Kashi is small – only 70 employees – but it seems a whole lot bigger. Maybe it’s because the company was in the right place at the right time, taking advantage of the natural, organic, whole foods craze early on. Maybe it’s because of Kashi’s series of health-oriented television commercials that have been running for the past four years. Or maybe it’s because, in 2000, this once tiny independent became a subsidiary of the enormous Kellogg’s Company. (Yes, that Kellogg’s.)

Whatever the reason, one thing is certain: Kashi is a company on a mission. On Kashi’s website, the company claims, “Many of us at Kashi don’t know where Kashi ends and we begin. To us, Kashi is more than products in packages – it’s a way of life.” Before you dismiss this as marketing hyperbole, consider the fact that the company has built its entire business around sustainability, giving it the quirky name “Project SpArK” (Sustaining the Planet And Retaining Kashiness). Kashi employees report about their personal sustainability efforts on the company’s website (“It can be hard to remember to bring your reusable bags with you to the store, so I decided to do the remembering for some people by handing out reusable Kashi bags in front of a local market,” writes one employee.)

While Kashi has a self-effacing sense of humor, the company is quite serious about making a positive impact on the world. Kashi uses all natural ingredients sourced within the United States whenever possible. The paperboard for all packaging is made from 100 percent recycled sources. The company actively practices the “Three R’s” – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – working with partner organizations to be as environmentally conscious as possible.

Protecting the environment is not Kashi’s only missionary work. The company has been involved in Share Our Strength’s “Operation Frontline,” a program that educates low-income families about proper nutrition. Kashi worked with the Sundance Channel to create “Grains of Change,” a series of short films about how to make the world a healthier place. In 2006, Kashi sponsored “Day of Change,” a seven-month tour that crossed the United States and included natural food cooking demonstrations, product tastings, and hands-on yoga training. The following year, the “Kashi Snack Drive” encouraged consumers in four American cities to “trade in” their unhealthy snacks for Kashi snacks.

Kashi isn’t above leveraging celebrities, either. In late 2009, the company struck a deal with Mollie Katzen, a best-selling cookbook author. Together with Katzen, Kashi created and launched www.Get-Cooking.com , an online collection of instructional videos that help consumers cook with natural ingredients. The site is a companion to Katzen’s new book, GET COOKING: 150 Simple Recipes to Get You Started in the Kitchen.

Kashi’s current television ads fit nicely with the company’s personality. They each feature a real Kashi employee, discussing some aspect of “Kashiness.” The commercials center on natural foods, fitness, and healthy living. Each ad ends with the company’s tagline, “7 whole grains on a mission.” The company also runs an occasional ad that’s more promotional. One, for example, shows some Kashi employees getting unsuspecting consumers in an elevator to sample a Kashi product. A recent promotion offered a free single-serving sample of one of three products via the company’s website.

Kashi has methodically grown its product line well beyond its cereal roots. The company now offers twenty-nine kinds of hot and cold cereal, as well as twenty-nine different snack bar products. Other product lines include crackers, cookies, frozen entrees, pizza, pilaf, waffles and pocket bread sandwiches.

At a time when some companies may be reducing their product offerings, Kashi clearly has expansion on its mind. But that’s not unusual. It’s all part of a missionary’s job.

Barry Silverstein has been a frequent brandchannel contributor since 2007. He has thirty years of advertising and marketing experience and is currently a freelance writer and marketing consultant. He founded and ran his own direct marketing agency and held executive positions with Epsilon, a leading database marketing firm and Arnold, a major ad agency. Silverstein is the author of three marketing books, including the McGraw-Hill book, The Breakaway Brand, which he co-authored with Arnold CEO Fran Kelly.