Last Sunday a handful of Eastwickers, including our fearless leaders Barb Bates and Ellen Leanse, attended an event for FeelGood and The Melt. “FeelGood Revealed’ was a celebration of the recent partnership between the two organizations. FeelGood is a social enterprise that enables college students to run their own non-profit gourmet grilled cheese delis on-campus – by providing funding, infrastructure, and ongoing educational programs. All of the proceeds from these sales go to The Hunger Project and Choice Humanitarian.

The Melt is a new grilled cheese franchise started by serial entrepreneur and creator of the Flip Cam, Jonathan Kaplan. Despite his start-up pedigree, grilled cheese is a whole new adventure for Jon. But he has stuck to the same principles that have made him successful in the past – an outlook that includes “doing good” as a key tenet of doing good business.

 

Jonathan spent the better part of 30 minutes sharing his FeelGood story, and his philanthropic philosophy. When he started Flip Cam, Jonathan realized that success was not a guarantee – but that didn’t mean he couldn’t leave something lasting behind. His company could be here today and gone tomorrow, with nothing to show for it. So Flip Cam began donating its products to local nonprofit organizations, long before the company was a success.

As part of its corporate social responsibility initiative, The Melt implemented a “Round-It-Up” campaign, which allows customers to “round-up” their purchase to the nearest dollar. Those donations drop into a fund that is matched by The Melt before being passed along to FeelGood. That money is invested directly in the 23 existing and 20 start-up university chapters around the country. By the time the donation ends up in the hands of The Hunger Project or Choice Humanitarian it is tripled by FeelGood’s volunteer network of social entrepreneurs.

 

The theme of the night was partnership – and, as it happens, a little bit of serendipity. The obvious connection between FeelGood and The Melt is the cuisine, but it’s a different commonality that first brought FeelGood to Jonathan’s attention – the strikingly similar logos. Jonathan admitted that he is frequently asked, “Did you design yours after you saw theirs, or was it the other way around?” In truth, it was neither. But it was a coincidence that put this grass-roots organization directly in front of one of Silicon Valley’s brightest entrepreneurial forces – a coincidence that will measurably improve the quality of life for a significant number of human beings. Never underestimate the power of a well-placed graphic!

We have our own various ties to FeelGood and The Melt. I joined Eastwick after a three-month stint with FeelGood and participated in my university’s chapter at the University of Vermont. When the Flip Cam took off, Cisco purchased the company and brought Jonathan on board. Cisco just recently became part of the Eastwick client base. There are family connections as well: Eastwicker Joseph Beare’s father, Kern, is one of FeelGood’s four full-time employees. And Jason Walter recently joined the Eastwick team for clean-tech consulting. His sister happens to be one of the co-founders of FeelGood, Kristin Walter. It seems all roads lead back to grilled cheese – and what a delicious destination it is.

To find out more about The Melt and FeelGood’s partnership, go here.

 

Jon Kaplan with Eastwick and FeelGood.

Jon Kaplan and FG Berkeley.