Go Halfsies for Good Health and Fighting Hunger

Halfsies: Connecting the Dots from Go Halfsies on Vimeo.

"About 40% of the food produced in the United States isn't consumed. Every day Americans waste enough food to fill the Rose Bowl. And our national food waste habit is on the upswing: We waste 50% more food today than we did in 1974." -- Jonathan Bloom, author of American Wasteland

Go Halfsies is a nonprofit and social initiative offering restaurant-goers the choice of healthier meal portions, reducing food waste, and supporting the fight against hunger.  When people choose to "go halfsies" at a participating restaurant, they receive a half-portion and still pay full price.  The restaurant then donates to local and world hunger causes.

Right now, New York City and Austin, Texas restaurants plan to participate, but since the idea was just featured, Go Halfsies has received requests from DC, Atlanta, Athens, Saf Fran, Boston, LA, Chicago, & even Australia.

Depave.org Reinventing Neighborhoods

PARKING LOTS to PARADISE // Documentary from Joey Dello Russo on Vimeo.

By all accounts, it was an awesome day! Frogs with jackhammers, asphalt art, 147 volunteers representing four continents, two Portland City Council Candidates, lots of laughter, music, celebration, pizza, donuts, and lots of earth liberated from the stranglehold of asphalt.

Too often, pavement and asphalt blight urban areas and streamline pollution into waterways.  An unutilized stretch of concrete compounds the heat in urban and suburban areas.  Depave.org has been greening up cities and towns by removing unwanted pavement and replacing it with parks, gardens and eco-friendly areas.  The organization's objectives include:

• Providing information, inspiration, and technical assistance to those wishing to remove concrete and asphalt.
• Educating the public about the benefits of pavement removal. 
• Advocating to minimize and/or reduce the amount of impervious pavement in public construction and repair projects.
• Promoting responsible and creative reuse and recycling of concrete and asphalt. 
• Providing an opportunity for greater connection with the natural world.

Depave's work is a nonprofit undertaking with a vision of "livable cities where people and wildlife coexist and prosper amidst clean air, clean water, robust urban forests and thriving local agriculture."

Cops Against Cancer

As a cancer survivor, Officer Craig Phinney sees himself as handed a second chance at living.  Knowing the many trials cancer patients endure and with deep gratitude for his own survival, Phinney and his wife founded Cops Against Cancer. The nonprofit's mission is two-fold:

• Helping those cancer patients and their families with the overwhelming and unexpected expenses and challenges presented to them during a very difficult time of their lives. 
• Assisting to build Colorectal Cancer awareness within our communities through public and patient education and to provide the resources for those in need of our assistance.

Cops against Cancer receives money through sponsors and donations.  While Phinney knows it’s important to raise money for research, he has firsthand knowledge of how critical financial support to cancer patients is.

In the U.S., cancer accounts for one of every four deaths, according to numbers released by the American Cancer Society. Well over a million Americans are diagnosed with cancer each year.

Mikey's Meals

A boy transforms his profound gratitude into service after receiving a life-saving operation. Michael Carraway Jr. received a liver transplant at UCSF Medical Center in 2008.  He had been a healthy, active 6th grader participating in sports, music, and Indian dance.  He became sick, and doctors placed him on a list for an organ transplant.  Michael's life was saved by a teenager who was in a traffic accident.  His recovery was swift, and by the time Christmas rolled around, Michael told his mother he wanted to feed homeless people for Christmas.  Mikey's Meals was born.

I prepared dinner and fed 25 people Christmas 2008 to start. In 2009, except for the months of April and May, when Michael was in the hospital, Mickey’s Meals feed 1,175 people in the city of Oakland, CA. Christmas 2009, in addition to providing meals to the homeless, Mikey’s Meals sponsored its first toy drive and handed out 100 gift bags that included toiletries, hats, socks, and gloves to adults.

Mikey's Meals also raises awareness about organ donations.  For his Pay-It-Forward spirit, Michael was recently featured as a CNN Hero for 2012.

Global Village Construction Set from Open Source Ecology

Open Source Ecology has created the Global Village Construction Set.  In technical terms, it's an "open source, low-cost, high performance technological platform that allows for the easy, do-it-yourself assembling of 50 different industrial machines."  The organization suggests you think of it as a life size set of legos that can create economies anywhere in the world.

Farmers, engineers and supporters are the brain power behind Open Source Ecology:

So far, they've prototyped 8 of the 50 Machines -- the tractor, drill press, soil pulverizer, torch table, hydraulic power unit, compressed earth brick press, walk-behind tractor, and 150-ton hole puncher. Along the way, they've been publishing the designs and instructions on their wiki. They've been financially supported by the crowd. A growing base of more than 400 "true fans" pays a small amount every month, and their recently successful Kickstarter campaign will help to build a 5k sq. ft. fabrication training facility at OSE's rural Missouri headquarters.

The main goal is to make farming, building, and manufacturing less of an obstacle financially.  The Global Village Construction Set costs 8 times less the equipment from big industrial producers.  3-D designs, schematics, and instructional video are all available on Wiki.

Open Source Ecology's goal for 2012 is to build the next 8 prototypes of the Global Village Construction Set.

Project Re-Generation: Ending Teen Idleness

Teens in Brooklyn turn away from guns, drugs and gang life thanks to the volunteer-based nonprofit founded by Barnabas Shakur. Since 2001, Project Re-Generation has attracted 5,000 volunteers who assist with legal services, career guidance, interview skills, and after school tutoring.  Shakur says the goodness of the community is what has made Project Re-Generation work.  While giving teenagers guidance is a priority, adults are encouraged to participate.
Programs for Teens:

• Foot Soldiers Program
• Knicks Poetry Program

Homeowners & Professionals Can Get Involved:

• Foot Soldiers Property Maintenance Services
• 1000 People whoBANG Professional Group Community Pride Day

Citywide, New York City faces a staggering 50% dropout rate. However, those involved in Project Re-Generation have 96% graduation rate, and many go on to pursue a university education.

The Pay It Forward Coffee Shop

Some customers in Bluffton, South Carolina get random acts of kindness with their morning coffee.  A wave of "pay it forward" began two years ago at The Corner Perk when a woman left an extra 100 dollar bill to cover the coffee lovers who followed her that day, and she insisted she remain anonymous. Word spread, and others wanted to make the same gesture--also leaving money to pay for customers that came in.  The owner reports some people come in and leave money without even getting coffee.

"People will come in and say, 'What do you mean? I don't understand. Are you trying to buy me a coffee today?'" the shop's owner, Josh Cooke, told the local news. "And I say, 'No, somebody came in 30 minutes ago and left money to pay for drinks until it runs out.'"

Bluffton is a small town of only 12,000 people.  The generosity is deeply appreciated in economically tough times.