bread + butter helps feed hungry families, one shirt at a time

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Instead of changing the channel, two sisters decided to change the world. bread + butter helps feed hungry families, one shirt at a time
By Karin Conrad

Short on cash, a woman in a Walgreens TV ad faces an agonizing choice: paying for food or her prescription drugs. For most, the scene is just another ad, but Katie O’Rourke, 12, was moved to tears by the woman’s suffering. Instead of changing the channel, she and her sister, Emma, 10, decided they would change the world. Sitting in the living room of their Newburyport home, Katie and Emma turned to their mom, Sue Tabb, for advice on what they could do to help people struggling to put food on the table. They could have done what many families do – donate canned goods or write a check – but they had more ambitious ideas. “Mom said we could do something instead of nothing,” says Katie. So, they brainstormed and decided to design clothing, sell it on the Internet and donate some of the profits to organizations helping feed the hungry. Within days, the girls and their mom, along with dad, Tom O’Rourke, had put their heads and talents together to launch their new business.

As a family, they came up with a business plan, including a name reflecting the project’s emphasis on basic necessities – bread + butter - and a logo. As a way to document and share their experience, they also decided to write a family blog about the project for the first 365 days. They located a printer to put their project name and logo on clothing, designed a Web site, and, in September, the girls officially registered their business at Newburyport City Hall. Through donating half their profits from online sales of their sweatshirts, tees, totes and other products to food banks, bread + butter has already had a significant impact. Currently, the project partners with food banks in all six New England states. The family hopes to expand nationally in 2010 and, at some point, even internationally.

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