LITE Box a bundle of joy for social enterprises
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This article was published 03/12/2018 (2588 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
For the first time, Winnipeggers will be able to support several local social enterprises this holiday season.
Local Investment Toward Employment, a charity that aims to create jobs and supports community economic development, joined local social enterprises and launched LITE Box at its annual Wild Blueberry Pancake Breakfast on Nov. 30.
LITE Box is a collection of eight gifts made by local community-centered businesses and social enterprises. The project hopes to promote social enterprise products and services to new customers and markets and work with non-profits to develop retail-ready products.
The gifts include Celebration Cookies made by the Spence Neighbourhood Association Youth Crew, Bannock-in-a-box Sampler by Food Connections at Wolseley Family Place, a hand-painted Chickadee Ornament by North End’s Cree-ations, a limited edition framed print by One Nation Exchange, LITE Box coffee mug, a jar of Neighbourhood Honey by Beeproject Apiaries, recycled felt sheet by Mother Earth Recycling and a jar of wild blueberry jam made by Lena Friesen.
“We were thinking a lot about how can we support social enterprises, how can we continue to create jobs and support business growth in Winnipeg’s inner city?” Tyler Pearce, LITE’s executive director, said. “A lot of the social enterprises that we work with are small, and they don’t produce a lot of retail goods. So why don’t we bring these small social enterprises and business we support in Winnipeg’s inner city to the customer? And one way to do that is to put it in a box and deliver it to the customer.”
By promoting the products in the box, LITE and those who purchase the box are supporting employment of “people experiencing barriers to the regular job market, and contribute to the cultural, social, environmental or economic vitality of Winnipeg,” their website states.
“Each is a unique business. Some are established, but they found value in being in the box because they never fulfilled a 200 order before. This is the largest order they have done. So now they have this new business experience by being in the box,” Pearce continued. “And we feel good about it because, although we’ve worked with them for many years, we are hoping that people who buy the box they may not have heard of them and what they are going to get when they open the box is this absolutely gorgeous gift.”
Not only is LITE helping social enterprises, but they also simulated what’s is like to be a social enterprise. Volunteers from One Nation Exchange, Wayfinders and Winnipeg Foundation helped assemble, stamp and pack the gift boxes.
“It’s a new territory for us. We have a non-profit board, and they looked at some prototypes and products that were out there, and they said ‘We think we can get behind this project because it’s fulfilling our mission,’” she commented.
LITE Box is limited to 200 units. Each box costs $75 and can be shipped free or picked up at Social Enterprise Centre located at 765 Main St. from Dec. 3 to 21. The combined value of all the items in the box is just under $100. LITE had already sold 80 boxes as of Nov. 29. For more information and to buy a LITE Box, go to https://shop.lite.mb.ca/