1 in 6 Snacks: A True Social Enterprise

Introduction to 1 in 6 Snacks: A Local Social Enterprise

1in6Snacks is a local social enterprise located on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, North Carolina. The owner, Josh Monahan, started this business while he was attending college at NC State. Being around his parents' snack business his whole life, he developed a passion for creating innovative snacks and helping hungry people in his community. Josh decided to name his business "1 in 6 Snacks," a name that was originated on the fact that 1 in 6 people in America do not know where their next meal will come from. There are many snacks provided by the company including kettle chips, tortilla chips, salsa, cookies, and now popcorn. The kettle chips were the first product for 1 in 6 Snacks and they are individually branded as Carolina Kettle. By purchasing from 1 in 6 Snacks, customers are able to support the business and the hungry people in their communities.

Josh Monahan, Owner of 1 in 6 Snacks, displaying his Carolina Kettle chips

Giving Back to the Food Bank of Central & Eastern NC

Josh Monahan is adamant about giving back to the local communities by giving part of his sales to the Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina. Before starting his snack business, he recognized a need to give customers unique snack options while also giving customers a sense of giving back to their communities. For each 2-ounce bag sold, 1 in 6 Snacks will donate 5 cents to the local food bank. For each 5-ounce bag sold, they will donate 10 cents. In the video below, CBS news states that 1 in 6 Snacks also donates $1 to the food bank for every t-shirt that they sell. According to my interview with Josh Monahan, the food banks can make about 5 meals for every $1 donated to them.

On 1 in 6 Snacks' website, it is advertised that they have donated enough money to create 304,067 meals so far. The company's key message is to do good and snack great. This message is carried out through all of the actions of the company. I found it clever that the company states, "Sometimes BIG Ideas Start with a Little Change" (literally!!!). Josh informed me that they frequently get thank you's from families and individuals affected by the company's donations. An interesting fact from the Carolina Kettle website says, "Each year, the death toll from hunger related issues exceeds that of AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined, and malnutrition is an underlying cause for ~45% of all deaths for children under the age of five."

Connecting the Four Practices of Innovative Organizations

Throughout Chapter 16 in the book, "How to Change the World," David Bornstein mentions four practices of innovative organizations and provides examples of these practices. The four practices consist of institutionalizing listening, paying attention to the exceptional, designing real solutions for real people, and focusing on the human qualities.

• Institutionalizing listening means that innovative organizations are implementing systems and guidelines for listening to what their clients want and need. Josh Monahan listens to customers on what type of snacks and flavors they would like to see produced. He also listens to statistics to find out what problems he can solve for the community, in this case the problem of hunger.

• Paying attention to the exceptional means gaining insight from exceptional or unexpected information. Once John gained insight on how he could help hungry people in his community, he found a way to use sales to donate to the local food bank. He also gave back $5,000 to the community towards hurricane relief efforts, which for a smaller social enterprise is a significant amount.

• Designing real solutions for real people means exactly what it says. Social enterprises find ways to create solutions for the most problematic social issues. Josh heard that hunger affected his community and saw a statistic about how hunger affects mortality rates. This information caused him to develop a passion for helping families and individuals that do not know where their next meal will come from.

• Focusing on the human qualities means hiring staff and helpers with soft qualities to become more personable with each other and the clients they serve. 1 in 6 Snacks has focused on finding workers that are specialized, but also have the same social mindset that Josh Monahan exhibits. Josh is a soft-spoken and soft-hearted individual, which allows him to run a successful social enterprise.

Concluding a Look into 1 in 6 Snacks

Overall, 1 in 6 Snacks would definitely be considered a social enterprise because of their giving back to the community through their donations to the local food bank. They have been successful in their triple bottom line of serving the people, making profit on their product, and trying to make a difference in the world. I have always wanted to make some kind of change in the world, but never knew exactly how I would do it. The challenges of a social enterprises can be overwhelming, but social entrepreneurs find a way to solve their challenges and drive forward with their goals. When discussing COVID-19 with Josh, he explained to me that they started selling products online and shipping out their products to customers. This allowed them to continue to thrive during the pandemic, but they were also having their products sold at local intermediaries. Josh stated in the interview that he is willing to starting a social change with me in the future if I would like to. I encourage everyone to network with a current social entrepreneur and attempt to create a new social enterprise in which they can help you get started.