I remember the moment I created Lori’s Original Lemonade. What would happen over the next 4 months to actual physical manifestation of the lemonade would be nothing short of a miracle. Still, I am in awe of the enormous amount of work and everything that had to come together to make the first bottles off the assembly line possible.
But it was during those first few months of creating LOL that I knew one thing for sure, that this would be the most difficult adventure I had ever taken on and for that I must have the most purposeful mission that would be to serve a bigger purpose than just paying off my kids college expenses so that when times got tough (and they did) that we would have a bigger purpose to push through the hard times. I searched for ways I could give and donate and set up an infrastructure for the “passion project”. I soon realized that margins were thin and costs to start were beyond what I could have ever imagined. So under funded, naive but full of hope I had only one thing that I could latch on to and that was I believed I could make it work so that some day I could help others in a bigger way.
Fast forward 8 years while I haven’t been able to get to that personal “passion project” up and running, I have been able to help people in so many other ways. I recently saw a piece on recycling from KCET https://www.kcet.org/shows/socal-connected/episodes/life-in-plastic-californias-recycling-woes
I have been guilty of taking styrofoam cups for my coffee and now I notice the words “DART” on them. I have started to bring in my own cup to fill. As I live on a boat, we see all of the trash that comes floating from the land into the ocean, whenever we can we are picking up plastic out of the ocean. We’ve even stopped on our way to the islands to pick up Mylar balloons. The micro particles of styrofoam are being found in fish, being washed up on beaches, stuck in landfills, along our beaches and its not going away.
(This photo taken this morning of the plastic and foam on my way up the dock from our boat)
I realized that every time someone chooses our lemonade over another brand that is in plastic they are helping the environment by choosing us. We are in glass, we are organic, we now have our glass made in the USA not overseas. I am proud of what we represent. I couldn’t imagine us being any other way. Yes, it is expensive. Being organic, I pay as much as 4 x more for my ingredients than non organic ingredients, but it is the only way. Glass is a 100 percent renewable and recyclable resource.
So, today, I am proud of our bigger mission – to help in a small way to support the health and sustainability of our planet by committing to organic and glass. Thank you for your continued support of our mission.
Lori Volk, Chief Believer Officer/Ironman
Lori’s Original Lemonade
since 2011
