"Bonsai People" featured in this month's Do Something Reel Film Festival

AUSTIN, Texas, March 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- In Whole Foods Market's^® Do Something Reel Film Festival, its March film, "Bonsai People," celebrates the humanitarian work of Muhammad Yunus and the microcredit loans of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20121015/DA92273LOGO)

"Bonsai People" shows how the poor are fighting against poverty by using microcredit loans to support their families. Grameen Bank uses the village banking model, which ensures that women in rural communities have access to loans. This model has helped both families in Bangladesh and across the world recover from economic difficulties and unleash their potential. 

"The company's Whole Planet Foundation is doing the same work that Yunus does in Bangladesh," said filmmaker Holly Mosher. "Whole Foods Market customers understand the importance of social business and the difference that a microloan can make."

Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, is a founding member of Whole Foods Market's Whole Planet Foundation and is tackling some of the world's most vexing problems from healthcare to education to alternative energy, while demonstrating that complex problems sometimes do have simple answers.

Through grants to microfinance partners in the U.S. and 54 other countries, Whole Planet Foundation funds microloans in poor communities where Whole Foods Market sources products. Through the foundation alone, more than $34 million has been committed and more than $24 million has been disbursed, supporting more than 1.5 million people around the world.

To watch "Bonsai People," simply visit dosomethingreel.com.

Do Something Reel, which kicked off on Earth Day 2012, is an ongoing collection of provocative films about food and environmental issues that can be purchased and streamed on various digital platforms. The festival was formed in partnership with FilmBuff and is presented in association with Applegate Organic & Natural Meat, Earthbound Farm Organic, Popcorn Indiana and siggi's.

Contact: Emily Wright, Whole Foods Market
(512) 542-3725, emily.wright@wholefoods.com

SOURCE Whole Foods Market