causes you care about, and you’ll change a lot of lives. But a few years before you die, I’m going to take your ice cream brand.”

      I’d take the quarter century of money then try to stand something else up before I kicked the bucket.

      Ben and Jerry are legends. Most people that sell out don’t actually use that sale to do something good. They took ice cream and made 25 years of sizable grants with the profits.

      • anon6789@lemmy.world
        7·
        13 days ago

        Exactly. Any of us could say we’d never sell out, but how many of us end up in that situation to really test it?

        They ran a successful business, cashed out, and instead of doing miserly things and vanishing to obscurity they’re funding lefty stuff and shaking up the status quo.

        Right from the article:

        The foundation’s leaders have pointed to its support of Migrant Justice during a period when the farmworker organization was considering a boycott of Ben & Jerry’s as an example of their commitment to social justice. After immigrant farmworkers raised concerns about working conditions at farms supplying Ben & Jerry’s, the company joined a program that collaborates with farmworkers to strive for fair working conditions.

        They were using Unilever’s money to basically fight Unilever to the benefit their former employees! How much more do you want from them? 😄