Helping to whitewash or transforming tainted $ into something good?

I'm curious to see what folks think of this. When I started receiving
emails from various groups to vote for them so they could win some Pepsi
Challenge money, I had mixed feelings because of my disdain for giant
corporations pushing empty caloried, corn syrup water on folks in the US
and around the world – with all the effects on water sources, corn production and its downstream effects, health, and so on.
So, when I saw this exchange on the Community Food Security Coalition
listserv this morning, I thought I'd share it and see if others have
thoughts on this…

Related post: End hunger with corporate partnerships?  (Oh, and by the way, another term for this I heard was 'poorwashing'.)

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Thanks for writing this Michelle. When I was in charge of grants for several food-related nonprofits I consciously made the decision not to apply for this grant.

It would be one thing if Pepsi set up a foundation arm (a la Kellogg), but its such a blatant marketing ploy – and pitifully small grants to boot! Imagine if Kellogg had a "Tony the Tiger" grant program that required that you promote frosted flakes on Facebook to compete for "votes"?!?

My best, Liz Snyder