While on vacation, I had the opportunity to visit Whole Foods to purchase my vacation food needs. As we strolled down the cereal isle, we came across a new brand that we had not seen before- Three Sisters. What made this brand stand out was that the cereal was not in boxes like Kashi and the other brands, but was sold in "freshness saver" bags. These resealable bags keep the cereal fresh and limit the packaging by eliminating the box. So the consumer saves natural resources by choosing a product that uses less packaging.
Each year there are 2.5 billion cereal boxes sold in the US, that is 180,000 tons of paperboard! If we converted half of those "boxes" to these freshness bags, the energy saved could power over 11,000 homes for a year!
Three Sisters takes it one step further, as they purchase wind-generated electricity credits from Windsource for 100% of the electricity to produce their natural cereals. As a sustainable company they work continuosuly to reduce waste and water use, and recycle everything they can.
So, now the next two questions I am sure you are thinking....does it taste good and is it cost effective?
Well, we tasted three of the 5 flavors- Marshmallow Oaties, Cinnamon Sweet, and Graham Cracker. My children LOVE the taste and want more. One bag was gone in 2 days. I am now going to have to see if I can buy them by the case as I don't live near a Whole Foods, but to be able to offer a naturally sweetened good tasting whole grain cereal during the school year, that is cost effective and easy to store, well I have found my kiddie breakfast heaven. Oh and the cost- for a 12.5 OZ bag of cereal, it was $3.00 a bag. Very cost effective when some of the organic all natural items can run up to 5 bucks a box!
So we are officially hooked on Three Sisters cereal, and I am very pleased to see a cereal company offer a sustainableble choice, while also addressing a very niche area but am anxious to see if their approach can also make an impact on the other much larger firms out there. No more boxes!
