Aspen Peak - Niche Media - Aspen living at its peak
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/93399
with partners and figuring out how best to craft a program that's good for the FEED brand and mission."—LAUREN BUSH LAUREN "I'm very engaged in the day-to-day process of problem solving and working LBL: I thought of the idea when I was studying abroad in Australia. I had just gone to the grocery store and was carrying a reusable bag, and I was to me like, Gosh! Why not create a reusable bag that's cool-looking, that people want to carry around, that they can buy for their friends and family, and that also feeds a child in school for a year? I intended to just give World Food Programme my idea and have it sell the bag, but after amazon.com placed its first order, WFP said, for legal reasons, it couldn't sell the bag. So we started a separate company, FEED Projects, just to fulfill that first order. Every other step of the way has been an awesome surprise and a great evolution for us. BM: How do you stay motivated when FEED is now an established brand? Hunger is such a huge problem. You're not going to solve it, no one's going to solve it in our lifetime, so how do you stay motivated creatively and also when you're dealing with something that is as big as hunger? LBL: Traveling gets exhausting, but it is so important for me to take at least one or two trips a year to go see the programs we're supporting in action, so that's obviously one huge way to stay motivated. Honduras was the last trip; I'm planning to go back to Africa next year. I'm very engaged in the day-to-day, so it's still that exciting process of problem solving and working with partners, and figuring out how best to craft a program that's going to be good for the FEED brand and mission. And I still love design- ing, so I work a lot with artisan groups. No two days are the same, so it keeps me on my toes. BM: My last trip in the field was in Honduras as well. Whom do you work with there? LBL: The World Food Programme. We went and visited schools and dif- ferent places where it's distributing food and we took our partner Clarins with us. It's beautiful but it's so dangerous there, though. Did you get that? BM: It was the first trip I've been on with pretty intense security and I was questioning it; I thought it was overkill, and then, when I got home, every- one told me how dangerous it is. LBL: We got this brief when we arrived from the UN and they were like, if you leave your hotel, you might be kidnapped and killed. We had security with guns and it was a bit much. But it's a beautiful country. BM: You got married last year to David Lauren. You're both working in somewhat of the same businesses—how much of your dinner conversation is about what's going on with work? LBL: You know, that's a funny question. Very little. I think when we're together, especially after work, we just want to relax and take a break. But Lauren visits Kenya in support of her FEED programs. David is definitely the first person I go to for advice. Although I love what I do, I don't come home and want to relive work per se. thinking I'd just gone on a trip to Cambodia with the World Food BM: Does David go with you on some of these trips? Programme (WFP). I was walking back from the beach and it just occurred LBL: He has. He didn't go with me on the last one, but it is fun for him to experience that with me; I know Heather [Blake's wife] goes with you, just to share that, because it is such a life-changing experience. AP Newlyweds Lauren Bush Lauren and David Lauren. Lauren with her grand father, former President George H.W. Bush, in 1988.