Popcorn for the People

Popcorn for the People - ordered February 10, 2021, received February 17, 2021

This is another shamefully late post of something I ordered months ago and am only posting about now. No excuse other than I feel like I've been in a time warp since March 2020. The hours either drag minute by minute or months go by in a blink of an eye. Nothing in between. But I'm finally doing it now in the spirit of better late than never.

I like popcorn as much as the next person, usually kettle corn in a movie theater (and the number of times I've gone to a theater in the past year and a half can be counted on two fingers) or caramel corn in a rare moment of indulgence.

But an ad for Popcorn for the People caught my eye because it's also a business that employs and supports people along the autism spectrum. In case you haven't figured it out by now, I'm a consumer activist. Meaning, it isn't just about buying something but who I buy it from and what they support are often the catalyst for a purchasing decision. I've been especially mindful of it with the pandemic throwing so many people out of work while at the same time, I got an opportunity to come out of early retirement and got a job and a paycheck. So I spend that paycheck with more mindfulness to try and do some good with it.

One other thing I've been doing during the pandemic is sending care packages or gifts at random intervals to various friends. Just a "no special occasion but I'm thinking of you today and hope you're well" sort of care package. A side effect of Covid not to take friends or family for granted because you just never know what'll happen.

In the spirit of having every purchase I make mean something, I also think of what would matter to the recipient. In this case, I have a friend with a young adolescent son with autism. So placing an order with Popcorn for the People who employs people with autism seemed like exactly what I needed to do. 

Now, I also had to try it for myself, right? Before I send it to someone else, I have to put in some quality control. That's my view anyway. The order took only a week to arrive. Each bag I bought was $7 each. I ordered 5 bags and paid $39.50 total so shipping was pretty reasonable at $4.50 for the 5 bags.

Popcorn for the People offers a variety of flavors but my favorites are always going to be kettle corn and caramel corn. I'm not a fan of chocolate on my popcorn so I skipped that. I did get the white cheddar though as the third flavor (I got 2 each of the kettle corn and caramel corn) because I generally like white cheddar popcorn.

All of the popcorn was good but my favorite from this order was the caramel corn. Could I say Popcorn for the People popcorn was head and shoulders above all the popcorn I've ever tried? Well, I'm honestly not enough of a popcorn gourmand to say yay or nay. But I can say it was good popcorn, reasonably priced and supports a good cause so you can't really go wrong with it either. I sent my friend an order after I tried mine and when she got it, she told me it came at just the right time as her young son was having a bad day and, young as he was, was already wondering what he would do for a job when he grew up. While he may not specifically go to work for Popcorn for the People, I hope it helped him realize there are businesses out there who employ people with autism and even more people who support them.