Do you believe that small change can bring big change? We do! Read on to find out how you can share your story in Whole Planet Foundation’s Facebook essay contest for a chance to win a trip for two to India, courtesy of Intrepid Travel.

Whole Planet Foundation funds poverty alleviation through microcredit in the US and abroad. So far, we’ve supported more than a million people in changing their own lives. With your help during Whole Planet Foundation’s Annual Prosperity Campaign this year, we can empower a million more people to lift themselves out of poverty!

Now through March 31st, we hope that you will join fellow shoppers, team members, Supplier Alliance for Microcredit vendor partners and online donors in raising $4.1 million to help impoverished people living in communities around the globe where Whole Foods Market® sources products. The foundation was born out of Whole Foods Market’s desire to give something back to those who have helped us succeed while focusing on the persistent problem of world poverty and hunger.

With your help, we empower the very poor with microcredit loans to create or expand home-based businesses, such as small-scale farming, food carts and raising livestock, providing an opportunity to lift themselves and their family out of poverty in a sustainable way. Microcredit loans are small, usually $300 or less, and require no collateral or contract. Providing impoverished women access to this type of credit enables them to escape the vicious cycle of poverty by using their own energy and creativity to help themselves.

Whole Planet Foundation currently funds microcredit for 200,000 clients (92% of them women) with a repayment rate of 97%! Including the families of our borrowers, we are supporting more than a million people with $17 million disbursed through trusted microfinance institution partners.

We support the very poor in 50 countries across Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

What makes microcredit so amazing is the fact that the loans are repaid and reloaned again and again, and when you make a donation at the register at your local Whole Foods Market, 100% of your contribution benefits microcredit clients because Whole Foods Market covers all operating expenses for Whole Planet Foundation. If you’re not near one of our stores, you can donate online or start your own campaign on Whole Planet Foundation’s website and spread awareness to your friends and family about how together we can help people change their own lives.  Read the stories of women who have benefitted from this support.

This year’s prosperity campaign focuses on how big change can come from small change. We’re giving you the chance to do something small that could turn into something big: share a small story in our Facebook essay contest and you might win a big trip to India!

From now until March 18^th, you can go to Whole Planet Foundation’s Facebook page for a chance to win a trip for two to India. (You’ll need to have your own Facebook account and “follow us” to enter.) You’ll be asked to write a short essay, no more than 350 words, describing how a small change you have made has had a big impact on the world around you. Feel free to include links to web pages, Facebook pages or other online locations that help tell the story.

A group of finalists will be chosen by Facebook fans’ votes, and the Whole Planet Foundation team will select the final winners based on:

• 50% expression of the contest theme
• 20% creativity of the submission and clarity of the description of the entrant’s efforts
• 30% impact the entrant’s efforts had

For a full list of contest rules and criteria, visit the Whole Planet Foundation Facebook contest page.

One lucky winner and his or her guest will travel to India to witness firsthand how access to microcredit has changed the lives of so many women, like Vanaja (pictured here), as well as visit the Kerala region where Whole Foods Market sources cashews. We thank you for your support!

If you offer to make a bet with Whole Foods Market®, they just might take you up on it. My family and I bet them to see if we could eat exclusively from their grocery stores for my family’s USDA-calculated “thrifty” budget of $491.10 for 30 days. That is about $16.31 per day for all of us. Every morsel would come from my kitchen and their stores. If we did it, they’d reimburse our expenses. If we failed, we’d get nothing.

If you want to see what your USDA food budget would be, just check right here and read my blog post from yesterday.

Whole Foods Market said yes and we were off and running. We took their Value Tour the week before our challenge started. A Value Tour is when a store employee takes you around the store and lets you know where to find good deals. Here’s what blew my mind: each store advertises between 100 to 150 items on sale each week, but there can be as many as 2,000 items marked down!

Simple Tips We Learned

• We shopped every 6 days, that seemed to be the sweet spot between keeping veggies fresh and tasty and not spending extra money from making extra trips.
• We had a loose menu plan but kept our options open. Because there are so many specials that are unadvertised, you might find something awesome that you want to take advantage of. An open mind means a wider variety of choices.
• Madness Sales rock! We were struggling hard with the constraints of the budget until we hit a Madness Sale. There was such a great deal on chicken that it freed up $24 from our budget. We were able to put that towards fruits and veggies and everything was so much easier after that.
• Frozen and canned vegetables are a great option. We wouldn’t have made it, frankly, without them. We found mixed veggie combos to be delicious, taste fresh, and used them liberally in stir-fries, pasta sauces and just about everywhere.
• The more you cook from scratch, the cheaper it is. I made two loaves of bread every week for a mere $1.25. It makes sense: if you do the labor, you keep the savings. This is pretty true for just about everything in the store.

An Eye Opening Experience

Throughout the 30 days I kept thinking of families who were living at or below the poverty level trying to feed everyone. It was such a struggle for us even though we had done our homework and only had to do it for one month. I can’t imagine what the grind feels like after months or years of living like this.

Here’s a kicker, the USDA Thrifty level is about 30% higher than Food Stamps. If you’re on food stamps it can be really challenging to feed your family healthfully. Starches are cheaper than produce and it’s easy to reach for those. I can see how the poverty/obesity trap happens and why it’s so difficult to get out of.

Over the 30 days, I gained a lot of knowledge about how to feed a family well even on a tight budget. When I started our meals were starch heavy but as I got savvier about living on a frugal budget, I figured out how to add more produce into our diets. It’s definitely possible, but it takes a lot of patience and tenacity.

In the end, we won our bet with Whole Foods Market and decided to put that money to good use. Instead of splurging on filet mignon and fabulous desserts, we asked Whole Foods Market to donate it to our local food bank. They graciously said yes, again.

You can read more about my family’s adventure on my blog:

True Food Movement

30 Day Whole Foods Thrifty Challenge

The Whole Foods Value Tour

The Food we Bought

Everyday Bread recipe

Have you ever tried to shrink your food budget? I’d love to hear how it worked for you.

One of the things that we’ve talked about a lot here at Simple Organic, is baby steps. We see ourselves as on a journey, always moving farther along the natural living spectrum.

As I was pondering the changes I’ve made in my own life, I realized that certain steps stand out as having made more of a positive impact than others on my daily life.

Here are the most impactful changes I’ve made toward a greener, more natural life for myself and my family.

Personal Care

This was the first step I took towards a greener lifestyle, and it has remained one of the most important to me. The products I put on my body, and on the family members’ bodies have been simplified drastically over the years. I’ve gone from someone with a conventional collection of bottles galore to some simple standards.

Within this category, I have done a lot of baby stepping, but a few changes have been the most monumental:

• The Oil Cleansing Method– I can’t say enough good things about the OCM. I love how it feels, how well it works and have no proof, but I imagine that rubbing oil on my face a few times a week can’t hurt in the preventing wrinkles realm.

• Makeup– In high school, I think I had an eyeliner in every color. I would dig through my Mary-Poppins-esque makeup bag to find just the right hue to match my outfit. I still like makeup, but I have a simple collection of mineral makeup that I stick to now, and to be honest, I don’t even wear it everyday– probably half the time, even less in the summer.

• Sunscreen– For someone who spends a lot of time in the sun and water, this category was a big one. Every year I feel like I’m learning more and more about the ingredients in my personal care products, and specifically in my sunscreen. I now look for products that are mostly Zinc, with Titanium Dioxide-based products as a runner-up in safety and effectiveness. Even in the summer, I rarely use sunscreen before 10am or after about 4pm.

• Cloth Diapers– I’m not a 100% cloth diaperer, but I feel like every cloth diaper I use saves the landfill from something particularly yucky and not very biodegradable. Cloth diapering has also served as a gateway of sorts to more and more natural parenting steps… And, the more I’ve done it, the more I’ve grown to love the look of a fluffy baby bum.

Composting

I wouldn’t call myself a gardener yet, but I’m definitely a composter. Between that and recycling, our amount of trash is significantly lower that what it could be.

We’re no waste-free family, but it’s amazing how much of our waste is actually compostable. I’ve tried my hand at vermicomposting (with worms) and now have a stackable composter in our yard. I can’t wait to see how our compost finishes up so we can we use it on our future garden.

I learned so much when I interviewed my good friend and master composter last year for our Compost Q&A series, and I feel confident now about filling that bin up with all sorts of “junk.”

Food, Not Food-Like Substances

My family is still a ways away from being completely “real food”…  I’ve yet to try some some of the staples, like lacto-fermenting, sprouting grains or water kefir. But I’m really happy with where we are in this category.

In the last couple of years we have transitioned to eating whole fat dairy, lots of types of natural sweeteners (and very little refined white sugar), more and more whole wheat flour, new grains (and some soaking), more variety of produce (thanks to our CSA), free range chicken and eggs, grass-fed meat when possible, healthy fats like coconut oil, EVOO and butter, and maybe most importantly, much less processed food.

I’ve learned to make some of our “staples” from scratch (bread, yogurt, granola bars, ice cream), and while I don’t do all of these regularly, I enjoy having the skills in my arsenal.

These three areas have been foundational in my natural living journey, spurring me along as I’ve explored more homemade alternatives and natural remedies. I still have lots to learn, but looking back, I can be thankful for the monumental changes I’ve made, knowing how beneficial they’ve been to my family and me, and the environment.

What are the most monumental changes you’ve made in your natural living journey?

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Sometimes you get a hold of an idea and you just can’t let go. Even though something seems a little crazy, you try it. I’ve been writing about obesity, particularly childhood obesity, for a few years now and I kept wondering how hard it is for people at or near the poverty level to feed their families well. I knew a lot about nutrition and healthy eating, but what is it like to feed a family, healthfully, at or near the poverty level?

Believe it or not, I roam around the USDA website for fun. It’s a treasure trove of information, all kinds of stats and figures and guidelines. A few months ago I ran across grocery budgets set by gender and age and at four different price points: Thrifty, Low, Medium and Liberal. The USDA tracks over 8,000 families on a monthly basis. They record all of their food purchases and create an aggregate picture. You can see exactly where you fit in on their Cost of Food at Home chart.

You might think these stats are a waste of taxpayer money but they have real implications. If you’re going through a divorce there’s a good shot that your children’s food allowance for child support will be set from the “low” level. At the other end of the spectrum, our troops are fed based on the “liberal” budget. So it does have a real impact in our lives and our pocketbooks.

Actually the USDA influences us in a lot of ways that you might not be aware of. They set the guidelines for school lunches (recently revised and somewhat better than before) and they came out with the Food Plate late last year, the big graphic plate that has now replaced the Food Pyramid.

But back to those budgets, there are a few facts buried in the tables. The low and medium budget categories assume 10% waste and the liberal budget assumes 30% waste. Could you imagine throwing out 30% of what you bring home?

After quite a bit of pondering and several discussions with my family, we decided to set up a 30-day challenge and blog about it. We would use our budget amount of $491.10 for 270 meals plus snacks (every meal for three people using the “thrifty” budget category). That works out to $16.37 per day and yes we even packed a school lunch for our 4^th grade son.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about how we did! What do you think? Could you and your family eat on a poverty level budget?

Ten recipes just not enough? There are 100+ breakfast and brunch recipes on our website.

What breakfast dish gets you jumping out of bed and racing to the table?

Written by contributor Donielle Baker of Naturally Knocked Up. 

Over the past few years I’ve been able to find a replacement for just about every conventional cleaner I’ve ever purchased, but the windows have been my nemesis.

You see, I happen to have a very large dog. A 125-pound rottweiler to be exact! And he loves nothing more than to stand at the window, with his nose smushed right up against it. He also licks the windows. And head butts them from the outside when he wants in.

His head level also happens to be my children’s hand level. This means that pretty much across the windows and sliders, it’s a mess from that level down. Keeping the windows clean is a full time job around here! (which also means that if you happen to drop by at some point, my windows most likely won’t be clean. Just sayin’.)

I figured it was time to buckle down and figure out this whole window cleaner thing. I’ve used a few different homemade recipes, but usually revert to a store-bought version when company comes over. You know, so we can actually see outside.

The Experiment

1. A vinegar and water mix – I chose to use 1/2 water and 1/2 vinegar, which seemed to be the most commonly used ratio.
2. Alcohol – Many actually said they used vodka, but like others, I used 70% Isopropyl rubbing alcohol since it’s much cheaper.
3. Cleaning mix – 1 cup of water, 1 tablespoon vinegar, and 1 tablespoon rubbing alcohol.
4. Norwex polishing cloth – granted, this isn’t a homemade option, but you only use water with the cloth.
5. Newspaper and vinegar – I’ve always been told that newspaper does a great job and had never tried it.

Other notables:

• I do not currently own any paper towels, and haven’t for some time, so I used a regular microfiber cloth while testing.
• It’s cold here in Michigan! This means the windows are pretty chilly when it’s only 25 degrees out.
• Each cleaner, unless noted, was given the same amount of swipes on the window – ten.
• I waited until the sun was not shining on the window to help make sure we didn’t see streaks.
• I used the dirtiest window in the house, full of kid prints and dog slobber along with mud and over spray from the sprinklers.

Photo by Donielle Baker

1. Vinegar and Water Mix – 1:1

This mix caused me to feel like I was making pickles! The vinegar scent was pretty strong and I had a hard time wanting to spray any more than my small strip of test window, even though I know it dissipates rather quickly. This mix was very “wet”, and after 10 swipes I felt I had to go a couple more or risk leaving major streaks.

• Result: As you can see above, after cleaning, there are some spots and streaks left (more outside than inside). It was effective in cleaning, just not in polishing.

2. Rubbing Alcohol

I don’t know if it was the already overwhelming smell of vinegar, but the rubbing alcohol pretty much stunk too. I was realizing why people were buying vodka as it doesn’t have near the scent. The one bonus of the rubbing alcohol though, was the fact that I could just use a spray top screwed onto the bottle I purchased it in. I also keep this in the house more often than vodka, which is normally only purchased for making vanilla extract and herbal tinctures.

• Result: Almost spotless, the rubbing alcohol worked very well with minimal elbow grease. On the outside it dried so quickly while I was scrubbing a mud mark that I had to spray more.

Photo by Donielle Baker

3. Cleaning Mix (1c. water, 1T alcohol, 1T vinegar)

My poor nose didn’t know what to smell with this one! The rubbing alcohol and vinegar together was an odd combo and definitely could have used some essential oils in the mix. (though I don’t know how well that would work on the window)

• Result: not as many spots as #1 (the water vinegar mix) but definite streaks there. This one did dry faster than just the water/vinegar mix though.

4. Norwex Polishing Cloth

If you haven’t heard of these before, they basically look like over priced micro fiber cloths that you buy from a “Norwex lady”. You’re supposed to only get it wet and wring out as much water as possible before using. Then you clean your object. Also to note, you’re supposed to use the regular cloth first and then the polishing cloth. But I’m not doing my windows twice.

• Result: That strip took less than 10 swipes and with the lack of liquid on the cloth, it remained streak and spot free.

Photo by Donielle Baker

5. Newspaper and Vinegar Mix (1:1 with water)

I had to scrounge through the bottom of one of my closets before finding an old newspaper from December of 2008. Yes, you read that right – I have a three year old newspaper in my closet, kept around for packing gifts and messy crafts. When you come over, don’t look in this closet.

For this one I met up with my good friend google to make sure I had the procedure down correctly. You just crumple and use like a paper towel.

Got it.

• Result: Oh. My. Word. People actually like washing their windows this way!! It was messy and wet. The newspaper does not handle easily and it took forever to wipe the window clean. I was so glad that this strip started cleaner than the others. The outside fared even worse than the inside. I just couldn’t get the outside dry enough, even after re-crumpling the paper.

Final Verdict

I’d have to say the polishing cloth and rubbing alcohol tied for first. Both were streak free and dried quickly. The rubbing alcohol smelled a bit while spraying, but the smell dissipated quicker then the vinegar smell did.

What effective homemade window cleaners do you use?

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Almond butter is a thick, rich, delicious alternative that stands perfectly well on its own. You can buy it roasted, salted, crunchy, smooth, salt-free, raw and sprouted. What a variety! It can be used in any recipe that calls for peanut butter and is wonderful across the board from sweet favorites to savory sauces. It’s a culinary fact that almond butter makes a healthy, tasty addition to breakfast, snacks, meals, sauces, baked goods, dips and desserts.

If you’ve never tried almond butter or have only had it on bread, you’re in for a real treat!

• Stir it into hot cooked oatmeal or other favorite hot breakfast cereal.
• Spread it over toast and eat plain or top with fresh or dried fruit.
• Make a dip with almond butter and cream cheese; use it with fresh cut fruit and veggie sticks.
• Make almond butter cookies. You will love these No-Bake Thumbprint Cookies. Here’s our very own Whole Wheat Almond Butter Cookie recipe and here is our recipe for Cocoa-Oat Truffles.
• Make almond butter and banana sandwiches, or make these Apple Granola Sandwiches.
• Add to smoothies like this Cherry Almond favorite and this Chocolate Almond Dream Smoothie.
• Use in your favorite peanut butter recipes.
• Use in place of or along with sesame tahini when making hummus.
• Spread over pancakes, French toast and waffles. Here’s a recipe for Almond French Toast.
• Make frosting with almond butter and a little honey and cinnamon; try it on muffins and cupcakes.
• Try a sandwich of almond butter, sprouts and thinly sliced red onion (one of my personal favorites)!
• Almond butter makes this Winter Squash Crostini so good!
• Spread over crackers, oatcakes and shortbread cookies.
• Add to salad dressings for leafy greens and other veggies, raw or cooked. Try this Broccoli Salad with Almond and Chile Dressing and this Carrot Salad with Almond Butter Dressing.
• Make Crispy Rice Treats, an updated old-fashioned favorite, or Cherry Orange Oatmeal Bars for a delicious snack.
• Top favorite ice cream, frozen yogurt or non-dairy frozen dessert with a dollop of almond butter. Here is a frozen Banana Nice Cream.
• Toss into pasta or favorite noodles. Be sure to add plenty of veggies like we did in this recipe for Sesame Noodles.
• You can even enjoy almond butter in Springtime Veggie Sushi.

For something new and different, try almond butter in place of peanut butter in these recipes:

• Lettuce Wraps with Noodles
• Chocolate Monkey Shake
• Vietnamese Spring Rolls
• Coconut Curry Sauce
• Chocolate Chip Cookies with Fleur De Sel

For you peanut lovers with no peanut problems, I say enjoy your (natural, non-hydrogenated) peanut butter, but why not add some almond butter to the mix? You can even combine the two for a delicious, hearty spread.

Have you tried almond butter? Got a favorite snack or recipe? I’d love to know!

I can still remember last fall when I casually stumbled upon Erin Schrode’s Teens Turning Green blog post here on The Whole Story blog. In it she encouraged high school and college-aged students to sign up for the first-ever Project Green Challenge. As I perused the Project Green Challenge website and learned more about this exciting initiative, I figured it would be a fun activity to brighten up the month of October, typically a month of school overload. Little did I know what I was signing myself up for, or how much that decision would change my life forever.

Everything that the Project Green Challenge participants accomplished during that month remains a truly unbelievable feat. From personal challenges of going 100% disposable-free or auditing all of our household cleaning products’ harmful ingredients, to challenges mobilizing us to reach out to fellow students, family, community members, school administrators, government officials and more, Project Green Challenge created a force of young individuals, consumers and citizens who can now effectively advocate for the health of our planet and its inhabitants!

Among my own experiences that month, one of my proudest accomplishments was the emergence of our new community garden at Hopkins. This will be a space for Johns Hopkins students, faculty, staff and community members (especially local school children) to learn, teach and practice environmentally responsible food production methods. We got this project rolling in October with volunteer days, community meetings and more. Thanks to the generous grant provided by Whole Kids Foundation, we can confidently bring this garden to life for the spring 2012 planting season!

The ultimate testimony to the power of Project Green Challenge took place over a December weekend in San Francisco at Green University. This summit brought the 12 finalists from Project Green Challenge together to meet some of the world’s most esteemed eco-business leaders and experts, including Susie Hewson, founder of Natracare, and Debbie Raphael, Director of the California Department of Toxic Substance Control. With the wisdom and expertise imparted to us during their inspirational speeches, and with the help of additional mentors in attendance, all of the finalists worked together to create exciting platforms for change that we’ll carry out over the year!

My experience with Project Green Challenge and Green University will, without a doubt, stand as a defining moment in my life for years to come. It has not only expanded my knowledge of nearly every major environmental issue and introduced me to some of the world’s most inspirational individuals working to combat these issues, but it has also empowered me to act on these issues in creative and effective ways. Ultimately, Project Green Challenge has shown me that simply being a 19-year-old student in a world of 7 billion people is NOT a limiting factor to promoting effective change on our campuses, in our communities and in our world! Anyone can find the time and energy to make a difference if you’re up to the challenge!

Thank you to Judi Shils and Erin Schrode, the amazing mother-daughter partnership who created Teens Turning Green seven years ago; the entire Project Green Challenge team; Natracare, Whole Foods Market and the other amazing Project Green Challenge sponsors; and all of the eco-leaders and mentors for supporting and creating the change they wish to see in the world!

• Amish Butter, Really? :: GNOWFGLINS
• She Said, He Said: Why I Love the Green Changes We’ve Made :: Live Renewed
• Essential Oils for Baby :: Keeper of the Home
• Xylitol, Erythritol, Sorbitol.. What’s that “Ol” About? :: Kitchen Stewardship
• Introducing Taproot :: SouleMama

I had a great birthday week, that culminated with lovely date night last night! I’m so thankful for parents that live nearby and are willing to tackle the excitement that is watching all three of our little ones. This was only our second night ever out without baby Hallee, and it was a much needed breather.

I hope you are enjoying your weekend, wherever you may be!

CURRENT SPONSORS:

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Sarah Schomber and Jeannine Bucher, two moms from Asheville, North Carolina, met through their kids and serendipitously realized that they both brewed kombucha at home using a similar recipe.  They found it to be an excellent alternative to conventional soda. So they teamed up and after a year of experimentation, created their own unique recipe. The bold tasting fermented drink was so popular with family and friends that they brewed a little extra to sell at the local farmers market and their business, Buchi, was born. With kombucha fans clamoring for more, they transformed an old warehouse into an eco-conscious brewery and became the first woman-owned commercial kombucha brewery in the southeast.

Buchi applied for a Local Producer Loan from Whole Foods Market® to help them purchase additional equipment for their new location. This equipment will help them expand their business and sell their kombucha in our stores in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Not only does Buchi create hand-crafted kombucha, but they also adhere to a transformative business philosophy. An essential part of Buchi’s business model is playing an active role in building a better community. They are guided by the principle that the power of business can solve social and environmental problems. They believe corporations will have greater economic opportunities when they embrace a philosophy that says “we can do well at being good.” Their mission is to return to wholesome nutrient-rich, regionally produced food that nourishes our bodies, our environment and the local economy. That’s an ambitious and worthy goal and we’re honored that we could help!