The quadruple female force behind MZ Wallace and Food52 has teamed up for the second time on a philanthropic collection for charity: water.
Since 1999, native New Yorkers Monica Zwirner and Lucy Wallace Eustice have propelled their SoHo-based accessory brand to focus on purpose-driven designs, timeless style, and superior quality for their everyday handbag collection. And since 2009, former New York Times editor Amanda Hesser and food writer Merrill Stubbs, have been cooking up a content and commerce site that is friendly and approachable to a positive food philosophy. Through Food52, one can find an array of cooking necessities such as unique recipes, tableware, practical information, and enough inspiration to last through breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
These two brands’ lifestyle expertise, philanthropic mindset, and love of design, recently came together to create the ultimate farmers market bag, the Market Tote, in support of the Edible Schoolyard Project and the Founding Edible Schoolyards.
“We realized that we both really had, sort of, brand crushes on each other, so we got together and said, ‘Hey, let’s do something together,’ and so we did just that. So this is really our second go-round with the charitable component,” said Eustice.
This time they worked with with charity: water, a non-profit organization founded by Scott Harrison in 2006 to provide clean, safe drinking water to developing nations. Since its start, the organization has helped fund 13,641 projects in 22 countries, which has helped 4.6 million people benefit from their initiatives. Overall, as of December 2014, they have raised $155 million.
Food52 and MZ Wallace designed a custom water print perfect for daytime accessories: traveling, going to the gym, market shopping, and more. The exclusive abstract water print appears lining the inside of the lightweight Oxford Nylon Metro Tote, which comes in a neutral clay color. It also appears on the outside of an ipad case, a makeup bag (their Large Savory Cosmetic bag), and a smaller cosmetic zip bag (Zip Round Cosmetic).
“The Metro Tote bag is really one of our best bags. It’s at a very accessible price-point and it stylistically kind of works for everybody and every age. We have high-school kids that use it as their book-bag, and we have moms that use it as their yoga bags—it has a really broad reach,” said Eustice.
The collection, launching on Earth Day, April 22 on both MZ Wallace‘s and Food52‘s websites, will enable the brands to donate 15% of sales to charity: water, bringing more access to clean and safe drinking specifically in Ethiopia. There are currently 748 million people across the globe without access to drinking water, and it only takes approximately $30 to fund a single person clean water for an entire year. Through buying one of the large totes, you will ultimately be funding a yearlong supply of clean water to someone in need–a concept everyone can get behind.
