Meet Halima Aden: Somali-American Supermodel Helping To Drive Vita Coco’s Social Initiatives

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is something more companies are taking seriously as consumers become more conscious of how their products are being manufactured and sourced. However, many companies have received backlash in their attempts in part because it is inauthentic and they view it through a commercial lens first and social second rather than trying to make a meaningful authentic change. Vita Coco, the world’s leading coconut water brand has been doing great, authentic work for some time through their Vita Coco Project, founded in 2014 which helps to build the communities they source their coconuts from. Today, on World Coconut Day they are announcing Halima Aden, a Somali-American supermodel as their Chief Coconut Officer for the Vita Coco Project.

Aden grew up in Kakuma, a refugee camp in Kenya. At 6 years old her family moved to the U.S. an experience that was very different for her. She didn’t speak English, was Muslim, and wore a hijab. This made it very difficult for her to acclimatize. However, she realized from a relatively young age that the “one thing nobody can take away from you is your education”. As the years went on she learned English and developed confidence you rarely see in people from marginalized groups. This confidence came from a realization that “in her uncomfortable experience was growth” she recalls. This spurred her on to enter the Miss Minnesota USA beauty pageant wearing a hijab in 2016. Despite missing out on the top prize the attention it garnered landed her a contract with leading talent agency IMG Media in 2017. Since then she has gone on to be the first Muslim woman wearing a hijab to grace the cover of several publications such as British Vogue as well as walking fashion weeks in New York, London, and Paris. 

In her role as Chief Coconut Officer, she will serve as a global spokesperson and advocate for the project helping the company drive its social impact initiative that supports the coconut farming communities in the Philippines and Sri Lanka. The production of coconut water currently creates thousands of jobs in these regions and Vita Coco has a long term mission to impact one million people in coconut farming communities. This is done by paying farmers a reasonable local wage, building 30 safe classrooms for K-12 education, and giving more than 80 scholarships to top-performing students in the Philippines and Sri Lanks. On announcing the partnership Aden comments “Now more than ever, it’s really important to me to partner with brands that share my values. After I visited the coconut farms with Vita Coco last year and saw the work that they do firsthand and the impact it has, I knew it was an organization that I wanted to be a part of,”

Vita Coco is showing that it is possible to properly do CSR whilst having commercial success and with an ambassador like Aden who personally understands what economic opportunity and education can do for a community the future looks bright. 

This article is part of a series featuring diverse people making a difference. You can find more articles (click here) and if you have a story to tell or want to be updated as soon as new features are released message/follow me on Twitter @TommyASC91