We know plastic water bottles can leach chemicals, but that doesn’t mean the only alternative is toting oversized canteens. Faucet Face is looking to “bring back tap water’s dignity” the glass way with artistically designed bottles ($15, or four for $45 with a donated filter being made for a family). For each bottle purchased, the company donates a portion of the profits to manufacture water filters for people in rural India as part of its 1 for 100 program. Between BPA-free caps, reusability, corporate generosity, and the promise of better tasting water, my only question is which of the three bottle looks to choose from – though I’m strongly leaning towards “Tap Is Terrific.”
Two Berkeley-based companies are combining efforts on Saturday, April 30, in the name of cleaning up your underthings (and, of course, the Earth). Convert will host an in-store party to celebrate the launch of PACT’s Beyond Coal underwear collection, 10 percent of whose sales go to the Sierra Club’s campaign to leave asthma-inducing coal behind. Kick Ash bikinis and Bright Blue trunks with prints by Yves Behar’s fuseproject–not to mention snacks, drinks and goodwill–await.
I’m looking forward to spending two weeks in Nairobi this summer for seva (“service”) work with the Africa Yoga Project, a non-profit that helps prepare yoga instructors to teach in area communities.
I first found out about founder Paige Elenson’s work to train and find jobs for local yogis in Yoga Journal and promptly began, well, e-stalking her organization. When I saw people sporting the group’s shirts, I’d ask if they knew this elusive wonder woman or been to East Africa. I’ve got to go sometime, I thought.
So when AYP sent a note about their first group trip to assist in the construction of a community center in Kibera, Nairobi’s largest slum, I tried to forget my past construction foibles and focus on the Kenyan community of yoga teachers and students. It’s a long way to say I signed up, and now it’s time to make good on my $5K commitment to the organization’s important work.
Now that I’ve drank approximately 86 Smartwaters at Wanderlust Miami (and learned that I should be adding a little salt and lemon to my agua for hydration in the sun), I wanted to share a few other ideas from naturopathic physician Dr. Paul Gannon. The resident nutrition expert at The Standard, he has a series of videos about clean cooking and offered these considerations for gals:
Soy can impede iron absorption. Watch how much you get, especially if you have anemia and are trying to build your iron stores back up.
Raw veggies rock.
White rice has a high glycemic index and can be part of the reason that some people don’t sleep well after eating sushi. more
Inspired by the local Team In Training teams that rode the Solvang Century this weekend to raise funds for blood cancer treatment, I wanted to share a new collaboration between clever teams at design consultancy IDEO and Stanford. They’re using the former’s community platform for brainstorming and project development to encourage more people to consider donating bone marrow (the transplant of which can be a life-saving course of treatment for people with leukemia and lymphoma). Current concepts consider how Girl Scout cookies, lemonade stands and the launch of Gmail can all inform a public action campaign. Won’t you consider adding your own ideas and, in the word of a friend who works on the initiative, consider how your own acumen can inform the community at large?
Thanks to Crystal Light for sponsoring this post. To learn more about how Crystal Light can flavor your day with 30 refreshing flavors, visit them on Facebook.
A great dinner with friends (you know, one of those I’ve had to go to the bathroom for the past half hour but don’t want to miss something meals) this week has me feeling grateful about being in SF and in the vicinity of smart folks. So that it didn’t just remain in scribbled ink on my hand, I’ve pulled together–wait for it–Em’s Current Inspiration Roundup.
Organizations that I’m thinking about at the moment for their forward-thinking work include:
Headstand, a group started by local educator Katherine Priore that partners with classrooms and studios to prevent childhood obesity. Lower stress and higher grades are the goals of @headstandyoga’s curriculum for kids, and I’m excited for their next local presentation of their work.
The Tenderloin-based Gray Area Foundation for the Artsis not only increasing awareness of and participation in digital art and culture–it’s also working to support a community of coders, hackers, designers, engineers, composers, and technologists. Among its civic projects are a set of workshops and “data revolution” discussions, and you can explore the current goings on through @gaffta.
TED Prize winner JR, a moving and innovative artist, shared a large scale participatory art project today that will feature black and white portraits to reveal personal stories. The InsideOutProject invites photo uploading, poster creation, and physical poster receipt by participants for work to be exhibited in their own communities. more
After a recent Ignite SF talk on the health benefits of eating raw, I was excited to get author Rod Rotondi and north Bay publisher New World Library’s “Raw Food for Real People.” And know that I’m skeptical–there’s nothing I like more than a hot mac’n'cheese or a bowl of minestrone (made by Amy’s or hopefully someone I know and can convince to make it).
But the book opened with a welcome that surprised me–who expected a holier than thou, shun-the cow-killers approach: “I have to admit that being a raw-food chef is easy. No, really. It’s like Dumb and Dumber easy…the truth is that if you can cut an apple in half, you are a raw-food chef. And if you can slice or cube that apple, you qualify as a gourmet raw-food chef.”
Rotondi, who started his own organic line in LA, shares recipes for a buckweat breakfast feast (think avocado, sea salt, and nuts) and “bedouin burritos” (complete with homemade tahini and alfalfa). There’s instructions on carrot cake that doesn’t require cooking and coconut macaroon balls that I can attest are delicious after trying them some made by a better baker than myself. Now that I think about it, I’m not sure that “baker” is the right word for someone who makes this crunchy concoction, but then, neither is “cook.”
I’ll be taking a break from the regular Wednesday night plan of Humpday Happy Hour (a local get together with friends whose next location you can find by following @humpdayhapyhour; that’s right, one “p” in “happy”–this is an irreverent group, after all) for the International Museum of Women’s celebration of its “Focusing on Latin America” exhibit. It was fun to write about the great collection of images and essays the virtual museum is hosting, and raising a glass in the Audre Lorde Room of the Women’s Building on the 16th seems appropriate. (And free, for all you budgetistas.)
The event is a precursor to March’s Art Live Lounge, a cocktail party to celebrate women artists and social change. Terra Gallery on Harrison will host the fiesta and corresponding benefit dinner later this spring.
In a city of coworking spaces, The Hub is special to me. And not just because their sister organization in Berkeley helped bring the first Ignite Bay Area event to life, but because it’s partnering with the Mission Street social innovation space to offer more entrepreneurial resources. A new 12-week evening program, Hub Ventures, is intended to provide “funding and resources to a community of 16 entrepreneurs building for-profit solutions for a better world.”
Applications are open to those looking to participate in weekly peer review sessions, mentor office hours, speaker events, and the like. The curriculum (including courses in Design for Impact, Fundraising Methods, Customer Development, and Market Validation) will culminate in a peer selection process to give three ventures $75K in seed funding in the form of convertible debt. Get yourself involved, good doers.
I’m glad to see pal and MamaHope founder Nyla Rodgers’ work with Kenyan communities attract so much positive attention lately (including a great piece by Xeni Jardin on Boing Boing this morning). Nyla has collaborated with good production partners–including local groups Whirled, creator of the Commando kid video at right, and Storytellers for Good, which created the story spot–to highlight her non-profit’s work in sustainable health, water and education projects. The most recent message (“Stop the Pity. Unlock the Potential”) is an important one that’s humorously told.
