Soapbox Moment: What is the Opportunity Gap?

Basically, low-income students of color in America lack the same access to opportunity as compared to their white peers.  Combined with the educational disparities these demographics also face, known as the achievement gap, this is a deleterious abhorrence.  It is in everyone's best interest to seek ways to enhance equal opportunity and achievement for all.

I am a sucker for a cool infographic and I also like Good magazine.

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(Obsolete) Words for Thursday

 


lateration: blabber; chatter

As in: Today I had to listen to some random guy's blateration about how he is much better suited to "bring home the bacon" and women should be at home. 

The word blateration is part of Oxford's, (as in the OED), effort to "save the words," and I have officially adopted it as my own.  According to the site, "every year hundreds of words are dropped from the English language," and this is the plan to save them.

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If you go the the Save the Words site, you can "adopt" your own word.  Once you choose the one you want, you must promise to use it in your everyday conversations in an effort to save the word.  Nerdy and clever, my favorite combo.  I love it.

Wanna adopt a word?  Let me know which one you choose so we can help each other in our quest to save the words!

Daily Drop Cap by Jessica Hische.
Save the Words site found via @GOOD Twitter post.  (I heart Good).

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Thursday's Thinking of Food

OK, so since I started this weekly post, it seems all sorts of food-related information has been landing in my lap, (no pun intended). Lots of fun morsels today, so here goes:

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*Triscuit, (yes, the woven wheat crackers that go great with a spreadable cheese), is sponsoring a "Home Farming movement." Their website states: "Triscuit has created this site with help from Urban Farming, a non-profit organization, to help build a home farming community where both beginners and more seasoned gardeners can dialogue and gather information towards their common mission: to reap food that is deliciously fresh, penny-wise, healthier for themselves and the planet." Pretty cool. The site has crop guides, tips for growing vegetables at home, and more information about the movement. Right now, inside specially-marked boxes of Triscuit are basil and dill seeds ready to plant!

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*SunChips, (you know, those delicious, multi-grain chips--of which I could eat an entire bag of Garden Salsa flavor in one sitting), well they now boast 100% compostable packaging. They have designed each 10.5 oz. SunChips package to fully break down in 14 weeks, when placed in a hot, active compost bin or pile. They even tell all about their journey to create a better bag on their website--see it here. New plant-based bags coming Earth Day 2010. Way to go, SunChips.

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*New blog to follow: Fed Up With Lunch: The School Lunch Project. {I found this blog via blogging friend Sarah McColl of Pink of Perfection-also a great blog to check out!}. Mrs. Q, the author of the blog, is a public school teacher and has decided to eat school lunch with her kids every day in 2010 to raise awareness about what the kids have to eat. If you haven't been in a school cafeteria in a while, it's pretty eye-opening, although some districts are better than others. When I taught in Santa Clara, CA, sushi was a daily option on the middle school lunch line... But, in many districts, french fries are considered a vegetable. (Reminiscent of when Reagan tried to say ketchup was a vegetable in school lunches--anyone else remember that?) Scary stuff.

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*Good Magazine--one of my favorite things to read when it shows up in my mailbox--wants your help! The project is called Foodstamps and Farmers' Markets. The objective is to make it easy to use and accept food stamps at farmers' markets. They want you to come up with a low-cost, easy to implement solution...barter?delivery? centralized check out? Post a comment, tweet @GOOD, or e-mail projects[at]goodinc[dot]com with your solution to the problem of how to accept food stamps at farmers' markets. Your response can take the form of a sentence, a paragraph, a sketch, an annotated photo—whatever you think will best convey your idea. Deadline is Monday, March 29. You can purchase a year's subscription to Good magazine, ("The magazine for people who give a damn"), for only $20--and all proceeds go to a social action project...details here.

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*And to wrap-up today, I know I have been posting a lot about Earth Fare recently, but man, they've been doing a lot of cool things lately! The most recent cool thing I've heard from them is that every Thursday, starting today, from 4-8 pm will be Family Dinner Night at Earth Fare and KIDS EAT FREE with the purchase of an adult meal of $5 or more. The kid's meal includes any kid's sandwich or 1/2 wrap, served with chips, or a slice of pizza. Click here to see the new "Itty Bitty Bites Menu," full of healthful options for kids. Earth Fare is using it's new Itty Bitty Bites initiative to try eliminate childhood obesity; click here to read more.


Have a great weekend, y'all! Heading to Charlotte tomorrow night to see Ben Folds and a Piano--post about that later in the weekend!

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Eco-friendly Vintage Chic

I admit, I am not the most faithful tree-hugger, eco-friendly, Earth-conscious girl around, but I have been recycling since as long as I can remember, I use "Green" cleaning products, I rarely use plastic grocery bags, and cringe when I see Hummers. I have also just recently made some new efforts to be more Earth-conscious...first, my husband and I started composting when we moved to our new house. It is really easy and not nearly as smelly or gross as I had once thought.

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We registered for and received this pretty little pail from Crate & Barrel which we keep in the kitchen for food scraps. Every other day or so, one of us then takes the pail outside to dump onto the compost pile, which is housed in a wooden box with a lid that the hubs built. Turn the compost pile with a shovel and keep it moist and then voila, you have usable compost for your garden--and you've kept food waste from the landfill! Sweet.

My other exciting, slightly more vintage-chic, green development has been not using paper napkins or plates...no disposable cutlery or drinkware either. I love to entertain and have done quite a bit already in our new home-- a couple wedding showers for some friends of ours, James' 24th birthday this past Sunday evening...(that's right, my husband is only 24; I am a proud cradle-robber).

I have begun using cute appetizer plates and cloth napkins, as well as real glasses and silverware for all parties. Some people question my decision to do so, thinking I am silly to create such work for myself washing the dishes and napkins after the party-goers have long gone home. But, I take a simple pleasure in knowing that I have kept so much disposable plastic and paper out of the landfill, not to mention saved money too. And the stylish statement conveyed by the vintage mixed with modern plates and cloth napkins= very eco-chic!

I was inspired to write this post when I came across these amazing cloth napkins made from re-purposed vintage sheets on Etsy:

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LOVE these napkins!

My newest eco-friendly venture is going to be to get a rain barrel. Good Magazine, one of my favorite things to find in my mailbox, introduced me to the concept in this article. Here's the Smith & Hawken collapsible rain barrel mentioned in the Good article...I'm adding it to my Christmas wish list:

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If you have never read or never even heard of Good magazine, you should look into getting a subscription.

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You can subscribe for $10, $20 or $50...whatever level you can afford, and 100% of your subscription amount is donated to GlobalGiving. GlobalGiving funds hundreds of grassroots projects around the world, impacting education, health care, and human rights. How amazing is that!?

Happy Thursday!

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