The flavor will be sold in Ben & Jerry’s stores and will deliver the organization’s message on every carton and on leaflets available in its branch locations.
“The ONE campaign starts the process and the road to engagement,” said the nonpartisan group’s chief executive, David Lane. “Some people ask me why we concentrate in Third World countries. Great nations should be able to do more than two things at once.”
ONE was founded in 2005 behind the altruistic star power of U2 front man Bono and the financial weight of Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. Its 2.4 million members are engaged in efforts to raise public awareness about global poverty, hunger and disease in the world’s poorest countries, Lane said.
Lane, a former chief of staff at the Commerce Department under President Clinton, has worked with Republicans and Democrats in an effort to bring change to a global population in which 1 billion people live on less than a dollar a day, he said.
The nonpartisan spirit was largely eschewed by Cohen, who laid part of the world’s woes on a bloated national defense budget.
“Two months of paying for the war in Iraq could feed 3 million kids dying of starvation,” he said. “We were promised more funding for foreign aid. It’s time for us to hold their feet to the fire. The important thing is to influence government.”
The star power upon which the organization was founded continued Monday, with Cohen, Greenfield and rocker Chris Daughtry, who recently returned from Uganda.
“I’ve been part of ONE for a while,” he said. “I saw the effects of poverty and the simple things we can do to make a huge difference. We do see where it goes and it’s pretty amazing.”
