This summer Girls Gone Green has been managing the Girls Club CSA. Every Tuesday we would collect fruits and vegetables from our female farmers and distribute the goodies to our CSA members between the hours of 4-7 pm. The CSA lasts from June until November.

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. CSA members are purchasing a share of fruits and or vegetables (eggs, pasta) from local farmers.   They pay for the entire season upfront which enables the farmers to plan for the growing season.

Four reasons to join your local CSA!
Buy Local- Your support helps small local farms survive.

Eat Well-  Buy the freshest freshest fruits and veggies! Explore new foods and learn to cook with them.

Be Healthy- Eat more fresh vegetables and fruits. Share healthy and local eating habits with your family.

Protect The Environment- Support farmers who take care of their land by growing food in ways that take care the soil. Cut down on the number of miles your food travels from the farm to your plate.

Be Green- Eat Greens- Buy Local  ***BRITTNI

This Thursday on August 5th, we had a fence painting where all the girls and artists painted.  There were four professional artists to help us out even though the girls alone are great artists. There were also volunteers who helped paint and had fun along the way. There were spray paints that everyone was eager to try out and when I got a turn, I sprayed my shoes and splashed paint on them. My shoes turned out prettier than they were before.  I even brought my sister to the fence painting and she loved it. We painted all over our shirts and had lots of fun with the colors. Honest Tea, Fiji water and Pop chips made donations for us to enjoy while we were hard at work. At the end of the day we took the paintings back inside the Girls Club to dry. The paintings will soon go up on the fence surrounding the construction of the new Girls Club facility on Ave. D.

Last week, the GGG crew was on a mission to interview the artist and activist, “Moby” (Richard Melville Hall). Being that we’re an environmental group, we talked with him about one of his pressing concerns: how the over consumption of meat leads to global warming. Moby’s new book, Gristle , addresses this relationship in detail, describing how the consumption of meat hurts everyone in the world community. The most interesting thing I learned from Moby is that although he is a vegan*  he respects others’ eating choices because he’d like others to respect his veganism in return. He also explained to us that even if people won’t necessarily change their diets completely, if they would just stop OVER-CONSUMING meat, that alone could make a positive change. Less meat = less heat! It was a great learning from Moby how our eating choices influence everyone around us. This “little field trip” was also particularly special because Moby was kind enough to share with us his REALLY nice apartment!! Just another day exploring the LES with the Girls Club! Thanks Moby!

Brittany & me           Brittany,Me,Moby&Gigi      All of Moby’s awards

*Vegan: A Vegan does not eat anything that is an animal product including cheese, milk or meat and will not wear any products tested on or made out of an animal or animal skin.

Did you know that your everyday household cleaning products are toxic? As you can see from this photo in addtion to cleaning product many people keep pesticides and rodenticides. Many New Yorkers including those in the L.E.S live in physically substandard housing with roach and mice infestations. Therefore, people tend to use pesticides like Raid on a regular baises. Exposure to pesticides can cause headaches, respiratory and skin irritation, dizziness, muscular weakness and nausea. Babies and childern are particlarly vulnerable. Girls Gone Green advocates Integrative Pest Management (IPM) and for green cleaning. “Green” cleaning means using products that are non-toxic, inexpensive and safe to use in your home. GO GREEN TODAY !

One day we took a trip to Fine Fare supermarket to compare the difference between cleaning products made with toxic chemicals and organic cleaning products. We got to the detergent aisle and noticed we were surrounded by some of the most harmful products for everyday use in households. There was a whole section for Roach Spray and many other products that are unhealthy for the people and their homes. We talked about what the chemicals in the products can do, like Roach Spray. We talked about how it can cause asthma and cancer. Many New Yorkers suffer from asthma because of the pests in their house leading them to use roach spray, then they breathe in those hazardous chemicals. There were not many organic or green products in the low income supermarkets. Supermarkets should help to educate the customers with the products they’re using and try to help people become green. A greener world is a happier world!

This is a photo taken in a local Fine Fare super market. It shows the wide variety of pesticide products available in a typical LES market. Many LES apartments have serious pest problems and people use these toxic products to kill the roaches. They are using these sprays and foggers without knowing how dangerous they are, especially for young children and  pregnant women.  I think the product labels should offer more warnings to let people know how toxic it can be to routinely use these product indoors. Consumers have the right to know!!!!!!!!

Yesterday, Girls Gone Green was on a mission to compare the prices of organic and non-organic fruits, vegetables, meats and poultry at different grocery stores in the LES (Whole Foods, Key Foods, and Fine Fare). When we examined the meats we compared not only the price per lb but also the quality (for example, Where the cows fed antibiotics? a corn or grass diet?).  It was really interesting to find out that our poultry and meat labels do not always identify whether the animal was in a coop/fed-lot or able to roam freely, or whether it was fed corn-feed or a natural diet.  We need better labels. As we passed by the 4th street Key Foods, we took pictures of the people recycling cans and waiting on line to recycle. An elderly lady freaked out and popped a bottle out at us! It was so funny and yet scary, so BEWARE! And never take pictures of people recycling their cans..it can be dangerous

On the bright side, we found a peach shaped like a heart; here I am holding it:

This week the Girls Gone Green did some research on the cheap and unhealthy food options in comparison to expensive and healthy food options in the LES.  We realized that the cheaper stores have organized their products poorly while expensive stores such as Whole Foods have their foods beautifully organized. We also realized how cheap and unhealthy foods are everywhere in the LES and how hard it is to find healthy food at an affordable price. For example, in my neighborhood in Brooklyn I have not seen any healthy food stores like Whole Foods or a farmers’ market. This week we took more pictures of unhealthy “cheap eats” than healthy foods because they were harder to find.

These photos are photos from a local bodega and an example of cheap and unhealthy foods on display.

But these photos are an example of how products are displayed in Whole Foods. It’s neat and artistic.

On July 21st the Girls Gone Green were on a mission to explore the neighborhood around Con-Edison. By doing so, we’d be able to see how communities were affected by industries surrounding them.
It’s amazing to see that this plant (Con-Edison) provides electricity to most of lower Manhattan. It is a great thing for New Yorkers to have a reliable source of energy (especially in the summer heat), but high energy consumption also negatively impacts the local community.

Poor outdoor, as well as indoor air quality, worsens kids’ asthma and the health conditions of others. We think that city residents should reduce their use of electricity in general and that the city should make more use of solar power and other energy alternatives instead of relying on electricity plants such as Con Edison.

This walk to Con-Edison helped us became aware of all the pollution our city faces daily.

This is a photo taken in a Lower East Side supermarket. The girls in the Girls Gone Green program at the Lower East Side Girls Club went to the super market to see how many toxic cleaning products versus how many environmentally friendly products the stores displayed. These cleaning products have volatile organic compounds, which are liquid solvents that evaporate rapidly in at room temperature. When people clean their houses with these products they breathe in the toxic chemicals. As you can see in the picture the supermarket has more toxic cleaning products than non-toxic.