With the school season already kicked off, Microsoft’s Bing web search engine launched an educational website, REDU, aimed at empowering teachers and everybody concerned with the issue to have a national conversation around education reform. They are encouraged to connect, communicate through initiatives and, being inspired by others’ examples, improve this sphere with concrete actions, ranging from planting a learning garden to taking up a volunteer job.

Starbucks, an experienced player on a social pitch, is encouraging young Americans to experience the power of spoken words. The coffee company teamed up with The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (The NAACP) to launch the One Nation Spoken Word Showcase Tour, encouraging generation Y to participate in a range of activities, revolving around listening and speaking on a range of themes that focus on self-development and human rights.

The General Mills Foundation launched the One Million PALA Challenge in partnership with the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition (PCFSN) President’s Challenge program, Box Tops for Education® and the Amateur Athletic Union. Through the initiative, the General Mills Foundation will fund up to one million PALA for students across the United States. The program encourages children to lead healthy, active lifestyles.

Kraft Foods launched a worldwide initiative to celebrate play and fight world hunger. Through an app on Kraft Foods’ corporate Facebook page, the company is encouraging consumers to upload photos of people at play. And for each photo provided, Kraft Foods will donate five meals (up to 500,000) to the United Nations World Food Programme’s Fill the Cup campaign, which aims to feed more than 20 million children around the world who go to school hungry every day.

The Hershey Center for Health and Nutrition® (HCHN) joined with the American Dietetic Association (ADA) to unveil Moderation Nation™, a new national program which kicks off by providing complimentary visits with ADA member registered dietitians to consumers, age 18 or over. Moderation Nation seeks to educate people on how to achieve balance in their lives through moderation, both in nutrition and physical activity.

Gap is supporting America’s school lunch programs one bag at a time with its limited edition collection of FEED USA bags, part of FEED Projects’ US -focused program to support nutrition in America’s schools. Working together with FEED Projects founders Lauren Bush and Ellen Gustafson, Gap will donate $5 for every FEED USA bag sold to help improve food and nutrition education for more than 76 million school children through the National School Lunch Program.

On September 10, Puma announced a new, long-term partnership between Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation and its Puma.Creative program, part of PUMA’s CSR division PUMAVision. The initiative, which includes Catalyst Awards and Impact Award, is designed to provide financial support, creative counsel and industry recognition to international documentary filmmakers whose creative storytelling highlights social justice, peace or environmental issues.

Nike proves it again that sport can make the world better. The company is launching the 2010 Homeless Word Cup in Brazil to give people without homes a great opportunity to become a part of a global sport community and bring positive changes into their lives. The huge street soccer tournament will be arranged on 19-26 September on a stadium with three pitches, which was constructed on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro.