Veteran-owned soap company gives back by helping the homeless
LOS ANGELES -- Maxwell Moore is a 16-year combat veteran with the Navy where he served as a corpsman.
Upon coming home to Los Angeles after several tours of duty the local VA recommended he pick up a hobby that keeps his hands busy to help him deal with his PTSD. That's when he turned to something he learned as a child - making soap.
"The soap kind of kept him alive," says Maxwell's Soaps COO, Joe Palacios. "It kind of saved his life, it gave him something to do."
One-day while walking on the streets of Downtown Los Angeles he was asked for spare change. He had nothing to offer except his hand-made soap. He was shocked to learn how grateful the individual was to receive it.
"That was kind of the aha moment for me," Moore told Localish. "That I could make a company employing veterans, and also be able to make a difference in the lives of people who are less fortunate than myself."
That's when Maxwell's Soaps was born.
"One of the things I noticed for myself when I was in the war, was that if I can get a shower my humanity and patience was reinvigorated," says Moore. "To come home and see people in America living just as dirty as I was in a war was a real wake-up call for me."
Unlike most companies, Maxwell's Soaps was created with philanthropy in its DNA. With not only profits in mind, but to give back. That's why for every bar of soap sold they donate one to homeless hygiene programs.
But the company is not only philanthropic; they pride themselves on making the highest quality soap with all-natural ingredients.
"I have a son who has eczema," says Maxwell's Soaps Marketing Consultant, Mary Moon Hernandez. "And his skin is sensitive to every soap out there except Maxwell's Soaps."
"We have to start with something more in mind, like how do we make a long-term difference, how do we bake in philanthropy, and making our world better,"
