Happy Birthday Mom

Hey all, it's Sue,
Exhausted tonight so I'll make it short and sweet. My parents are visiting and go back to Florida on Sunday. The girls just got back from play practice and we are having cake and ice cream. Mom is wearing her bread + butter shirt of course!!

We are excited about our expansion and the opportunities ahead as we make our way into the holiday shopping season - I know, it seems too early to use the word "holiday" but we are learning that in this business you have to plan for it WAY ahead of time. The Halloween Tote Bags are selling fast. Get yours today - the sale is only on through October 20th! (it's a good deal)

More tomorrow. Time for "Modern Family" and bed. Have you seen that show? Pretty funny. I guess because it's sort of where we are these days.

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Making Our Way Through New England (oh yeah)

Oh My God...
(Oh hey it's Katie by the way.) Guess what?? Wait don't, cause if you guess right then I won't have anything to tell you. So I'll just say it. Anyway, we now have a partner in every stinkin' New England state!! Except Connecticut... We're insane, we're crazy, I know. So if you're one of those Connecticuttarians out there reading this blog and you have you know...connections, tell them all about our amazing project!! Would you do that for me?? Good thanks. We are on some new websites now so be on the look out for us, then you can say you knew who we were before we got famous!! (If we get famous) It's up to you... so help us become
MOOVASTARS!!!
--
Peace out girl scouts (and the occasional boy scout)
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Your ideas needed - Help us out!

A lot of you have asked what you can do to help us, beyond buying bread + butter products. Here is one way: As we get ready to expand the bread + butter project throughout New England, with a nonprofit food bank partner in each New England state, we're looking to develop an attention-getting event or activity that will help launch and promote the expansion. And we need some creative ideas. What can we do that will help put us on a bigger map and make a bigger impact? No idea is too crazy. Put on your thinking caps and use the comment feature to send us your ideas. Thanks for your help, and keep spreading the word.

-Tom

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What we're all about

Did you know that 12.4 Million kids are at risk of hunger in America? Our friend Joanna sent us a video from the Share Our Strength website that talks about hungry kids in New York and what their teachers have to say about the way hunger affects their health and ability to perform in school. It really made Katie and Emma appreciate the fact that we have more than enough to eat everyday and affirmed our decision to use the bread + butter project not only as a way to raise awareness, but to actually help hungry people. Take 5 minutes to watch the video, and then tell your kids to take a break from iCarly or Jon and Kate and watch it too.

Remember to get your bread + butter on and send us a picture. We love posting pictures of happy customers in bread + butter apparel on our site. Submit all photos to info@breadandbutterproject.com. Thanks.

-Tom

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October Sale - Halloween Totes!!

Just in time for Trick or Treat!! We've got a sale - now through October 20th - bread + butter Halloween Totes for only $10.90. Reusable cotton canvas tote is great all year. Perfect for groceries, books or after school activities. Get them while they last!! Visit our shop by clicking here


ps. Wouldn't Ben Affleck's daughters look so cute trick or treating with these? I'm just saying...

Don't Try This at Home

So anyone who knows me will not be surprised by this story. I am the world's biggest klutz. I have - and I'm not kidding - knocked myself out in front of a room full of employees on my first day as their supervisor. It involved walking and talking with a coffee cup in hand, turning to look at someone behind me, turning back and kissing a cement pole. Crack! Down, Out. That was a great first impression, huh? And that's not the worst of it. There are several other "incidents" - many which I write about in my newspaper columns and some that I've spoken about on air when I was a radio personality for KISS 108 in Boston. As I'm typing this - with one hand but I'll get to that - I realized that some of you don't know much about me outside bread + butter. If you want to know more - and really who wouldn't? - just click here

So today, I was putting away the girls' lunchboxes on the top shelf of our pantry and BAM! I smacked my left arm against one of the shelves on the door. Really, really hard. I currently can't bend my arm so it's a little inconvenient. I'm thinking a bread + butter arm sling would be a good idea right now. We're heading to Chilis for dinner and I figure as long as I've got one good arm to raise a margarita to my mouth, I'm good.

Have a great weekend everyone. Don't hurt yourself. Buy a new long-sleeve tee, sweatshirt or scarf from our shop. Oh, the aprons are adorable!! It takes minimal arm movement to order, just some clicking of the mouse.

More tomorrow my bread + butter friends...oh, Ben Affleck, if you are reading this, I have ordered that tye dye shirt I'm sure you'll look fabulous in. You can thank me later.

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Ginger in Bread & Butter?

Hi everyone it's Emma,
And I am being Ginger Rogers for dead and famous (a school halloween thing). Anyway, it would be awesome if Ginger Rogers was wearing a bread+butter shirt, or maybe even a long gown with our logo. Man I would pay big bucks to see that!!!!!!!! If anyone knows her tell her I want her to wear a shirt, wait she's dead, awh that means my plans are ruined and that means I have nothing else to say.

well bye then!

P.S. If anyone knows Ben Affleck tell him his shirt's waiting for him!!!

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Secret blog

helo fellow bread +butterers,
Well this might sound like bragging, (well okay it sort of is bragging but.) Our new sweatshirts are absolutley amazingly comfortable and downright awesome!!!! We have a bunch of new products. I did a little bit of a fashion show today in my neighbors kitchen. Hee hee. Anyway I would like to let you know a litlle bit of a secret, soon we willl be adding limited time only products. WOW. I'll give you a little time for that to sink in. I know right????........... Okay have you recovered from all the excitment???? Good. So yes it's true we will be having limited time only products so stay tunned and you have to be CONSTANTLY checking our website!!!! of course.
--
Never do an expiriment with mealworms... trust me just don't...
Katie
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Hey Ben, Will You Wear Our Shirt?

Okay, the girls are conveniently absent these days when it's time to blog. Coincidence? I think not. Those little rascals are not that fond of this part of the business. Of course, they like the designing shirts part and thinking about which celebrities we'll send them to.

Yes, we are going to send them to some of the celebrities that, like us, have a thing for feeding the hungry in this country. Some of those A-listers include Ben Affleck, Rachel Ray, Ashley Tisdale and Marcia Cross. I'm happy to say I've met Ben in my KISS 108 "Matty in the Morning" days and he is a super nice guy. I actually think he might wear our shirt, being a Boston boy and all. Marcia's from Marlboro - why not?It's really not all that far fetched. We're going to do it, damn it. (wait, sorry, I know this is a family sort of site)

I'm heading out to yet another "parent night" - does it ever end? I was slated to go out afterward for drinks with some other moms but have a 4:30 wake up call tomorrow since one of my clients is on FOX. Ugh. I'll be lucky to get 4 or 5 hours of sleep tonight. Then off to an event in Boston with Tom tomorrow night. A really busy week.

The good news is that another media outlet is interested in doing a story on us! You know, we might actually have something here. On a very personal note, after a breast cancer scare earlier in the year, I had an MRI that was squeaky clean. I am thrilled. Have a great night everyone! More tomorrow.

-Sue

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bread + butter business report #4

This is the 4th in a regular series of weekly wrap-up postings on the development of the bread + butter project. You can find prior reports in our archives.

Fall schedules are in full swing at the O'Rourke household, with dance rehearsals, gymnastics class and play practices and homework all competing for the girls' attention. Needless to say, bread + butter has taken a bit of a backseat in Katie and Emma's minds, but we are all still committed and finding the time to squeeze in all of the important work. This week's Friday night business meeting didn't happen until Sunday evening, but we did have some great discussion. Here are a few highlights:

Our new business cards came in, and the girls were excited to start sharing them with friends. We posted our project on the do.something.org website and started to see more hits to our website from California, Texas and Europe. We think we have finally resolved our graphics challenges and are adding more products, like the much anticipated long-sleeve T's and sweatshirts for the fall.

What we learned during week 4:

Katie - If you wear your bread + butter shirt out in public (as opposed to only in the privacy of your home, I guess), you might get some questions about it. If you give the person a business card, they might go home and look up your website. So it's good to have your business cards with you.

Emma - People like to tell us when they see someone wearing one of our products (i.e. the TJ Maxx sighting). I like it when people send us pictures of them wearing their shirts.

Sue - I'm paying more attention to the amount of food we waste and thinking about ways to be less wasteful.

Tom - In addition to helping others, this project is having some positive affects on our family, such as sittting down together for dinnner more frequently and saying grace more often before diving into our meal.

What we need to focus on during week 5:

Additional outreach to North Shore media, continued plans for New England-wide expansion in November and figure out how we can maximize the benefit to Pettengill House by the end of October. All good stuff. Keep spreading the word.

-Tom

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Well Represented (or you look fabulous in our shirts!)

Hey bread + butter fans, Sue here,


Okay, so it's incredibly cool and satisfying to see our shirts out in public. I love it!! A couple of sightings over the weekend - one in TJ Maxx in Seabrook NH - and let me tell you, our customers are representing us well. You all look great! I feel like a proud mother. Thanks to all of you who believe in our purpose-driven brand. I hope you feel like our products are an opportunity for you to outwardly make a difference. That's the goal.

On another note, don't forget that we now have LOTS of new items, like long-sleeve tees, aprons, hats, boxers, scarves - so visit the shop often and support us if you can. Really cool stuff, all designed by us personally with your feedback and needs in mind.

We are thinking about having a weekly video podcast so we can connect with you on a more personal level. We want you to get to know us. The girls will be the stars of course. That's them at right when we went apple picking this weekend. What do you think?

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Pettengill Poem by Emma

I wrote this poem is about the Pettengill House Food Pantry. Hope you like it.

Pantry
Eating
Touching
Tasty
Empty Bellies
Need
Giving
Involving
Living
Lending a Hand

We're donating 50% of our profits during September and October to Pettengill House!

Emma

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Website Review by Katie

Hello Earthlings,

It's Katie. I just wanted to give you a little review of a cool website Dad told me about. If you go to www.feedingamerica.org and go under the just for kids section, you can find all sorts of fun activities. Similar to freerice.com, you can play a game where whenever you collect a golden apple, it donates a meal to someone in need. You can also write to a real Congressman and express your feelings on why you think it's important to help people who are hungry. If that doesn't appeal to you, you can print out a paper placemat with a plate and a knife, spoon and fork on it, and write your very own personalized letter explaining how you feel about the situation. Check out the site and see what you can do to make a difference.

Katie has left the planet!

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bread + butter boxers are here!

Boxer shorts are the latest addition to our clothing line. They come in red, navy, black or white and feature a small logo on the front and our bread + and butter signature on the back. Sue doesn't think anyone is going to buy them, but I think they have the potential to become one of our biggest sellers. Why? you might ask. I actually have several reasons:



1. I bought some for myself and they are really comfortable.

2. Women like to buy novelty boxers for men. The red ones would be good for Valentines Day. They would also make a great stocking stuffer for Christmas.

3. For some reason that I can't quite understand, girls like to wear men's boxer shorts too - as pajamas, over their bathing suits, at the gym. And they like clothing that features words spanning their butts.

4. And finally, even though I don't want to encourage this trend, there are lots of gangsta types out there, who walk around with jeans and other baggy pants hanging down to their knees. If I have to look at their boxer shorts anyway, I'd rather have them wearing bread + butter.

Sue also thinks that the price point might be too high. But I say there are lots of people who are willing to drop $20-25 bucks on a pair of Calvin Klein underwear. Why not ours? I think people will be proud to show off their new bread + butter undies, and will feel good knowing that their purchase is helping fill bellies.

What do you think? Use the comment feature to let us know, or vote with your credit card and buy some boxers!

-Tom

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We Got Ya Covered...(So buy a sweatshirt already!)

You asked for it - our customers wanted long-sleeve tees and sweatshirts and little chochkis like aprons and hats. We designed them. We launched them. Now go ahead and buy them! It's all the rage you know. Help feed the hungry and look darn good while you're doing it. Just click on any item at right and it'll take you to our new and improved shop with so many options you won't know what to do. (hint: click "place in cart"...just a thought). I wanted to again thank our graphic designer Tracey Smith who has been a real gem. Thanks for all you did for us, Tracey!

So...it's Thursday night and I'm looking forward to watching the new fall premieres -"The Office" is our family favorite. (This is where I'd post a little clip art piece from the show but since Tom doesn't like that I'll have to refrain myself. Or not...)

That's for you honey...

I'm so glad the weekend is coming - not that we don't have a ton to do. bread + butter is a 24-hour labor of love. We are working to develop a relationship with a food pantry in every state in New England. We are working to constantly improve our site. We are working to engage more followers. We want to increase sales so we can present big fat checks to these charities. So much to do, so little time...but still, a little sitcom break never hurt anybody, right?

Just ordered some sweatshirts and long-sleeve tees - check out the kids apron and bib. Crazy cute. Will wrangle up one of the girls to weigh in tomorrow.
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US Hunger is on the rise - Take action this month!

Feeding America released a new report this week that showed big increases in requests to food banks across the country. 99% of respondents reported a significant uptick in requests for food and 98% attributed the increase to requests from new visitors to food banks. While we would all like to see those numbers moving in the opposite direction, the trend shows that we started the bread + butter project at a time where the need to help hungry people is great. When we first started talking about the project in July and August, we had no idea that we would be distributing our first products in September, the month nationally recognized as Hunger Action Month. I guess that’s just another sign of good timing.

For our part, we’ll be taking action by continuing our efforts to grow the bread + butter project and brand. And we hope that you’ll join us by purchasing one of our products, or finding another way to spread the word about our work. We’ll also be working with Katie and Emma to help them understand the hunger problems so many Americans are facing. Feeding America’s Hunger Action Month website has a great ‘just for kids section’ where kids can learn more and earn points by playing games and completing online activities, coloring posters, placemats and bookmarks, etc. I’m going to have the girls check out the stuff here and write a review about it in a future post on our blog.

On an unrelated note, I read an interesting article today about how the Twitter craze is killing comment sections on blogs. I’m hoping that explains the small number of comments we’ve received in recent days from our loyal followers. I also have some suspicions about facebookers not seeing our stuff as they attempt to wade through hours and hours of “I’m sitting at the Wendy’s drive-through” type mini-messages from thousands of friends. We’d love to receive some clever ideas from our younger and hipper fans about how to most effectively use these social media to promote the bread + butter project.

Finally, on another and completely unrelated note, what’s up with the clip art pics in our last two posts? Sue, who has much more blogging experience than I, made regular use of these little pictures on her ParentPill site, but I always thought they were pretty annoying. I think we might need to establish a review board to approve the artwork for future postings on bread + butter. I can only imagine the fights that would ensue. Feel free to weigh in on this topic too. Until next time, keep spreading the word.

-Tom

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Blazing Our Trail

Hi all, it's Sue~
So running a business is a tricky thing. Especially when there is no road map. The way I look at it, we have a compass and know what direction we are supposed to be going in but there are many routes to choose from. Which road when? And when do we scrap the current options and come up with a new alternative?

We need to figure out so many things. How to keep our products priced competitively, how to engage our customers, how to engage our food pantry partners, how to make the biggest difference THROUGH our brand. I lie awake at night thinking about all of these things and the only thing I know for sure is that if we stay true north, we'll be okay. The rest of it will come.

The problem is that I don't have a lot of patience. Heck, I don't have ANY patience. I want all the answers now. And it just doesn't work that way. Tom doesn't need the instant gratification I do - he can wait to do things right. I'm tempted to just run. We are learning from each other though. I'm teaching him something about trusting instincts and he's showing me how to use restraint.

The kids are knee-deep in homework and after school activities so keeping them engaged is getting more challengeing - and I can already tell there is going to be some resistance. They want time to watch iCarly and play Club Penguin and text their friends, which is understandable. Our mission (if we choose to accept it) is going to be how to keep them excited and passionate over time. Not easy.

Okay, time to watch Dirty Dancing in memory of Patrick Swayze. "No one puts Baby in a corner." Words to live by really.

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Looking for a Partner (who sells yummy bread)

Hi, it's Emma,
I wanted to say that we are trying to partner with a supermarket bakery like Market Basket. We want to ask them to maybe put a sticker on their bread bags and donate a part of their bread sales to the food pantry charity we are working with. In return, we will advertise for them on our blog and in all our press stuff. I thought of that myself!! Mom says it's called a promotional partner. I just know I like Market Basket's bread when it's warm, right out of the oven! It's so good.

I can't write a lot today because I have some homework to do. Bye-bye for now. Click the green "comments" below to add your thoughts or visit our shop by clicking here

What if People Could Make an Impact Through Our Brand?

Hi everyone, it's Sue.
I'm excited to blog today because I'm reading a great book that really underscores the reason we started this project. It's called
It's Not What You Sell, It's What You Stand For by Roy Spence, Jr.

The premise is that the most successful businesses are driven by purpose. They have a mission that is clearly stated and everything they do supports that mission. Examples that the author uses include large companies like Southwest Airlines and Wal-Mart. But even a one month-old company like ours can take away some important lessons here.

The big question posed in the book is "Why do you do what you do?" with the answer determining every aspect of how you run your business. It was surprising to hear that the author, who has run an ad agency for over 30 years, has worked with many large and small organizations who, sometimes after decades in business, have no idea what their purpose is. Many companies have fancy mission statements, but I'm learning that fancy is not always better - you need to articulate your vision in very simple terms so that you can keep the message clear and consistent.(ie. the book talks about Wal-mart's vision: To offer products at lower prices so people can live better. Period. And Southwest Airlines is equally as straightforward: To offer more people the freedom to fly with low fares. End of story.

This principle is what we based our business model on here at bread + butter (without having had the privilege of reading the book first!!). We only knew we wanted a purpose-driven brand beginning from Day One, and we wanted to define everything we did within that framework. In fact, our purpose came before our product. We wanted to help feed hungry people (bread + butter, helping fill bellies). We assumed others would want to help too. We thought that if we could provide a quality product and donate a considerable amount to that cause, that people might want to help make a difference in their communities through our brand.

But hey, can't our customers just write out a check to a food pantry? Sure. And we hope that they will. But our products provide a vehicle for them to take additional action, receive something that defines that action, and hopefully feel good about that action. So put simply, we're trying to empower our customers to make a difference through our brand. We didn't articulate it quite that clearly on Day One, but this book has helped me understand that as our working mantra. And anything that doesn't support that gets tossed out.

I will have Tom read it next, and we'll share what we learn with Katie & Emma. Okay, that's all my little brain can handle for one day. More tomorrow of course.

-Sue

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bread + butter business report # 3

We skipped our weekly Friday evening business week this meeting in honor of a certain family member’s birthday dinner (OK, it was mine; loved the steak and carrot cake!). But we still have a lot of good news to report.

This week, we passed the 1,200 mark on visits to our blog. We have amassed 115 fans on facebook, and our sales are continuing, albeit at a slower rate than we would like. We have to regularly remind ourselves that this business is new and that it will take more than a few weeks to become successful. We have a few new products and some new features on our blog. We finally added the ‘print a gift card’ option we’ve been talking about. You can find it in the right-hand column at the top of this page.

We also applied for the “Shine a Light” competition and are hoping it will get us some additional exposure and possibly a grant to help with our expansion. We need to secure 50 endorsements by the end of the day today in order to advance. If you’re reading this on Sunday, please take a moment to endorse us now. Finally, we reached out to potential nonprofit partners in all 6 New England states, and have already received encouraging responses from ME and VT, where we are looking to partner with the Good Shepherd Food Bank and the Vermont Foodbank later this fall. Finally, I showed my Mom the newspaper article about our project this week, and she cried - in a good way, the way she cried when I told her about my engagement to Sue and Katie and Emma's birth. I don't think she understands exactly what we're doing, but she knows it's a good thing.

What we learned during week 3:

Sue – Complete strangers may be as willing to help you as are your closest friends. (And some of your closest friends can connect you to some of the best complete strangers). A worthwhile effort can bring people together.

Katie – (related to Sue's learning) There are a lot of people who can help you, but you’ll never know if they will unless you ask, so don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Emma – I like running meetings, but I don’t like blogging.

Tom – You need to listen to and learn from the skeptics. Some of our friends and family members expressed skepticism about our project. While this was surprising to us, it was also very helpful and revealed a need for us to clarify our mission and the way we communicate about our business. Our mission is: To work together as a family to help hungry people, develop a sustainable business model, and find out what it takes to make a real difference. We also developed a frequently asked questions document to help people understand the business and our motivations.

What we need to focus on during week 4:

Boosting sales – we are midway through September and we’ve committed 50% of our profits this month and next month to Pettengill House, Inc. We want to make a significant contribution and we’re limited only by the amount of sales we can generate. If you’ve been thinking about placing an order, there is no time like the present. Continued work to solidify New England-wide expansion plans, generate more press/media coverage, and more focus on making the best use of electronic communications tools and social media to drive sales.

Thanks to our bread + butter supporters:

This week, we want to thank our friend Tom for helping us reformat a video; brother Jeff and a new friend, Tracey, for help with our ongoing graphic file issues; Karianna and Tom for distributing a link to our site and allowing Emma to present the project in class; all of the UMASS alums who offered suggestions on nonprofit partnerships through our LinkedIn discussion board; and everyone who endorsed us for Shine a Light or bought one of our products. Keep spreading the word!

-Tom


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Get your bread + butter on!

These happy campers are getting their bread + butter on at the beach. Send your photos with bread + butter product placements to info@breadandbutterproject.com, and you too could be featured on our site.
Keep spreading the word.

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Shine a light on the bread + butter project - TODAY!

Many of our friends have asked what they can do to support the bread + butter project, in addition to buying clothing. Today, we have a great answer to that question. We've entered the NBC/American Express "Shine A Light" competition for small businesses, and are hoping to secure a grant to help us fund our expansion and make a bigger difference for our nonprofit partners. In order to be considered, however, we need to secure a minimum of 50 endorsements by September 13. Please take a few minutes to endorse our project. We appreciate your help.

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Get your bread + butter on!

This little lady knows what it's all about. Don't be outdone. Strike a pose with your favorite bread + butter product and maybe we'll post it on our site. Just send us an email at info@breadandbutterproject.com

-Tom

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Crisis Averted (katie's version = holy crap)

Hey... it's Katie,
Running a company is time consuming and down right exhausting. Of course lots of people have taken an interest in our things, and thats the best part really. Today we had an incident with our manufacturer, and we were in crisis mode for a few hours. All is well know though and business will continue as it has previously. Today of course was our most demanding day for shirts, today about five of our friends were saying their really interested in our shirts! Which is great, but that's exactly when we were in crisis mode! Anyway, we figured everything out tonight, all is well in the O'Rourke household! (knock on wood of course)
--
Katie has yet again left the building!!!!!

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Surprise During School Presentation

Hi everyone, it's Emma.
Today was my second day of school and I presented our bread + butter project to my class and they really liked it. My teacher was very excited about it. She said that if everyone buys shirts, we can have a bread + butter day!

In the middle of my presentation there was a FIRE DRILL. Everyone was a little surprised, but not really because we saw some fire truck outside before the alarm went off. It was just a drill though. I got to finish talking about it after we came in. I showed them all our cool shirts and sweatpants and stuff and I told them how to order. I also told them about the food pantries we are helping.

We ordered sweatshirts today for Katie and me. I can't wait for them to come. Oh, we're getting two tote bags too. Those will be good for school. Okay, I have to go to bed now.

-Emma

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Become a Bread + Butter Supermodel

Gisele, watch out! Our shirts are out there and we want to see our customers in them! Send us your glamour shots at info@breadandbutterproject.com and we'll do our best to post all of them. We will keep your identity top secret unless you want to be discovered by the talent scouts who regularly scan our blog. (Hey, it could happen.)

It really is so gratifying to see our shirts out in public. What was just a kernel of an idea three weeks ago is now a real, tangible product - on the backs of some of our favorite people! Wow.

The girls went back to school today so getting them to blog is going to become increasingly difficult - now they'll see what it's like to really juggle some balls. Homework, dance, gymnastics and bread + butter. We will try to take it easy on them so they don't crash and burn. Tom and I have been burning the candle at both ends for the past month so "tired" doesn't begin to describe us but we are still as motivated as ever, just with a few more bags under our eyes.

Lots of folks are asking about products. We will have adult long-sleeve tees and sweatshirts in the coming weeks and we'll continue to add new products as we design them. We are getting pretty darn creative. Okay, mama needs some shut eye.

-Sue

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Frequently Asked Questions

Hi all! We continue to be encouraged by the positive feedback we've gotten and the orders are coming in! In an effort to communicate our objectives clearly, we decided to put together this list of FAQs, assuming many of you might have questions. We hope this helps you understand our unique business model and mission.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the bread + butter project a charity or nonprofit organization?
No. We registered the bread + butter project as a for profit business with two
primary goals:
1. Support nonprofit organizations that help feed the hungry
2. Teach our daughters about developing a new and successful business model

How do you support nonprofit organizations?
We donate 50% of our profits from the sale of bread + butter products to our nonprofit partners.

Why do you donate 50%?
We want to donate as much as we can and still have a sustainable business. We decided on 50% because we think that our two goals are equally important. We want our daughters to understand that there are benefits to working hard and helping others, and that personal and charitable goals don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

How is this approach different?
Rather than waiting for a few years for the business to break even, begin generating profits, and then start ‘giving something back’, we’re making a significant commitment and delivering on it from the very beginning. We believe our customers will like this approach and will help us sustain the business by buying our products. In fact, we’re counting on it.

How do you select your nonprofit partners?
We are most interested in working with nonprofit organizations that help feed the hungry, typically human service agencies, food banks and food pantries. Organizations interested in partnering with us can send an inquiry to info@breadandbutterproject.com.

Who owns the bread + butter project?
Tom O’Rourke, Susan Tabb, Katie O’Rourke and Emma O’Rourke are the owners and equal partners in the business.

Where is the business registered?
Newburyport, MA. The business was established September 4, 2009.

bread + butter business report #2

We held our 3rd bread + butter business meeting on Friday night. Emma arrived with an agenda, and did a great job of keeping everyone on topic and moving the discussion along. We are finding that this is very important, as we always have a lot to talk about, but the kids (and some of the adults) have very short attention spans. One member of the O’Rourke family, who shall remain nameless, actually hangs upside down from her chair, with her ponytail touching the kitchen floor during certain parts of these meetings. Here are the highlights:

Sue reported that at the end of our second week, the blog had close to 800 visitors and over 1,800 page views, and we are starting to see some sales. The fitted cap sleeve T-shirt is our most popular product so far. We see spikes in activity when we send out email blasts and post messages on facebook, which we started this week.

What we learned during week 2:

Katie – You have to think carefully about how you promote the business (i.e. when you start promoting, you want to have good results to report and that can be tough when you are just getting started like we are).
Emma – It’s fun to work as a family because everyone is good at something and you can focus on what you’re good at.
Sue – Web activity relates directly to our outreach efforts, but more hits do not necessarily translate into more sales.
Tom – facebook will be a powerful tool for us, but we need to figure out how to use it most effectively.

What we need to focus on during week 3:

Formalizing our mission statement for the bread + butter project and developing crisper messaging; Registering bread + butter as a business (completed on Saturday – see video); Finding and opening a free or low cost business checking account to process donations and keep our finances in order; Additional outreach and decisions on food pantry partners in each New England state in time for expansion at end of October; Research how to submit a video to iCarly website; Research submission to NBC/American Express Shine a Light grant program for small businesses; Send a bread + butter T-shirt to Ashley Tisdale (does anyone know her size?); Make the gift card PDF that we talked about last week that nobody made

Thanks to our bread + butter supporters:

We have many people to thank this week, including Sue’s cousin Tina for help with making our logo into a Vector File; Katie at the Daily News for writing a great article about our project; Katie at Box and Bow for helping promote our project at her store; Our friend Bob, who referred us to a lawyer friend of his for questions about trademarks and copyright.

Stay tuned and keep spreading the word.

-Tom


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Officially in Business - The business of helping others, that is

OK. I know I promised that today would be a re-cap of our third weekly 'business meeting,' which we did have on last night, but the bigger news to report is that Sue and I took the girls to Newburyport City Hall today to officially register the bread + butter project as a business. "Now you're official and can pay taxes on it," an onlooker at City Hall said. That's right, official, legitimate, and totally transparent - no flies on us! The folks who helped us in the City Clerk's office were all very nice. One of them remarked, "Didn't I see you guys in the newspaper this morning?" Emma and Katie were very proud. "I feel important," Katie said, as she signed her name, along with Sue's, Emma's and mine on the one-page DBA (Doing Business As) form. That made me feel really good. She is important and I'm glad we can help her feel that way. "I never knew you had to fill out paperwork to be a business. I thought you could just start one," Katie told us later. Part of learning about developing a business is learning about the laws and rules you need to follow. When I was 9, 10, and 11, I was delivering newspapers, learning how to make change, and making some money on tips, but I wasn't thinking about how the newspaper business was regulated or how the paper was distributed or marketed. I'm so glad that Sue and I have the opportunity to work with our kids on this project. We took along our flip video camera to document today's events. Take a minute to watch the video below:



And in case you missed it yesterday, Katie Curley wrote a fantastic article about our project in the Daily News of Newburyport. Check it out.

-Tom

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Are We Ready for Prime Time?

We're heading into our second (long, and somewhat stressful) week here at the bread + butter project, and our first press story is hitting local newsstands and mailboxes today. We're all very excited. If you're joining us for the first time, as a result of the great article in the Daily News, Welcome!

Please take a few minutes to browse our blog, read some of our earlier posts, and visit our e-store. If you're not already familiar with the project, Sue's first post is a good place to start. Because this is a project that is unfolding every day, we hope you will bookmark our site and check back from time to time, become a fan of the bread + butter project on facebook, and tell all of your friends and family members to visit our blog.

While we don't want to encourage unwanted spamming, it is for a good cause. So go ahead, forward our link: http://www.breadandbutterproject.com/ to everyone in your 'contact' list and tell them that 50% of our net profits during the months of September and October will benefit the food pantry at Pettengill House, Inc. More nonprofit partners in more states will benefit in the months ahead.

For returning visitors, you'll definitely want to check out our new products, including sweatshirts (just in time for fall) and a great new bread + butter tote bag in our shop. Tune in tomorrow for the report from our third weekly 'business meeting' and find out if Emma's 'sign' ever really transformed into an agenda. I did notice it had been ripped off the refrigerator, but have no idea where it ended up. And, I'm a bit concerned that today is trash day....

-Tom

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What I learned about Pettengill this week

Hi, It's Emma. (and Tom with a few editor's notes)

I researched Pettengill this week (50% of our net profits from sales during September and October benefit Pettengill House, Inc. of Salisbury, MA), and found some interesting facts.

1. Did you know that in the last year, 240 backbacks and school supplies were donated to Pettengill House?
2. Did you know that 148,540 meals were provided through Pettengill's food pantries and meal programs?
3. Did you know that through donations from the River Valley Charter School (Katie and Emma's school) and numerous other community members, Pettengill provides needy families with supplies to support childrens' birthday parties?
4. A fact that I learned that I didn't know before is that Pettengill also helps with children's dental care.

I like helping Pettengill and I am glad that we picked them to work with. 

-Emma

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We Don't "Love that Dirty Water"

Hey, it's Katie,

I've been thinking about how I'm really excited to go back to school. All the other kids have started and my school still hasn't. At my school, River Valley Charter School, we have done in the past years a Walk for Water, and a Hike for Hunger. In fourth grade, I learned that a bunch of people, children in fact, have to carry jugs and jugs of water and walk multiple miles just so they're family can have dirty water. And although we aren't focusing on water, it's still something to keep in mind when you leave your water running, or dump half a glass of water down the drain.

We are designing some cool new products for our bread + butter line. I'm excited to tell my friends at school about our new long-sleeve tees and sweatshirts that are coming out soon!!!! Remember, half of our proceeds will go to food pantries. Support us by visiting our shop - just click a tee at right. You know you want to....
--
Katie has left the building
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Pooped but Proud

It's 6:45am and I am exhausted but happy. A reporter from the local paper spent some time interviewing us last night and Tom and I were very impressed at how the girls handled themselves. Both Katie and Emma were able to articulate our company's goals, some of their ideas, and even inject some humor. They were polite and poised. It was one of those moments that I thought, "yup, this is working."

But we are all tired. We are learning that there is a lot to starting a company, especially when you are documenting the process as you go. We work our day jobs and come home to dive in to bread and butter. Who will we partner with next? How are sales? Whose turn to blog? What new products will we offer? How can we make our web site more interactive? We love it but it sure is busy!!

I learned last night to leverage the relationships you have to help you with the areas you have no expertise in. Translated: Beg your family and friends for favors!! My cousin Tina, a brilliant entrepreneur and graphic designer (check out stevens470), is going to help us transform our logo so we can use it on more than just tees...be watching for some cool new products coming in the next week or so. Thanks Tina!

Okay...need...more...coffee. Have a great day.

-Sue

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A very nice surprise!

Emma, who is 10, and has been a little slower than the rest of us to fully embrace and carve out her niche with the work associated with our bread + butter project, gave me a pleasant surprise today. When I called her on my way home from work, she said, "Dad, guess what? I have a great idea. I'm making a sign and I am going to tape it to the wall under the clock in the kitchen." Even though I was imagining the paint that would peel off the wall when the sign was yanked down, I said, "That sounds great, honey. What is the sign for?" She told me that it was for bread + butter, and that we were going to use it to make a list of things to talk about at our next business meeting, which regular followers know take place on Friday evenings over dinner. To me, this sounded kind of like an agenda. Who knew that Emma, who has displayed no interest in coordinating or planning anything in the ten years I have known her, would suddenly be interested in organizing a family discussion? "God help her," I thought. When I came home, I found the 'sign' on the kitchen counter - not taped to the wall under the clock - with one item on it. I was tempted to add some more, but I wanted Emma to take an active role in compiling the agenda. So, I took out my blackberry, e-mailed her a few ideas to include, and taped the 'sign' to the refrigerator, which is made of stainless steel, not paint that can peel. My hope is that she will actually open her email before the meeting, add the items in her own writing to the sign, and guide us all through a productive discussion on Friday evening. Even if she doesn't, I'm glad to see she's interested, and thinking about the project on her own, and how we can work together as a family.

-Tom

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