Selling granola bars has allowed a student to help feed starving children.

Katie Knight, a freshman journalism and pre-business double major, is the Campus Director for Two Degrees, a granola bar company that provides a starving child with a meal for every granola bar sold. Two Degrees can be considered similar to TOMS because they conduct their philanthropy the same way, she said. For every product sold, a child is helped. Knight has set a goal of 200 sales by May but her main goal is to get the bars on TCU’s campus and into area stores, she said.

Q: How did you get involved with Two Degrees?
A: My cousin Kassie Seger goes to Trinity and she actually brought some bars to me over Christmas break. We had a big Christmas dinner, and she brought them to me because she thought that they would be something that I would be interested in and would bring to TCU because Two Degrees has a program called Campus Directors. You apply to be a campus director, and they select you based on whether they think you’ll do a good job and whether you’ll be responsible, and your job is to bring the bars to your school and let people know about them. I really have her to thank because I would not have known about it otherwise.

Q: What have you done for Two Degrees so far as Campus Director?
A: What I’ve been doing mainly is contacting TCU food services, and that’s sort of been a process because we get our food from Sodexo, which is a big company and kind of hard to break into I guess. So I’m thinking a better approach is I’m going to start bringing it to the bookstore and it’s going to be in surrounding areas. It’s at Whole Foods everywhere, but Fort Worth unfortunately does not have a Whole Foods store. So I’m thinking Central Market would be interested since they’re a similar corporation. So I’m attempting to bring it to surrounding campuses and then in the mean time people can purchase them either online or place an order with me if they don’t want to deal with that. I’m just trying to make it easy for people to purchase them.

Q: What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned from working with Two Degrees?
A: I guess you never realize how difficult it’s going to be to sell to people and to get them interested in a cause because everybody’s busy and has a lot to do. I didn’t realize how much time I would have to invest for no direct benefit. It’s hard to get people interested. Everybody’s got a cause that they’re looking for, and there are so many different things happening that people should be involved in. I guess the really great thing about Two Degrees is that it’s so easy for college students to get involved and into. So that’s what I’m hoping—I’m hoping it’ll take off in that sense because everybody wants to help people—it’s just a way of being able to on a daily basis. It’s practical while you’re in school.

Q: What’s the mission of Two Degrees?
A: The technical mission is to feed 200 million children. The idea of “Two Degrees” comes from the idea that we’re all separated by two degrees, essentially. For each bar that you buy, a meal goes to a starving child. They’re protein dense. It’s a really interesting concept. It’s very similar to TOMS but food is obviously something you need a little more often, so it’s an interesting way of encouraging it, really.

Q: Are there other students involved with Two Degrees?
A: Meredith Hardwick kind of passed it down to me. To encourage involvement, I’m actually going to sororities and fraternities next week—I think I have about 13 or 14 scheduled, and I’m just going to be pitching the idea to them and talking to them about it so that they hear about it. I’ll hand out flyers.

Q: Why do you think TCU students should care about Two Degrees?
A: Well, I think most people want to help others. I think we all have this desire to contribute in some way. But, when you’re in college and when you have a job, you may not necessarily be able to contribute. It’s great to donate money, I’m not saying anything against that, but Two Degrees has a very specific cause that they’re working with, and they’re able to distribute to a wide range of communities. I’ve been really impressed with the work that they’ve done, and I know TCU students want to be involved in that sense. I think it’s just a good community to bring it into. It’s kind of in the name ‘Texas Christian University.’ There’s something about like community and contribution and caring about one another.

Q: Where are the meals donated?
A: You can actually choose. The recently updated website is online so that you select where you would like for it to go to. So far they have Haiti, India, Kenya, Malawi and Somalia. In the future you can expect Pakistan, South Sudan and the United States. It’s exciting all around. There’s another selection at the bottom, which I always do, and it says to donate them where they’re most needed, and I always select that because, you know, we always think ‘Oh, India … Africa … Oh, definitely those,’ but I want them to go wherever the need is the greatest.

Q: Where do you want to see the program going?
A: I just really want them to be a standard on campus. It’s so standard for us to grab a Clif Bar or something in the rush of the morning forgetting to eat breakfast, and it’s so easy to replace a Clif Bar with Two Degrees. I think it’s perfect for college students in that sense.

Q: How can TCU students get involved?
A: Buying the bars. The community will respond to what students want. So if students demand the bars and ask, ‘Oh, do you sell these bars?’ If they see a need for them, then businesses will respond. They want to provide what people want. So I think it’s important for the students to ask for them — to really make it known that they’ve asked for this and want to help and not just buy a food bar that goes straight to the company. They want to contribute to people abroad and people who are really in life or death situations.