ColumnWhat better way to use food, than for good? The Giving Table is a creative way to harness the power of food blogs.

When I discovered the The Giving Table, I knew I had stumbled upon something that was right up my alley.

Those of us that talk, write, and post about food are privileged to be able to do so. While we might be concerned over whether or not cardamom or cinnamon would be a better spice to use (answer: cardamom) most of the world is simply dealing with getting food on the table. As I wrote a few weeks ago, “We have to start to learn how to turn passion for food into a passion for improving the food system, taking the pleasure that we get from eating and transforming it into advocating for real food, not only for the privileged, but for everyone.”

And that is when I came upon The Giving Table, which is attempting to do just that.

Started by Nicole Gulotta, The Giving Table’s tagline is simple: “Doing Good with Food.” Gulotta does that by mobilizing food bloggers and others to participate in social campaigns. Think about all those food blogs and all those food blog readers out there. If you could get them all to put some money towards a good cause, it would be sure to have some impact. Well that’s exactly how Giving Table works. It recently wrapped up a campaign supporting the Lunchbox Fund, an organization who provides daily meals for orphaned and impoverished children in townships and rural areas in South Africa.

I caught up with Gulotta to learn more about the inspiration for The Giving Table, how it works and how she sees the food world changing.

Anna Brones: What inspired you to launch The Giving Table?

Nicole Gulatta: As a food blogger, I was looking for ways to give back in a meaningful way. I started researching nonprofit organizations that worked in the food realm but couldn’t find what I was looking for online, so I created The Giving Table to act as a resource. Over time, it’s evolved into a platform to empower other food bloggers to take action and help improve the food system.

AB: Give us the basics for how it works?

NG: Food bloggers develop content for their websites every day and attract loyal readers through their engaging storytelling and delicious recipes. The Giving Table’s “donate a post” model works in tandem with this content, and fits seamlessly into existing strategies. It’s a regular post with a deeper message. Every post includes three sections—a narrative, a recipe, and a call to action—and guidelines are provided for every campaign so our messaging remains consistent. The day of the event, bloggers help spread the word on social media, and reach out to their networks to join us.

AB: When we talk about “good food” it very quickly gets labeled as a pretentious thing. What can we do to democratize the subject of food?

NG: I think people assume it’s pretentious when they haven’t experienced it for themselves. Eating locally is about building community, supporting regional food economies, and being empowered by cooking for yourself and your family. When you think about food in a local way, it’s a lot more natural than how we function now. Farmers markets offer direct access to growers, rather than the barriers you find in supermarkets with food packaged by companies you know little about, yet control the majority of our food supply. Education tends to work in most sectors when it comes to changing perception. When people are aware of the issues and have tools to positively impact the system (like cooking at home or participating in Meatless Monday, for example), the tides will start to shift.

AB: What are some of your favorite food activism organizations?

NG: Share Our Strength focuses on eliminating childhood hunger in the U.S, which is a silent epidemic gradually coming into the light. There’s a relatively new organization supported by Tom Colicchio called Food Policy Action that rates members of Congress based on how they vote on food policies. It’s amazing to see how your representatives have voted on certain issues. On the animal welfare front, Mercy for Animals and The Humane Society are on the front lines exposing animal abuse and our broken factory farm system.

AB: Who is a food activist that you look up to and why?

NG: Alice Waters is inspiring. She’s created an entire movement to change how we approach food in the classroom, and it all started with one garden in Berkeley.

AB: Let’s say you talk with someone who is passionate about food and wants to start taking steps to make positive change in the food world. What’s the one thing that you suggest they do?

NG: I believe in the power of small changes. Buying a few more organic groceries, incorporating more meatless meals throughout the week, and cooking more at home are all great ways to start making a difference. Over time, what began as a conscious choice (and maybe even a struggle) to change, will feel like second nature. I also think it’s important to find out what’s going on locally and get involved in some way, whether it’s volunteering with a local food organization or getting to know farmers at your weekend market.

AB: Do you feel positive about the future of food politics or not?

NG: I feel mostly positive. Even a few years ago, we weren’t having conversations about GMOs and food labeling and obesity. Now it’s a normal topic of conversation around dinner tables and in the media. People are becoming more interested in what they’re eating, where it came from, and whether or not it’s healthy. Eventually, things will change because consumers demand it.

AB: Favorite thing to make at home?

NG: My standard answer is usually risotto, but lately I’ve been enjoying composing giant salads with a lot of different flavors and textures. Sometimes there’s nothing better.

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This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: Giving Table

The post Doing Good with Food Blogs — The Giving Table: Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

A collection of great quotes to inspire you to give. 

We call this the season of giving, but often we’re so focused on the giving of presents that we forget what giving truly means. To bring us back to that meaning, here is a selection of great quotes all about giving and kindness.

1. It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving. -Mother Teresa

2. No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another. -Charles Dickens

3. You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. -Amy Carmichael

4. You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. -Kahlil Gibran

5. Give naught, get same. Give much get same. -Malcolm Forbes

6. You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

7. Presents are made for the pleasure of who gives them, not the merits of who receives them. –Carlos Ruiz Zafón

8. As we work to create light for others, we naturally light our own way. -Mary Anne Radmacher

9. Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

10. The place to improve the world is first in one’s own heart and head and hands. -Robert M. Pirsig

11. Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness. -Seneca

12. Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting. -Elizabeth Bibesco

13. We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give. -Winston Churchill

14. They who give have all things; they who withhold have nothing. -Hindu Proverb

15. When you give yourself, you receive more than you give. -Antoine de Saint-Exupery

16. Where there’s no gardener, there’s no garden. -Stephen Covey

17. No one has ever become poor by giving. -Anne Frank

18. I resolved to stop accumulating and begin the infinitely more serious task of wise distribution. -Andrew Carnegie

19. That which you cannot give away, you do not possess. It possesses you. -Ivern Ball

20. If you want one year of prosperity, grow grain.
If you want ten years of prosperity, grow trees.
If you want one hundred years of prosperity, grow people.
-Chinese Proverb

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Image: A. Pagliaricci

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Give more of your Self.

“You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.”

-Kahlil Gibran

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Image: Juliana Cutinho

The post Give to Me appeared first on EcoSalon.

A sensibly chic take on the fiber and jute peasant footwear made in Catalonia since the 14th century – and popularized by designers in the forties and eighties – I like to think of TOMS Shoes as the little espadrille that could:

It could be the most popular shoe second to Uggs for American teenage girls (and fashion crossover dudes). The basic black TOM is now accepted as part of the uniform at schools nationwide in sun, rain, sleet or snow. Who knew canvas was year-round? The choices keep growing, from sparkly sequin and high wedgie editions to earthy vegan and even a new wedding collection.

It could be the most ingenious idea to date for a company giving back on a one-for-one basis to help barefoot populations risking cuts and sores, infections and disease from exposure. On April 5, TOMs raises awareness with its One Day Without Shoes, advertised in a celeb splashed video featuring uplifting images of shoeless throngs across the nation getting into the act.

And it could be catching on big-time as other shoe and apparel marketing execs look for sexy giving campaigns that attract younger generations seeking trends and causes. Ralph Lauren co-branded Rugby TOMS donating a matched pair with every pair sold; Element Skateboards introduced limited edition TOMS+Element shoes with a One for One skateboard benefiting the Indigo Skate Camp in Durban South Africa.

The TOMS movement began in 2006 when Blake Mycoskie was traveling in Argentina and discovered too many poor children were going without shoes. He started his company and returned to Argentina later that year armed with 10,000 pairs of shoes made available by TOM customers through the program. To date, more than one million pairs of new shoes have been issued to children thorough Giving Partners around the world.

Was the idea unique? Well, in 2005, a year before the trip to Argentina and following the 2004 tsunami in southeast Asia, Soles4Soles was born based on the concept of giving without receiving. Wayne Elsey saw the need and spurred on shoe makers to donate a quarter million of their shoes to devastated locations. A year later, another million were shipped to the gulf coast following Katrina. So in 2006, Elsey made it official and founded his non profit.

Shoes2Share sprung from a couple’s adoption of children from Haiti. Described as a grassroots ministry, its humble beginnings have involved distributing suitcases of shoes to relieve the plight of children and families in orphanages, shelters and rehabilitation and feeding programs. In addition to the Caribbean effort, the charity is now targeting children of fallen soldiers, police officers and firefighters.

More on the scale of the one-for-one platform, Payless ShoeSource has introduced the Good Shoe Project, partnering with World Vision to peddle a knock-off of the TOMS canvas boater, called theAirwalk Hope Shoe, for $19.99. For every pair sold, Payless will send a pair to children in Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua or Guatemala. Pitched to customers as the “buy one, give one” deal, they offer not only hope to barefoot victims but to consumers who want to do their part to give without footing the $54-$80 bill for a pair of TOMS.

Eventually, TOMS range may widen as well to make giving opportunities more abundant, reaching kids on U.S. turf who want to get on the bandwagon . Perhaps then, the little espadrille that could will really be too cool for school!

The post Marketing and Meaning: How TOMS Is Inspiring a Movement appeared first on EcoSalon.

Experienced that overwhelming feeling of holiday stress yet? You know, the one that hits you the second you see Christmas displays at your local grocery store not even a few seconds after the Halloween candy has been moved to the discount shelf?

The holiday season is full of an array of wonderful things: good food, family, friends, candles, kitchens filled with the smell of baking, the potential for snow, vacation – the list goes on. But there’s also the consumer-induced stress that’s indicative of the season, and even if you yourself have given up the tradition of conventional presents and gifting, getting away from the onslaught of “buy buy buy” can be difficult. Sometimes downright impossible.

That’s why it’s refreshing to see all those holiday initiatives that are focused on something bigger. Taking the spirit of the season and getting people really excited about doing something good instead of stressing over when and where they’re going to pick up last minute presents. Passports With Purpose (PWP) is making that happen with social media.

Started as a way to rally the power of travel bloggers – who all believe in the “power of travel to change the world” – PWP has evolved into a major social media giving campaign, involving not only bloggers, but online travel companies and corporate sponsors. The money all goes to a selected non-profit, this year, LAFTI, an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of the Dalit (untouchable) population in India.

“As bloggers, travel or otherwise, we seem to live in a bubble – sitting behind our computers as we talk AT the world. Passports with Purpose allows for engagement between the other participants, the companies that have donated items for prizes and our readers, who are thrilled to be part of such an effort. And we can feel oh-so-good in the process,” says co-founder Beth Whitman.

The initiative, in its third year, is simple: bloggers host a prize on their site, and a $10 donation gets you a raffle ticket to enter to win the prize of your choice. That makes giving not only simple, but doable.

“Personally, I like the idea that instead of spending ten bucks on a stocking stuffers, you can make a ten dollar donation. Maybe it’s a ten dollar donation, that’s all it is, and it goes towards our beneficiary this year. But it could also be a ten dollar donation AND a luxe hotel stay or some cool gear or any number of great things. Maybe we mitigate some of that mad frenzy of holiday shopping stress by tying the funds to a significant cause,” says co-founder Pam Mandel.

As of the end of November, PWP has already raised $41,000, putting them even closer to their ultimate goal of $50,000.

To find out more and make a donation, visit the PWP website.

Image: mckaysavage

The post Holiday Good: Passports With Purpose Uses Social Media to Help Build a Village in India appeared first on EcoSalon.

The hard working contributors, columnists and editors at EcoSalon are earning their green stripes, blazing the trails and taking their proven commitment to sustainable living beyond the daily blog. Our strides are so darn exciting, we simply can’t keep them to ourselves.

Ready, set, kvel!

Fashion Editor Amy DuFault has stepped over to the other side, opening her own eco haunt, Shift Boutique. Sure to be the next Hyannis, Mass. hot spot, the store peddles sustainable products by Prairie Underground and Dahl, to name just a few emerging green lines. Amy also hosts events through her lifestyle consulting company, Greenover. If that didn’t keep her busy enough – she is signed up in January to teach eco fashion enrichment at her local middle school, helping 12-year-old girls create recycled fashion to showcase on a catwalk at a fashion show.

Contributor Susan Chaityn Lebovits is developing and implementing ways Boston University can reduce its environmental footprint. Susan is the Communications Specialist for Sustainability at the university, and is working to launch a new website in January that will house everything from research on renewable energy to classes that touch on sustainability and energy-saving building retrofits. The site will even help visitors locate bike racks and recycling stations. Meantime, Susan is producing a 15-stop Green Campus Tour Podcast, which covers locations such as the university’s geothermal building.

Anna Brones, our newest contributor, gets all of our votes as the people’s representative for the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. HuffPost in conjunction with Hopenhagen is sponsoring the competition and voting ends December 4th, so cast yours as well! If chosen, Anna would report back daily from the conference as a HuffPost citizen journalist. Anna is the co-founder of Under Solen Media, where she develops social media marketing strategies to positively align brands, causes and adventurers. She’s also been busy helping the Save Our Wild Salmon campaign in the ongoing litigation process to come up with a scientifically sound plan for restoring Columbia-Snake River salmon.

Senior Editor Luanne Bradley will soon appear with her husband, Edwin, in a San Francisco Chronicle article on eco power couples. The feature highlights their daily work for green change. Edwin is an environmentalist and lawyer and Luanne writes the column Life in the Green Lane, a humorous look the modern family going green in the city. Luanne continues her green design consulting, having completed a teacher’s lounge with healthy fibers and vintage Mid-Century furniture.

The Green Plate Columnist Vanessa Barrington is on a daily mission to make the small changes that add up, riding her bike everywhere she can, finding “the car is merely a taxi for the dog to go on walks.” She is limiting her meat and processed food consumption and still working to get one hold-out member of her family to see the joy of giving to charity instead of “stuff” for the holidays. Her garbage can is minuscule and she only fills it once a week! She uses bathwater to flush her toilet and when she is cold, she puts on a sweater instead of cranking up the heat. Of course, she can also make a steaming bowl of delicious soup from one of her dozens of dynamite recipes.

EcoMeme Columnist Lora Kolodny is in a holiday mood, trying to knit a gift-scarf out of bamboo yarn, and looking forward to the Green Drinks holiday party Dec. 8th in NYC. She recently convinced a Manhattan restaurant manager to stop serving coffee in disposable cups by default. Now only to-go patrons get the paper. When not writing for EcoSalon and her blog at the New York Times, she also volunteers for God’s Love We Deliver.

Publisher and EIC Sara Ost has been busy building the green community at EcoSalon through Trashless Tuesday on Twitter (a la Meatless Monday), drawing chuckles and questions cruising around the Bay Area in her Smartcar, hosting Treehugger’s Carnival of the Green recently, and turning up as one of Greenopia’s Green Women We Love. Next up is convincing the neighbors they really, really need the Omlet.

Check back soon for more updates on the green goings-on from all our contributors. And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!

The post Getting Our Green On at EcoSalon appeared first on EcoSalon.

Your iPod can run off the grid with this solar powered iPod Case Charger.

Give someone Wheels When They Need Them with a ZipCar membership.

Great for hot and cold beverages, this tumbler will save a lot of trees and CO2 used to produce coffee cups. To emphasize your point, toss in a gold tone coffee filter to cut down on the paper ones that get pitched each day.

Your favorite tea lover can brew on the run with this combination tumbler-infuser.

Green those meals with a CSA Membership (Community Supported Agriculture). This site will find the closet farm throughout the U.S. for you to purchase from.

Rid friends and family of energy vampires with the Smart Strip Power Strip.

Power small electronics like a GPS or cell phone, with the Solio Solar Universal Charger.

Get your colleagues to ditch the plastic utensils in the office kitchen with reusable bamboo tableware that works great on the go. Utensil holders give plastic bottles a second shot at a useful life, and an opportunity to stay out of our landfills. Made out of RPET (recycled PET plastic).

Chico has taken the reusable shopping bag one step farther with The Messenger, a super hip bag that folds into a small pouch.

Instead of a gift card to the local mall, try the gift that keeps on giving with Microplace.com, a Microfinance organization that serves a range of focuses from Fair Trade to women.

Main image: alan_cleaver2000

The post From Cheap to Chic, 10 Holiday Gifts That Respect the Earth appeared first on EcoSalon.