We like this "teaching to fish" approach and the dignity it affords. 21CL raises their operating budget by creating and selling "merchandise with a meaning," meaning, in the case of Lori's, a collection of fresh canvas totes designed and signed by cultural limelighters.
We're suckers for the sense of hand in these bags. Sure, it's a trick we've been familiar since those melamine plates we made in 3rd grade, but it is potent for the same reason – that sense of personal touch preserved in an otherwise generic product. Personality is important; these bags portray a real sense of energy and personal investment about something that's meaningful to us: the ability for creativity to benefit others. Because proceeds from every bag fund 21st Century Leaders, buying these bags isn't just consuming, it's also participating.
Besides the requisite paeans to green and earth-friendliness, each medium-weight cotton canvas bag has self-lined handles and a hidden zip side pocket. Sides are gusseted to hold as much organic, grass-fed, free-range, no-trans-fat goodness as you can stuff in there at the grocery. (And if you, like us, sometimes yearn for something a little less earnestly responsible, perhaps this is insouciant enough.)Buying this bag won't save the world, but it will save you some money, send said same to a cause we (and our pop culture idols) believe in, and make you look good doing it.