Equal Justice Initiative: Community Participation

Thank you for being our friends through an historic June. Our team huddled (via Zoom) to put together a fantastic collection of limited edition salts, and then shouted out from the rooftops (via email) an invitation to support the Equal Justice Initiative with every purchase.   

Your response was fast and enthusiastic.  Together we raised $1,092.01 in just a handful of days.

Reforming criminal justice and ending the devastating inequities in racial justice are not issues of the moment, they are among the defining struggles of our country.  "The United States incarcerates its citizens more than any other country. Mass incarceration disproportionately impacts the poor and people of color and does not make us safer. EJI is working to end our misguided reliance on over-incarceration."

Graphic courtesy of EJI

Founded in 1989 by Bryan Stevenson, a widely acclaimed public interest lawyer and bestselling author of Just Mercy, EJI is a private, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides legal representation to people who have been illegally convicted, unfairly sentenced, or abused in state jails and prisons. We challenge the death penalty and excessive punishment and we provide re-entry assistance to formerly incarcerated people.

A noteworthy note on the business logic of sharing 33% of sales with a struggle for a more equitable society.  Our profit margin is below that number, so your enthusiastic response could have been really bad news for The Meadow's bottom line.  But fortunately we moved that bottom line many years ago. We swapped it out for "respect for our team" and "belong in our community" and "bring awareness to artisans" and a handful of other critical metrics. In this regard, our bottom line couldn't be better.