Jones Valley Urban Farm: Seed 2 Plate Education

Seed 2 Plate from Edwin Marty on Vimeo.

Jones Valley Urban Farm grows more than fresh produce and flowers.  The nonprofit is sowing seeds of knowledge and harvesting a bounty of food literate young people in the Birmingham, Alabama area.  The organization developed more than 3 acres of vacant city property dedicating it organic farming and education on healthy food.

Jones Valley Urban Farm sells its produce at local farmers markets, restaurants, farm stands, and grocery stores.  The proceeds are used to support:

• Educational programs for children and adults, including: an accredited high school Agri-science program
• a K-8 nutrition education field trip program
• teacher workshops
• organic gardening and healthy lifestyle programs
• preschool gardening
• adult workshops
• community and nutrition programs
• internship opportunities for high-school, college, and graduate students
• community partnerships focusing on preventing childhood obesity
• hunger and access to healthy foods 
• sustainable agriculture 
• farm to school markets community composting

Jones Valley Urban Farm seeks to be "a model sustainable urban farm that teaches youth and the Birmingham community about sustainable agriculture and nutrition through outdoor experiential education."

Himalayan Cataract Project: Curing Blindess

The Himalayan Cataract Project’s (HCP) cures blindness in under-served regions of the world by performing cataract surgeries.  The organization's surgical team empowers local doctors by teaching them how to perform the operation and leaves behind the medical equipment brought in on surgical missions.

Drs. Sanduk Ruit and Geoffrey Tabin are opthamologists whose unfailing passion to give sight to the blind has made possible life-altering cataract surgery for only $20 USD.  The physicians want to see unnecessary blindness eradicated in their own lifetimes.

Mobilizing Internationally for Somalia

Famines are rare, but severe drought, food shortages, and sky-rocketing food prices have plunged Somalia into a crisis that puts millions of human lives at risk of starvation.  Young children are especially vulnerable .

It's estimated that 11.3 million people need humanitarian aid as food prices grow and supply dwindles in the drought-ridden region where Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya meet, the Associated Press reports.

Here are some organizations stepping up to provide emergency relief:

• UNHCR seeks $136.3 million in aid and suggests donations such as $7, for therapeutic food for a malnourished child.
• The British Red Cross and The Kenya Red Cross will accept donations online or through mail to first mitigate the crisis and see the people through restoring their livelihoods.
• The World Food Programme is appealing for $342 million to feed 11.3 million people in Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia. The organization plans to airlift operations to distribute high energy biscuits and nutritious supplementary foods.
• Oxfam, in conjunction with Save The Children, is making appeals for $144 million. Any amount is welcome, but the Oxfam site suggests $50 to provide 200 people a day's supply of clean water or $100 to feed a family of six more than two weeks.
• The International Rescue Committee is accepting donations that will provide medical screenings, expand water-supply systems and offer help for pregnant women.
• The ELCA World Hunger Relief is accepting donations to provide immediate aid to refugee camps in the Horn of Africa. 100% of donations will be used for regional relief, including filling a food distribution gap by providing enriched porridge to children and the elderly who are too weak to eat dry food.
• Action Aid will help deliver emergency supplies of food and water, and provide support, ensuring people don't become reliant on food aid.
• The U.N. Children's Fund is tackling crisis conditions faced by 2 million currently malnourished children.
• International Medical Corps' is accepting donations as it ships food and oil to four refugee camps. The Corps will also construct additional latrines and bathing areas.

Meals On Wheels: Fighting Senior Hunger

The Senior Meals on Wheels Program offers a wide array of nutritional services to the elderly. Meals are prepared locally, target a senior's specific nutritional needs and provide one-third of the RDA or Recommended Daily Allowance of nutrition. The organization feeds more than one million senior citizens each day.

There are around 5,000 local Senior Nutrition Programs in the U.S. Some serve the population at dining halls in senior centers, others deliver meals directly to homes, particularly when mobility is limited. Wheels on Meals relies on both paid staff and countless volunteers.

Click to find a local Meals On Wheels organization.

Warrior Gateway: Guiding Veterans

The Warrior Gateway Program is a website promoting smoother reintegration for veterans into home communities.  Whatever military personnel need is quickly accessed on the Warrior Gateway Directory. That need could be ptsd treatment, academic programs, or employers looking for the unique and valuable skills service men and women possess.

Warrior Gateway:

• Is inclusive and free to the military community
• Eliminates information barriers and information overload
• Is a non-profit program
• Brings needed resources to one location 

Here's a YouTube Tutorial on using Warrior Gateway:

The organization is also tapping veterans for employment.

Project Futures: Networking Generation Y for the Cause of Good

Project Futures' mission is to revolutionize charitable organizations by the power and enthusiasm of Generation Y.

Everyone who is involved with PROJECT FUTURES works full time in their respective careers but aims to use their talents and skills to build PROJECT FUTURES into a network that cares for and helps vulnerable communities.

The organization does fundraising, marketing and provides a network of committed volunteers to positively impact the global challenge of human trafficking and sex slavery.

Visit the Project Futures website to find out more about getting involved.

The Dinner Garden: Seeds of Empowerment

Gardening began as a hobby for Holly Hirshberg, an activity to do with her children, but in 2008 Hirshberg's husband lost his job.  This put her in problem-solving mode.  Her home garden significantly alleviated the burden of food costs.  Why not grow the idea?  She founded The Dinner Garden which provides enough seeds to feed a family of four.  Tens of thousands of families across the U.S. have benefited already.  The Dinner Garden has also provided seeds for more than 100 community gardens.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that in 2009, almost 15% of American households were hungry or "food insecure" during some point that year. "Food insecure" means all household members did not always have access to enough food for an active, healthy life.

"When you're having trouble or struggling, you have so many things to worry about. How are you going to pay your mortgage? How are you going to afford your medicine ... your kids? If you know you have food, you don't have to worry."  -Hirshberg to CNN

The Dinner Garden partners with food banks and businesses across the country including Catholic Charities, World Food Garden, Seeds for Food, the Wyoming Food Bank, the San Antonio Food Bank, The Girl Scouts, Boys and Girls Club, The Peterson Garden Project, The San Antonio Community Gardeners, and The Salvation Army.

Holly Hirshberg and her nonprofit have been featured on CNN Heroes.

GOALS Haiti...Scoring for Humanity

“GOALS doesn’t do charity. Our work is driven forward by the community’s needs and the community’s own contributions. This is aid dependency in reverse: in Destra, GOALS relies on the community to organize, support, complete, and then maintain projects. [GOALS’ work] is showing that we can improve the way people and organizations tackle development work, from soccer and gardening to toilets and houses.”– Kona Shen, GOALS Founder & Director

GOALS or the Global Outreach And Love Of Soccer is a non-profit uses soccer to empower and change the lives of children by improving their quality of life, the environment and developing local leadership.  23 year old Shen founded the organization which "works in areas of Haiti in need of immediate and long-term community and environmental development action."

Programs include summer camps, after-school events, and neighborhood teams, but the efforts extend beyond the game with a focus on Education & Leadership, Community Development, Environmental Rehabilitation, and Health.

Find out how you can help by visiting the GOALS donation page.

The Paradigm Project: What a Difference a Stove Makes

Episode 1: Woodwalk from The Paradigm Project on Vimeo.

Two and a half billion people in the world use open wood-burning fires as their method for cooking meals.  Food preparation over an open fire is equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes.  The toll taken on the respiratory health of women and children is at times fatal with a million dead each year.  Deforestation is another catastrophic impact rendering areas uninhabitable.

The Paradigm Project aims to deliver five million stoves to people around the world by 2020 in an effort to help alleviate the problem.  The organization is a low profit company:

"for sustainable change with the overarching goal to empower developing world communities with project ownership and a path to determining their own future rather than relying on handouts to keep them going." The Paradigm Project

And anyone can become involved.  A donation creates the opportunity for a family or village to afford a stove. The stoves are not given away.   Families purchase a stove package that includes training to use it, marketing, transportation and distribution.  Donors provide a subsidy making the stove affordable.

Checkout The Paradigm Project's Plan of Progress and see the potential impact and difference being made right now.

Healing the Children

Healing the Children envisions a world where every child has access to medical care. --Healing the Children, Vision Statement

The challenge to provide health care to children has added uncertainty with a global recession shrinking the funds available to nonprofits and the changing healthcare system debated in the U.S.  With 30 years of making a way for kids to be able to see doctors, Healing the Children forges on.

Since 1979:

• in our International Inbound Program (bringing kids from abroad) we have helped 7,141 kids from 105 countries, speaking dozens of different languages.
• Our Medical/Surgical/Dental/Special Project teams that traveled abroad have served 147,644 on scores of team trips.
• Under our Domestic (U.S.) Program, 2,875 U.S. children have received free medical care or assistance.
• 33,912 U.S. children have been served by our Special Group Projects.
• That means, since 1979, 191,572 children have benefited from the generosity of our volunteer medical professionals, our hospitals, our host families, our donors and our countless other volunteers.
• In our Sustainability Program, we initiate and join with others on projects that create lasting medical assets and resources for all needy children within a geographical area.
• Each year we provide millions of dollars worth of gratis care on modest budgets.  For every $1 we spend, we deliver $27 worth of care.  (Source)

Healing the Children helped facilitate a recent surgery on an Afghan boy whose bladder formed on the outside of his body.  His mother petitioned Army Major Glenn Battschinger for help.

Thirteen American chapters and several International Partners remain committed to meeting the needs of children worldwide through teaching experiences in hospitals in developing nations, delivery of medical equipment, matching specialists to rare conditions, and even responding to mass catastrophes like Haiti's earthquake.

American Widow Project

At 23, Taryn Davis looked forward to graduating from college and a future full of promise with her soul mate and husband, Michael.  His death in 2007 forever altered her dream life leaving her "feeling lost and alone."  He was killed by roadside bombs in Iraq.  Taryn reached out to other women:

What began as her own personal journey, has expanded into a non-profit organization, a documentary film, and a growing website.  --The American Widow Project

The American Widow Project dedicates its efforts to "the new generation of those who have lost the heroes of yesterday, today and tomorrow, with an emphasis on healing through sharing stories, tears and laughter.  Military Widow to Military Widow."  The website allows those who have lost their spouses to share their stories of love and tragedy.  A wide range of services for widows have been amassed to help the grieving get through things as small as a home repair or as heart-wrenching as coping with such a devastating loss.

Since 2001, nearly 6,000 U.S. service members have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Around half of these service members were married, leaving an estimated 3,000 military widows across our country. While the service member’s sacrifice is acknowledged, many simply forget or fail to recognize the sacrifice of the spouse who is now left a widow of war. Oftentimes the invisible wounds of military widows are disregarded due to age or a simple lack of knowledge and understanding.

This nonprofit also sponsors events that encourage widows to seize life again and enjoy it to its fullest.

Military widows can contact the organization at their website or call 1-877-AWP WIDOW.

Publicolor: Brightening Hopes, Inspiring Futures

Publicolor uses "color, collaboration, design, and the painting process to re-engage students in their education, schools and communities to ultimately transform them into productive members of our workforce."

Publicolor offers a full range of opportunities through their programs.  The nonprofit sponsors a Paint Club.  Students who participate in the Paint Club can become part of the COLOR Club which provides opportunities for leadership, learning to think critically about the future, and the opportunity to earn a stipend. Next Step Prep involves  middle school through high school kids in literacy immersion and SAT preparation.  Next Step works with high school juniors and seniors on college placement and mentoring..  The Fresh Coat Club revisits former Publicolor projects for touch-ups and allows students to earn an income.