Obama Foodorama has an in-depth perspective on the dangers of Senator Grassley.

Further technological advances in the world of farmers markets – online pre-orders.

Tennessee prisons are now composting food scraps.

Watch out! A call for caution when dumpster diving.  Which was also covered in this blog back in March

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Awards to promote social justice

The Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People

The mission of Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People (SDOP) is to empower poor, oppressed and disadvantaged people who are seeking to change the structures that perpetuate poverty, oppression and injustice.  SDOP is taking applications year round for partnerships where a project is owned and controlled by the group of people who will benefit directly from it. Projects should address long-term correction of conditions that keep people bound by poverty and oppression

Awards Connect Gardening and Hunger Issues
National Gardening Association: Healthy Sprouts Awards
The mission of the National Gardening Association (NGA) is to promote home, school, and community gardening as a means to renew and sustain the essential connections between people, plants, and the environment. The NGA Healthy Sprouts Awards support school garden programs throughout the country that use the garden to teach youth about nutrition and the issue of hunger in the United States. Winning programs will receive $200 or $500 gift certificates from Gardener’s Supply Company, seed packets, and literature from NGA. Applicants must plan to garden in 2010 with at least 15 children between the ages of 3 and 18 years. The application deadline is October 17, 2009. Application guidelines and forms are available on the NGA website.

Awards to make a difference

Pay It Forward Foundation

The Pay It Forward Foundation was established to educate and inspire students to realize that they can change the world, and provide them with opportunities to do so. Students, teachers, and community partners are encouraged to formulate their own ideas of how they can pay it forward.  Pay It Forward mini-grants of up to $500 are designing to fund one-time only service-oriented projected identified by youth as activities they would like to perform to benefit their school, neighborhood, or greater community.  Projects must contain a “pay it forward” focus – that is, they must be based on the concept of one person doing a favor for others, who in term do favors for others, with the results growing exponentially – to be considered in the grant-making process. Applications are due for consideration September 15^th for October 1^st funding, and also February 15 for March 1^st funding.

Awards for Youth-Led Service-Learning Projects addressing Childhood Obesity

UnitedHealth HEROES grant sponsored by Youth Service America and UnitedHealth

Educators, service-learning coordinators, students in the health professions, public health professionals, and community partners are eligible to apply for the UnitedHealth HEROES service-learning project grants. Grant recipients will receive up to $1,000 in support for service-learning projects that focus on childhood obesity, engage youth ages 5-25 in the planning and implementation process, and take place during Semester of Service 2010 (MLK Day, January 18, to Global Youth Service Day, April 23-25).

States eligible for this year’s UnitedHealth HEROES program include:

Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin.

Awards to support nonprofits doing good in their community

Tom’s of Maine

Tom’s of Maine wants to support nonprofit organizations working to do good in their community.  They are taking submissions until August 30th, and five nonprofits will be selected to receive $20,000 for their projects. Applications should support community involvement projects from nonprofit organizations.

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 Michelle Obama makes a return visit to Good Stuff.  I recommend Spike’s Sunnyside (a bacon cheese burger with a fried egg on top).

 Another Type 1 beef recall.  New food safety bill to the rescue!

 Civil Eats has a good write up on the “Rewards of Growing”

 More than you ever wanted to know about chicken trade policies.

 This week was President Obama’s birthday – amidst all the turmoil, at least he can enjoy an incredible cake.

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 The focus of the article is around Palumbo’s Friday Store in Arvada, Colorado.  It states that a majority of people still go to the regular grocery store and that going to a salvage grocer is more like a “treasure hunt”. 

 Imagine the food waste that occurs every time a shipment is dropped?  These salvage grocers are doing a huge service to the community as well as to the environment.  In other instances, the food and packaging would end up in a landfill, as opposed to feeding people. 

 Does anyone know of any local salvage grocers?

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 Starting on Aug 4^th, the state of California will be loosening its requirements on grey water systems.  As Jill points out, California is in a perpetual state of draught, therefore these grey water systems will go a long way towards lessening the states water burden. 

 Previously, Californians had to buy a permit in order to put grey water systems in place.  However, the permit has been removed and citizens are free to put systems in place, assuming they follow a set of rules set forth by the state.

 Think of all the possibilities on re-using water on a larger scale.  What if every toilet in the nation used grey water instead of fresh water?

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 Slow Food has a great post about saving the Gravenseteins.

 Millions of people have quit drinking soft drinks.  Here are the Top 9 reasons why.

 Obama Foodrama has a great recap on yesterday’s Beer Summit.  Who would have thought there were so many political angles to make a beer selection?

 There was a great article in the Detroit News about how farms in Michigan have prospered by delivering their products.  The article goes on to describe Mind, Body and Spirits, a local organic restaurant, which resides in this bloggers hometown.   

 Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! Late blight is a huge problem affecting NE farmers.

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 The bill failed to pass the House today as it was brought to a vote by special rules where there were no amendments and only limited debate.  Therefore, the bill had to pass with 2/3 of the vote as opposed to the simple majority.  It fell six votes short.

 The bill is supposed to be re-introduced today under different rules which call for a simple majority vote, which assuming everyone votes the same way they did yesterday, should pass with flying colors.  Major opponents of the bill included Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH).

 This bill has been in the works for a while.  With the recent emphasis on food and the role it plays in the healthcare debate, it makes sense that food safety has become a hot button issue.  Food Inc is opening around the country and opening the public’s eyes as to how food gets from the farm to the plate. 

 Its great to see Congress take another step towards improving food and the greater public health of the nation.  At this point, it’s hard to tell what the overall affect of the bill will have on local farmers and producers.  Hopefully it will create a safer environment for food cultivation and not just more red tape to sort through.

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$52 million of those cuts are coming from Human Support Services and Other Low-Income Programs.  To put this in prospective, the next largest cut is for Public Education at $17 million. 

I urge all of you to visit the Save Our Saftey Net website, look through the information, and sign the petition to urge the City Council to reconsider their budget cuts.  The hungry and homeless shouldn’t face the brunt of the economic burden for the rest of the District.

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Jessica Biel has a bad habit of wasting food.

 Don’t mess with Texas, especially when it comes to restaurant waste.

 Chris over at First Helping explores how the recession has affected homelessness.

 With the Locavore movement gaining steam, local seed banks are beginning to pop up across the country.

 US Food Policy has released a list of the top 10 policy destinations, complete with Google Earth pictures.

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A small town in Australia has outright banned bottled water from being sold within the city limits.  The whole story started when a Sydney based bottled water company asked permission to extract millions of liters of water out of the local aquifer.

What happened next was shocking.  The townspeople rationalized that the bottled water company would ship their water a hundred miles to Sydney, smack their label onto it, then turn around and ship it back to them.  They thought this was a huge waste of time and resources. 

They then took it a step further and banned bottled water from their store shelves, and encouraged residents to use tap water.  This started a “world wide debate about the social and environmental effects of bottled water”.

While I was reading this on Greek Fork, I learned that bottled water is actually less regulated than tap water.  Bottled water is checked by the FDA, which might get to a bottling plant every couple of years.  On the other hand, tap water is regulated by the EPA as well as state and local governments. 

Take this information for what you will.  Think of the environmental impact of transporting water around country the next time you buy a case of bottled water.

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