How we chose many of our 8 pro-bono food and supplement tests for October 2024…

Sunday, October 20, 2024

Wow. Well! 

Today we did a bunch of shuffling things around to see what resources we could re-allocate/ move around to make sure we are able to: 

#1) get as many of the products on our outstanding campaigns tested at the lab as possible and 

#2) bring as many other campaigns as close to funding as possible. 

So here’s what we did (we are going to publish this as an update on ALL of the campaigns mentioned, so if you contributed to more than one of the campaigns mentioned below, you will see this update more than once)!

• Firstly: The Plantation Black Strap Molasses had only raised $100 since we launched the campaign, so we converted it to be one of our “pro bono” campaigns for the month of October (we really want to test this because we have heard molasses can test positive for a high level of Lead but have not yet quantified that)! We then put the $100 that campaign had raised into “the pot” to be allocated toward other campaigns.
• Of the $100 above, we allocated $29 to the SunButter campaign (lowering the goal visible on the campaign by $29), which meant that campaign has reached its goal and has been closed! This left $71 remaining in the pot.
• Of the $71 remaining, we applied $47 to the MCormick Organic Saigon Cinnamon Sticks so that campaign met its goal (allowing us to close the campaign)! This left $24 to allocate… 
• A Garden of Life prenatal vitamin funded today with $5 over, and the Goldfish crackers funded as well with $2 extra, bringing our credit available to allocate toward testing something else up to $31.
• Since the Fruity Flavored Magic Spoon cereal has not funded in forever (only having raised $187 since the campaign launched), we converted that campaign into one of our “pro bonos” for the month of October and added the $187 to the $31 above, leaving us $218 to allocate into other campaigns.
• We applied $45 of that $218 to the Apple Cherry That’s It bar (since that was close to funding but not quite there), closing out that campaign by helping it meet its goal. This left $173 for other campaigns.
• We then allocated $45 of the remaining $173 to the Parm Crisp (cheese snack) to help that product meet the campaign goal, and closed out THAT campaign… bringing the amount we had left to allocate down to $128. 
• So we applied $65 of the $128 remaining to the Kendamil Toddler Goat formula that was close to funding, leaving us with $63 left to allocate!
• Since the Now Kelp supplement had not yet funded (and since we are VERY curious about the results for this product in light of the sheet seaweed testing we completed) we closed out the Now Kelp campaign (converting it to one of our pro bonos for October) and putting the $145 the kelp campaign had raised “back into the pot,” bringing us up to $208 that we needed to reallocate.
• Since the Hu Chocolate campaign never funded, we allocated $133 of that $208 to close it out, leaving us with $75 still left.
• One of our oldest campaigns (the Chocolate Chip Clif Bar) had yet to fully fund, so we took the $210 raised from that campaign and placed that into the pot, adding it to the $75 above and bringing our funds up to $285. We converted the Clif Bar into another of our pro bono campaigns for October.
• We allocated $195 of the $285 remaining to bring the One Degree Brown Rice Cereal to its goal and closed out that campaign so that we can test it this month. This left $90 to allocate toward other campaigns.
• As we are testing SunButter, and since Sunflowers are notoriously contaminated, we really wanted to expedite the testing of the Sunflower Lecithin (which had not yet funded) so we closed out that campaign, making it another one of our pro-bonos for October and reallocating the funds raised ($240) to other campaigns, bringing our amount up to $330.
• We then applied $300 of that $330 to the Once Upon A Farm Organic Fruit And Veggie Blend campaign, closing it out so we can test it this month. This left $30!
• So, we applied the remaining $30 to the Navitas Strawberry campaign (lowering the goal by that amount, so it will hopefully see quicker funding from here on out)!

And that’s how we came up with several of the products we will be testing this month using the pro bono credits SimpleLab contributed to us!

Thanks for reading this silly update. 

I cannot imagine that anyone else out there wanted to follow the details! But it is important to us to publish this so there is a paper trail for transparency and accountability.

By moving some funds around a bit, the items you wanted tested will see quicker results! Plus, some products others wanted tested (but that had not yet funded!) will also see quicker testing (thanks to using our eight pro bono credits from SimpleLab in this way)!

Tamara

For those new to the Lead Safe Mama website:

Tamara Rubin is a multiple-federal-award-winning independent advocate for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety, and a documentary filmmaker. She is also a mother of Lead-poisoned children (two of her four sons were acutely Lead-poisoned in 2005).

• Tamara owns and runs Lead Safe Mama, LLC — a unique community collaborative woman-owned small business for childhood Lead poisoning prevention and consumer goods safety.
• Since July of 2022, the work of Lead Safe Mama, LLC has been responsible for six product recalls (FDA and CPSC).
• All test results reported on this website are science-based, accurate, and replicable.
• Please check out our press page to see some of the amazing coverage of our work so far this year!