CBD Social Good Archives

We find ourselves on the eve of a new year, which means we finally have a few days off here at Sunset Lake CBD!

I can’t help but reflect on some of our charitable work this year and how much it means to me that we get to support causes that we, as a crew, believe in and can do so loudly and proudly.

This year certainly threw us a curveball. You can read why here. (Hint: The USDA didn’t allow us to grow any hemp!) But don’t worry; we’re going to weather this storm with our excellent team and work our butts off to provide you with only the best CBD products.

Without further adieu, let’s recap our charitable contributions from this past year.

Vermont Community Foundation – $5,000

Let’s start with a donation that is near and dear to us as Vermont farmers. Some may know this already, but Vermont was devastated by widespread flooding in early July 2023. The images from this flood are heartwrenching and triggering for many of us who lived through Superstorm Sandy in the early 2010s.

We knew we had to do something to help our neighbors. We scraped together $5,000 during our farming season for the Vermont Community Foundation’sFoundation’s Emergency Flood Relief Fund.

You can read more about the fund here and learn more about Vermont’s ongoing recovery efforts here.

Vermont Public Radio – $16,600

We’re staying local with this next donation. Equitable access to information, news, (and weather) is incredibly important. All of the native Vermonters who now work here at Sunset Lake CBD grew up listening to VPR. Now that we have the means, we’re pleased to be able to donate to our local public radio.

VPR provides great local coverage that most Vermonters can access for free. We couldn’t be happier being an underwriter once again. We plan on continuing to donate to VPR next year, too.

Planned Parenthood – $5,000

During our Black Friday sale, we partner with other organizations to raise money for causes we both believe in. This year, we chose to make matching donations to Planned Parenthood with our friends at Majority Report.

Our donation to Planned Parenthood of America was perhaps our most controversial donation to date, but we have no regrets. Reproductive healthcare is healthcare, and healthcare is a human right.

Last Prisoner Project – $5,500

We teamed up with the Last Prisoner Project for our 4/20 sale this year. As a farm that grows hemp and operates in the cannabis space, it’s unthinkable that there are people still behind bars for cannabis offenses.

As a nonprofit, Last Prisoner Project runs so many programs that we appreciate, the biggest, in this writer’s mind, being direct commissary support and post-release grants for folks who we think are unjustly imprisoned for cannabis.

Check out this organization. If you like and want to support its mission, consider donating to the Last Prisoner Project here.

ATU Local 689 – $1,000

Early in 2023, we heard about striking transit workers in the VA and D.C. area. After hearing the details, Sunset Lake CBD decided to send $1,000 to ATU Local 689’s strike fund.

We are ardent believers in workers’ rights, and this was just one of many labor demonstrations we wanted to support this past year.

Pride Center of VT – $600

This year, the town of Essex asked Sunset Lake CBD to help sponsor their very first pride festival. We were honored to be a part of the celebration. While we didn’t bring any products because we try not to advertise our cannabis hemp products in front of children, it was lovely to talk to parents and friends.

We hope that Essex Pride invites us back for their 2024 celebration.

National Eating Disorder Association – $250

The last donation to round out this list is a small in-kind donation to our local National Eating Disorder Association branch. It aligns differently from our past donations, but we’re always happy to help out local folks.

If you run a Vermont nonprofit and are looking for in-kind donations, please use our contact form here. Send us a message with “donation” in the title.

Signed,

T.J. Anania

Director of eCommerce

The whirlwind of another harvest is complete. This year makes three. There is still some processing to do, but the fieldwork is finished.

As Director of Sales and Sustainability, I wanted to take a moment this Giving Tuesday a reflect on our social philanthropy from this past calendar year— who we donated to, how we saw alignment between our missions, and any other thoughts that happen to cross my mind.

First up… GiveDirectly.org

Amount: $10,800.00 with a $10,800.00 match from The Majority Report

We had a productive year at Sunset Lake CBD and wanted to do one more big philanthropic push before the end of the year. Our strongest business partnership is with the Majority Report with Sam Seder and we decided as a team that we wanted to collaborate with them on this project. We reached out to Sam, Julie, and the rest of the MR crew to see what they wanted to do. Sam proposed GiveDirectly.org.

We agreed and decided that we wanted to give back a portion of our Gross Sales from November 22 through December 1, 2021. We were absolutely humbled by the response and were able to donate more than $10,000.

Alburgh Family Clubhouse

Amount: $6,135.69

The Alburgh Family Clubhouse project was brought before us by my business partner’s mom, Janet Bellavance. She’s the defacto company mom at this point. This project straddled 2020 and 2021, and I’ve already written about it here.

Lack of childcare is a crisis in America, especially in rural and economically underdeveloped communities like Alburgh. If we are going to continue doing business in the Champlain Islands, we must give back. If you live in Northwest Vermont and want to contribute to this cause, please find their donation page here.

Green Mountain Club

Amount: $1,000.00

Vermont is called the Green Mountain State, and for good reason. Exploring the mountains are an inextricable part of being a Vermonter. The Green Mountain Club’s mission is to make the Vermont mountains play a larger part in the life of the people by protecting and maintaining the Long Trail System and fostering through education, the stewardship of Vermont’s hiking trails and mountains.

The Green Mountain Club’s mission for land stewardship, creating common space with equal access, and promoting health by getting out into nature is exactly what we are about here at Sunset Lake CBD. As an avid hiker too, it was a no-brainer to contribute to this cause and we will continue to donate as long as we exist. If you want to support them, too please check out their donation page.

St. Vincent Nurses Strike Fund

Amount: $2,500.00

Fun fact: Did you know that donations to union strike funds are not tax deductible? Just another way that the rules are set up against working-class people.

This project made perfect sense to us due to our connection with Worcester, Massachusetts via our Director of eCommerce, T.J. You can read our original press release about the donation. Although we are a small company, we feel it’s important to take a stance. It’s a moral crisis in our country that these companies run profits in the hundreds of millions and then work their staff to the bone, depress wages, and negotiate in bad faith. It’s not about return on capital invested, or Wall St., or comparables— it’s about doing the right thing and having a strong middle class. We will continue to principally and financially stand in solidarity with workers.

Chittenden County Emergency Food Shelf

Amount: $3,000.00

We are farmers, first and foremost. Many Vermont farms have a mission to donate extra produce and allow gleaners onto their property to collect produce for people suffering from food insecurity. Unlike other farms though, we don’t grow any food, but this doesn’t absolve us of the responsibility to donate what we can to combat hunger here at home. That’s why we decided to collaborate with the Farm to Fork Fond, an annual bike ride through the Vermont Islands, and to donate to the Chittenden County Emergency Food Shelf.

Afghanistan Refugee Resettlement Fund

Amount: $1,000.00

Did we mention that we love the Majority Report with Sam Seder? We share a political and economic perspective on how this country can improve. So when Sam Seder and his co-host, Emma Vigeland, promoted a go-fund-me for Afghani refugee resettlement, it piqued our interest. And, when Sam said that he would wear a tank top and flex his pythons if his audience donated enough money— well, that had our attention! See a brief clip of the gun show here.

On a more serious note, the news of America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan was a historical event, even though this country had no plans on how to manage the fallout. America should be opening its doors to Afghani refugees. We are a small company, but felt it was a moral imperative to help.

Humane Society of Chittenden County

Amount: $2,500.00

We wouldn’t be here without the support and banking services of Mascoma Bank. You can read more about our successful partnership here. One day, when we walked in to withdraw some petty cash, they proposed that we sponsor a charity 5k.

Well, we love our pets here at Sunset Lake CBD, so we decided to sponsor the Humane Society of Chittenden County’s 5K Doggie Fun Run. It was a great opportunity to support our community, our pets, and introduce pet owners to our great CBD pet line. Pets deserve high-quality CBD, too!

Looking Forward

We plan on building on this momentum in the coming year, but for now, we’re going to settle in for the holidays and thank our lucky stars that we have such a great group of customers. Thanks so much for making all of this possible.

-Cy Kupersmith

In solidarity with the striking nurses of St. Vincent’s, a Worcester hospital, and in honor of National Nurses Day, Sunset Lake CBD is donating $2,500 to the nurses’ strike fund. As workers ourselves, we want to support fellow workers fighting for better conditions and contracts.

The nearly 10-week strike is for better pay and staffing levels, the latter of which St. Vincent nurses say were far too low to ensure adequate patient care.

Why We’re Donating to the St. Vincent Nurses’ Strike Fund

If this pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that all workers are essential. Without workers, our grocery stores wouldn’t be stocked. Deliveries would languish on warehouse floors. Garbage would pile up on the curbs everywhere.

Without workers— nurses, janitors, physician assistants, doctors— who would help us recover in our hour of need? Certainly not wealthy healthcare executives.

As a majority worker-owned business, we understand just how important workers are. That’s why we offer our workers a starting minimum wage of $15/hour and a host of other perks. But we know that it’s not enough to stand by our own workers. We’ve got to invest in the well-being of workers all over.

While we know it’s no substitute for standing on the picket line, we’re hoping that this modest donation of $2,500 can help meet some of the needs of St. Vincent’s striking nurses that are holding strong for better contracts.

See our official press release below:

SUNSET LAKE CBD DONATES $2,500 TO ST. VINCENT’S NURSES’ STRIKE FUND

BURLINGTON, VT May 2021 — Sunset Lake CBD, a majority worker-owned CBD company based in Burlington, Vermont is donating $2,500 to St. Vincent Nurses’ Strike Fund. The announcement of the donation comes on National Nurses Day.

St. Vincent nurses have been on strike since March 8, 2021 over pay and staffing levels, the latter, the nurses say, have been far too low to ensure adequate patient care. Tenet, the Dallas-based healthcare company that owns the Worcester-based hospital, has reportedly posted profits of $97M in the first quarter of 2021.

Sunset Lake CBD, a nearly two-year-old company, has a connection to Worcester through its Director of Operations, T.J. Anania. “As workers ourselves, we think it’s important to stand in solidarity whenever we can, however we can,” Anania said. “We can’t really make it down to the picket line, so we wanted to show support with a donation. This strike just really hits close to home— I used to work downtown and deliver food to St. Vincent’s all the time.”

Sunset Lake CBD is a vertically integrated hemp farm in Northwest Vermont. Originally a dairy farm producing milk for Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, Sunset Lake decided to diversify in 2019 and started growing hemp for CBD. As a majority worker-owned company, Sunset Lake believes in the importance of workers and has a $15/hour minimum wage.

At Sunset Lake CBD we have a crisis of conscience. We are privileged white people in Vermont who are now in business and profiting off of lawful cannabis. All while millions have been and continue to be harmed by the war on drugs. Our personal values and those as a company dictate that we advocate for criminal marijuana law reform. Marijuana should be:

Descheduled and removed from the controlled substance list.
Marijuana convictions should be expunged and current prisoners released from incarceration.
Efforts made to rehabilitate and compensate those harmed by heavy-handed drug policies.

This fourth of July we celebrate the 244th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. A fundamental American principle and the first amendment of the Constitution is the ability to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. We have decided as a company that ending the war on drugs and more specifically marijuana is the injustice closest aligned with our business that demands attention.

After careful research, we have decided that The Drug Policy Alliance is the non-profit advocacy organization that aligns with our values. Their vision statement is:

“The Drug Policy Alliance envisions a just society in which the use and regulation of drugs are grounded in science, compassion, health, and human rights, in which people are no longer punished for what they put into their own bodies but only for crimes committed against others, and in which the fears, prejudices and punitive prohibitions of today are no more.”

We couldn’t agree more.

Sunset Lake CBD strives to be a part of the marijuana law reform effort. The United States should have safe and regulated marijuana markets constituted in science and public wellness and not in criminal law. The war on marijuana has disenfranchised and harmed millions of people and disproportionately people of color. It is a corrupt stain on this country’s recent history. Morally it is imperative to work with organizations like the Drug Policy Alliance that promote a comprehensively ethical and inclusive cannabis industry.

That is why Sunset Lake CBD is donating 4.20% of all online sales to the Drug Policy Alliance for the month of July.

Cy Kupersmith

Director of Sales & Sustainability