Support Farm-to-School Projects

By teaching kids exactly where their food comes from, they will grow up to make informed grocery choices and strengthen their local economies. Start a farm-to-school project in your school district; all the know how is at farmtoschool.org

Food and Shelter

Next time you do your grocery shopping, pick up a large bag of cat or dog food to donate to a local animal shelter. Your goodwill will be repaid to you with many loving licks.

Support Farm-to-School Projects

By teaching kids exactly where their food comes from, they will grow up to make informed grocery choices and strengthen their local economies. Start a farm-to-school project in your school district; all the know how is at farmtoschool.org

Veg Out

Have you heard of “food desserts”? I certainly never did until reading last year in The New York Times about entire swaths of urban areas with nothing but corner stores filled with processed, packaged foods and no produce whatsoever. I started paying attention and it is true. There is something you can do about it. By making a donation to WholesomeWave.org, they will provide fresh fruits and veggies to those underserved communities. How great is that? Actually, it is even better,as Wholesome Wave obtains their organic produce from small and mid-sized farmers.

Click to Give

There are many websites that are click-to-give. Just by clicking, you can help send food or money to countries and causes that need them. One of them is greatergood.com. It just takes a few keystrokes to make someone’s life better.

Make Sure Our Elders Are Well Fed

One in six Americans over age 60 faces the threat of hunger, and Meals On Wheels is there to help. A total of 2.5 million seniors in all 50 states, many of whom have chronic health conditions, rely on the service. Go to mowaa.org to make a one-time donation ($35 provides 5 meals), or join the Next Meal Club to donate monthly.

Just Say No to GMO

Buy organic heritage seedlings whenever you can. Most fruits and vegetables have an incredibly diverse range of varieties, but we typically only see one or two different kinds in the grocery store. By choosing to grow heritage plants we can preserve that diversity and give a big green thumbs down to monoculture.

Support Farm-to-School Projects

    By teaching kids exactly where their food comes from, they will grow up to make informed grocery choices and strengthen their local economies. Start a farm-to-school project in your school district; all the know how is at farmtoschool.org

Save Seeds

    My Aunt Ruth in Flat Rock, West Virginia raised me to save seeds. A child of the Great Depression, my aunt Ruth was teaching me the virtue of thrift when she showed me how to harvest, dry, and save seeds from veggies and flowers. Thrift was an important survival skill for that time and I see it as a forgotten virtue whose time has arrived once again. I remember being very impatient about how long it took for spring to come so I could sow the marigolds, alyssum, and four o’clocks that I had collected.

Stop World Hunger with Ten Grains of Rice a Day

    Save a few dollars each month and donate it to a different charity. One great option for your donation is through freerice.com. For each correct answer in their online quizzes, they donate ten grains of rice to the World Food Program to help end world hunger. Think about how much rice will be donated if even half of the population did this!

Detox Your Diet

    Buy grass-fed, hormone-free, organic, and free-range meat, dairy and eggs. Many grocery stores now have organic sections with produce that doesn’t contain chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides. These choices are better for you and the earth because no chemicals go into the soil or water. These items cost a little more but for the sake of your health- and taste buds!- it’s worth the price. Human-made pesticides and fertilizers require energy and resources to be manufactured and distributed; they also pollute the air, soil, and water, and have been shown to be carcinogenic (cancer-causing) in many cases. Vegetables that are grown organically require less fossil-fuel energy to be grown, pollute less, and are far less likely to cause any health issues. Prevention Magazine (prevention.com) offers lots of good information about food safety and what to avoid. Healthier is also happier!

Veg Out

    Have you heard of “food desserts”? I certainly never did until reading last year in The New York Times about entire swaths of urban areas with nothing but corner stores filled with processed, packaged foods and no produce whatsoever. I started paying attention and it is true. There is something you can do about it. By making a donation to WholesomeWave.org, they will provide fresh fruits and veggies to those underserved communities. How great is that? Actually, it is even better, as Wholesome Wave obtains their organic produce from small and mid-sized farmers.

It Takes a Village and You

In early 2010, in the small village of Nshupu, Tanzania, nine malnourished orphans were sleeping on a cement floor without even a blanket or sufficient food. Four years later, these children have a lovely new permanent home, are attending school, and have welcomed six more orphans to their family. Their home also serves as a village community center that hosts, among other things, a weekly women’s empowerment group that has created a savings and loan program for impoverished single mothers and widows. There is also a kindergarten program that serves 70 village children annually, including feeding them regular meals. All these endeavors are shepherded by PreciousProject.org, which explains on their website, “Though lack of education is a leading cause of poverty, Tanzanian schools are not free. Attendance even at the primary school level requires the ability to pay for school uniforms, meals, materials, equipment, fees, and other expenses. As a result, there are children who are unable to even receive a primary education. Our goal is to help break the cycle of poverty by providing educational opportunities for orphans and other high-risk children.”

Feed a Family on World Food Day

    UNICEF works to give kids a healthy start and your contribution, large or small, can help someone on the other side of the globe. Go to UnicefUSA.org and explore all the options available to you. 

    Malnutrition is linked to nearly half of all childhood deaths. Children who are malnourished are smaller, more likely to get very sick from ordinary infections, and their brain development can suffer. By treating malnutrition in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, UNICEF has helped cut the number of children badly affected by over 100 million. Now that is making a difference on a global scale!

Food and Shelter

Next time you do your grocery shopping, pick up a large bag of cat or dog food to donate to a local animal shelter. Your goodwill will be repaid to you with many loving licks.

Serve the Public Servants

    Bake some goodies to take to your local police department, fire department, or teacher’s lounge as a way of saying “Thanks!” They are your neighbors, too.

Rice is the Grain that Feeds the World

    Rice is the grain that feeds more people in the world than any other, going back many thousands of years-to 6,000 BC in Northern Thailand, 5,000 BC in Northern India, and 10,000 BC in Kashmir. It is grown in paddy fields (water-filled beds) in countries all over the world-India, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Japan, the US, Greece, Turkey, and others. 

    There are so many wonderful ways to use rice that you could cook a new recipe per day for the rest of your life and not run out. Just be sure to use the correct rice type for the recipe or the dish will not be successful. For example, risottos need Arborio rice, a fat, starchy grain, which cooks to a soft, creamy texture yet remains a firm middle. Jasmine is aromatic and used in Thai cooking: it is a long grained yet sticky rice that remains moist and tender. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Just learn how to cook each type, use a heavy pan, and don’t overcook-or buy a rice cooker.

Make Sure Our Elders Are Well Fed

    One in six Americans over age 60 faces the threat of hunger, and Meals On Wheels is there to help. A total of 2.5 million seniors in all 50 states, many of whom have chronic health conditions, rely on the service. Go to mowaa.org to make a one-time donation ($35 provides 5 meals), or join the Next Meal Club to donate monthly.

Spend Your Money in Your Own Neighborhood

    Support local agriculture and business by purchasing produce or baked goods from farmer’s markets. By doing so, you ensure that your fresh food is organically grown and isn’t imported from another state or country-the cost of shipping is a contribution to greenhouse gas and pollution. Every dollar you spend locally will go a long way toward supporting your local economy and your next-door neighbors.

Tend Your Garden

    Grow your own garden, even if it is just on a stoop, window-sill, or fire escape. Fruits, vegetables, and herbs, oh my! Think of the recipe possibilities if your ingredients were right in your own backyard. Growing your own produce can save you money and time spent picking through the bruised and aged produce some grocery stores offer. This is also a great way to get organic!