Great news, chums!
Our company Verve, inc. just won the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) award for Rhode Island Woman-Owned Small Business of the Year. The award recognizes our founder and president Deborah Schimberg’s leadership in developing a successful business, increasing jobs, growing sales significantly, and creating innovative products like Glee Gum and new Glee Gum Pops. Woo-hoo!
You’ve probably heard our story before– but just in case you haven’t, here’s the scoop! Schimberg founded Verve back in 1995 as a result of her interest in sustainable development. While visiting an economically depressed community in Northern Guatemala, she learned that all chewing gum was once made with a rainforest tree sap called chicle— until 100% synthetic gum bases became the norm. But the harvest of chicle provides an ongoing source of income for skilled laborers and their families. This in turn helps to conserve the rainforest in Mexico and Guatemala, giving trees more value standing than felled for lumber. Inspired, Schimberg returned to her Providence, RI home and used chicle to design Verve’s first product, a Make Your Own Chewing Gum Kit.
In the 20 years since its inception, our company has expanded from selling educational candy-making kits for kids to producing the leading natural chewing gum on the market, Glee Gum. Available in nine flavors and sold throughout North America and beyond, Glee is the only chewing gum to be Non-GMO Project Verified, Fair Trade certified, kosher certified, and still made with chicle.
In the past year, we introduced Glee Gum Pops, the world’s first and only natural gum-filled lollipops. We also won Green America’s People & Planet Award, gifting 250 free activity kits to US public schools with the prize money, and started a scholarship program at the Maya Intercultural University of Quintana Roo, whose students come from chicle-producing communities. Aaand, we completed renovation of our new Verve headquarters in a formerly abandoned South Providence building just this week. It’s been a big year!
Thanks for all your Gleeful support. We couldn’t do it without you!
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