By Harriet Blake

Fact: America has an abundance of food.
Question: So why does anyone go hungry in this country?

A potato gleaning in Virginia (Photo: Society of St. Andrew)

Armed with this simple thought, the Society of St. Andrew (SOSA) took up the cause of feeding the hungry in 1979 with the idea of gleaning fields for salvageable produce.

“We do this in two says,” says Carol Breitinger, communications director. “We use volunteers in the field for hands-on gleaning, or we send out trucks to pick up surplus crops that farmers can’t use and would just end up in the landfill.”

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By Sommer Saadi and Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

If anyone doubted that there’s a global grassroots movement to fight climate change, they may reconsider after viewing the photos that streamed in this weekend from the International Day of Climate Action.

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From Green Right Now Reports

Northampton, Mass.-based non-profit Soldier On, which will break ground this month on a limited-equity housing project for formerly homeless veterans, said the project will use photovoltaic technology supplied by Berkeley, Calif.-based Borrego Solar to supply electricity to its 39 apartments.

Berkshire Veterans Village will house formerly homeless veterans. (Image: Soldier On)

Berkshire Veterans Village in Pittsfield is intended to serve as a new national model for transitioning veterans from homelessness to home ownership. The Soldier On, which has been helping get veterans off the street since 1994, said a second limited-equity housing project is planned for Leeds. The organization said it eventually hopes to take the model to a national level.

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By Chris Reinolds
Green Right Now

Isn’t it great when you can save green and go green at the same time?

Sopo Bike Shop

For serious and recreational bicyclists, bike cooperatives across the country are meeting that need. They offer tools to fix your bike, volunteers to teach you how and the support to keep riding. Cooperatives are located in nearly every major city and supported by volunteers, grants and donations.

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By Ashley Phillips
Green Right Now

The U.S. Green Building Council, started 16 years ago, has 20,200 members and more than 50,000 LEED registered and certified projects around the world (80 percent are in the US).

And the group plans to get even bigger as it turns its attention to college campuses and enlists the help of students.

The USGBC is helping universities across the country to establish sustainability courses and USGBC student organizations, and of course, to build green. The Washington-based NGO estimates that there will be 4,300 LEED projects registered (underway) and certified (completed) on college campuses at the end of 2009.

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Jen McKenna’s family attended Summer Streets for the first time this year: “It might take some getting used to but once people do I think everyone will learn to enjoy it.” (Photo: Sommer Saadi)

By Sommer Saadi
Green Right Now

You’ve only got one weekend left to witness the near impossible: a car-free street in New York City.

Summer Streets is back for its second year and is once again offering New Yorkers three weekends in August to play, walk, bike and breathe on a nearly seven-mile stretch of city streets void of any motorized distractions.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

In the journal of green urbanism, you don’t find much about Detroit, Birmingham, Salina or Stockton. These cities have proud histories, but they’ve not eco-agitators, like say, San Francisco.

Movers and shakers in Stockton, though, say they’re ready to step up to the plate. Developers there just announced a large, green development called The Preserve which they say will make the mid-sized city east of the Bay area an authentic player in the green space. The Preserve, conceived of as a large, but nature-loving mixed use development, should become a magnet for businesses and residents that might not otherwise consider the city a green destination, its developers say.

“The Preserve will demonstrate to all that Stockton has a bright future, a future that benefits from forward thinking about our environment,” said David Nelson, Executive Vice President of A. G. Spanos Companies, the national developer, which is based in Stockton.

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Photo: Chicago Lights

By Lynette Holloway
Green Right Now

Collard greens, kale, tomatoes, swiss chard and okra spring from a swath of asphalt amid a bustling sidewalk on Chicago’s North Side. The incongruous site is the Cabrini-Green Chicago Avenue Community Garden, a vegetable and flower garden that was home to basketball and tennis courts more than six years ago.

Enclosed by a chain-link fence, gardeners plant on compost beds shaped like crude graves. It is part of a community garden project conducted by Growing Power, a national non-profit organization, dedicated to helping urban families gain access to healthy food systems. Growing Power, headquartered in Milwaukee, also provides training and oversight for volunteers who participate in the project.

Erika Allen, a mother who uses her art therapy major in her work, is project manager of the Chicago urban garden. She also appears in the critically acclaimed documentary Food Fight, which is about the importance of sustainably produced or locally grown food. She also is the daughter of Will Allen, founder and chief executive officer of Growing Power, who last year was awarded a MacArthur Genius Award for his work in the delivery of healthy food systems in urban areas.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

We hear every day about dangerous chemicals in household products that are linked to cancer, infertility, autism and other diseases – yet many Americans may not realize just how many of these harmful substances they’ve actually ingested in the course of everyday living.

The answer? About 48. That’s according a study by the Environmental Working Group and Rachel’s Network, in which five leading minority women environmentalists from different parts of the country volunteered to have their blood tested for toxins. The results, say EWG experts, show that regulation of chemicals in the U.S. is weak and “antiquated” and needs a major overhaul.

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By Shermakaye Bass
Green Right Now

Earth Day isn’t just a date on the calendar or an annual do-good commitment; it’s a way of life, a state of mind, a mission even – and certainly an intention. The date itself, April 22, merely reminds us that, January through December, all days should be “earth days” in our respective, collective communities.

You know this is true when mainstream news giants like Time magazine feature cover stories declaring the eminent demise of millions of species. Climate change is real, and potentially catastrophic. Still, there are loads of things we can do to stem climate change, or even help reverse it. Which is why each year Earth Day gathers more meaning and momentum, urging us to expand our green consciousness to 365 days a year.

Eva Radke, founder of Film Biz Recycling in New York City – a nonprofit committed to greening the film industry – grasps that idea.

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By Sommer Saadi
Green Right Now

Do not underestimate the excitement of Earth Day. Trust us. There is a lot to look forward to this year – the Green Apple Festival and Earth Day Network are making sure of it.

The two organizations have teamed up to put together the largest Earth Day festival in America. The event will take place April 17 to 19 (the weekend before the official Earth Day on April 22) and features simultaneous service events in ten major cities across the nation including New York, Boston, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now
Earth Day is every day. It truly is, and should be. Still it’s nice to have a special time set aside for this commemoration, now 39 years old.

It gives us a time to celebrate. A time for people who live the issue daily, as foresters, gardeners, organic bakers, fair trade importers, scientists and energy experts, to connect with each other and newcomers on the green path. It’s a time when tree huggers can come out of the forest, composters can declare their love of the soil and all sorts of other quirky “naturalists” can unabashedly rejoice — in an accepting climate.

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