Kind CEO announces $25 million for new watchdog organization

A Kind fund. Daniel Lubetzky, the CEO and founder of Kind Healthy Snacks (maker of KIND bars) announced on Wednesday the launch of Feed the Truth, a new advocacy organization that will “seek to improve public health by making truth, transparency and integrity the foremost values in today’s food system.”

Activities could potentially include grants to support investigative journalism, consumer education campaigns and educational briefings to policymakers and influencers.

Lubetsky announced an initial $5 million donation to the organization, which is seeking 501(c)3 status, and pledged to give $20 million more over the course of the next ten years. Feed the Truth will operate independently from Kind, and features some heavy-hitters on its board of directors—including nutritionist, author, and public health watchdog Marion Nestle and Michael Jacobson, co-Founder and president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest.

“Feed the Truth will ensure science overrules special interests by revealing and counteracting the food industry’s undue influence in shaping nutrition policy and ability to disseminate biased science, among other activities that are detrimental to public health,” the company said, in a release. “While specific programming will be decided by an executive director that will be appointed by the Board of Directors, activities could potentially include grants to support investigative journalism, consumer education campaigns and educational briefings to policymakers and influencers.”

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Joe Fassler is The Counter's deputy editor. His reporting has been included in The Best American Food Writing and twice nominated for a James Beard Media Award. A 2019 - 2020 Ted Scripps Fellow in Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado, Boulder, he's the author of two books: a novel, The Sky Was Ours (forthcoming from Penguin Books), and Light the Dark: Creativity, Inspiration, and the Artistic Process.