October 2006
In this issue, you'll find:
- Obentec
Announcements
- Favorite
Photo
- Monthly
Menu
- Sixty-Second
Salads
- Laptop
Lunches in the News
- New Retailers
- Green Zebra
Makes it Easy to Change Your Stripes
- What works...Success
Stories
- Featured
Web site: http://www.SafeRoutesInfo.org
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Join
us at the Green Festival!
If you're planning to be in the San Francisco Bay Area the weekend
of November 10 - 12, don't miss the Green Festival at the Concourse
in downtown San Francisco. It's a great place to learn about green
products and services, taste organic creations, attend inspiring
workshops, and enjoy live music. We'll be there in booth 428 on
Friday (2 - 8), Saturday (10 - 8), and Sunday (11-6). Please stop
by and introduce yourself!
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From
Lunch Matters
in Australia:
LunchMatters
is offering Laptop Lunch Times readers from Australia and
New Zealand a special treat with all orders placed during October
2006. Just mention 'Laptop Lunch Times' in the message section at
the end of the ordering process and you'll receive a little gift
(such as cookie cutters, cute extra containers from Japan, forks,
spoons, seeds for home grown herbs or sprouts) with your parcel.
Be sure to mention whether you are shopping for a girl, boy or adult
so that you will get an appropriate gift.
From Jomoval
in the UK:
Jomoval will be exhibiting
Laptop Lunches at the BBC Good Food Show in London from November
10 - 12 (stand C125) and at the BBC Good Food Show NEC in Birmingham
from November 22 - 26 (stand M96). If you plan on attending the
show, come by and say hello!
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Got a favorite photo
to share?
- Peppers and cherry
tomatoes with steak (all organic and hormone-free)
- Green salad with
feta cheese
- Homemade tapanade
for dipping cucumbers
- Banana bread
- Two chunks of
dark chocolate
- Sliced
cucumbers (I always put sliced cucumber in the utensil compartment and
leave the fork and spoon at school.)
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I
am the art teacher at the British School of Washington who first
suggested that you show photos of lunches in your newsletter.
After seeing everyone else's wonderful lunches, I thought it was
about time to show you one of mine!
Susie Morna
Gow
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| The
English teacher, Mr Bird, found your lunchbox and bought one for me. Now
all the kids want one so they can have lunches like me!!!! Get ready for
many more orders!!!! Thank you for making it easy to eat well. |
Monthly Menu
Sixty-Second Salads
Here
are three very quick salads that you can throw together in 60 seconds
flat!
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Cucumber
Salad
- Slice 1
cucumber thinly.
- Cut 4 thin
slices of red onion.
- Sprinkle with rice vinegar.
- Sprinkle with dried Italian
herbs.
- Toss gently.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
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Diced
Tomato Salad
- Dice 1 large
tomato.
- Add 3 heaping
Tbs. of black beans.
- Add 3 heaping Tbs. of corn.
- Add salsa to taste.
- Toss gently.
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Spaghetti
Salad
- Place 2
cups leftover spaghetti in a bowl.
- Sprinkle with 1 tsp. olive
oil and toss well.
- Add 1 clove
minced garlic.
- Add 1/2
cup chopped roasted cashews.
- Sprinkle with fresh chopped
parsley.
- Toss well.
- Add salt and pepper to taste.
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Personalizing
Your Laptop Lunches
Every
week or so we receive a phone call or email from a Laptop Lunch user asking
about how to personalize their Laptop Lunches. Parents want a durable
lunchbox that's going to outlast the latest fad character and survive
years of daily use. Here are a few ideas that some Laptop Lunch users
have come up with. If you've got a photo of your own Laptop Lunch creation,
please email it to us and we'll post it for others to see.
Laptop
Lunches in the News
The
Early Show (September 21, 2006)
Ann Cooper, author of "Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed
Our Children," joins Hannah Storm to advise parents on how to
improve the quality of lunch their kids take to school. She also demonstrates
how Laptop Lunches can help families pack great school lunches. Visit
http://www.cbsnews.com
to see what Ann Cooper's putting in her Laptop Lunch.
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Sierra
Club Magazine (Sept/Oct 2006)
All those juice boxes and snack packs pile up. Making lunches for
school every day creates an average of 67 pounds of garbage per child--or
more than 18,000 pounds per school--each year. To help stem the tide
of trash, two California moms created Laptop Lunches, colorful bento-box-style
containers with washable, reusable compartments for different foods.
They estimate that eschewing disposable packaging and single-serving
items can save families $250 a year. www.wastefreelunches.org
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Mothering
Magazine (July/August 2006)
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"The
Lunch Date ($114.99, www.laptoplunches.com)
is stocked with goodies, including a plastic bento box with
four individual containers." |
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New
York Metro Parents (September 2006)
"The food aisles are stocked to the rafters with lunchbox treats
— individually packed granola bars, pudding cups, juice boxes. And
while parents have recently been taking a hard look at what we’re
putting into our kids’ stomachs, it’s time to think, too, about what
we’re putting into our planet’s system.
Fortunately,
packing a litterless lunch is surprisingly simple. What’s more,
it will likely save you money..."
Click
here to read the rest of the article: http://parentsknow.com.
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New
Retailers
Area
Kids
233 Smith Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231
(718) 522-6455
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Sweet Pea Organics
12788 Indian Rocks Road #9
Largo, FL 33774
(727) 505-4587
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Area
Yoga & Baby
196 Court Street
Brooklyn, NY 11231
(718) 222-0869 |
Spring
2162 Polk Street
San Francisco, CA 94109
(415) 673-2065
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Area
Yoga & Baby
45 Fifth Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11217
(718) 230-7495 |
Madison
Avenue Boutique
2106 S. 3rd Street
Kingsville, TX 78363
(361) 595-5032
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Area
Yoga & Baby
107 Seventh Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215
(718) 636-7235
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www.naturaldigs.com |
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Visit
www.laptoplunches.com/retail.html
for a complete list of retailers.
Want to see Laptop Lunches at a store in your neighborhood?
Email us at info@obentec.com, and we'll give them a call.
While visiting Bellingham, WA last month, Tammy stopped in at the
Bellingham's Community Food Co-op. If you live in the area, stop
by to see their great display of Laptop Lunches.
Community
Food Co-op
1220 N. Forest St.
Bellingham, WA 98225
(360) 734-8158
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Green
Zebra Makes it Easy to Change Your Stripes!
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Amy
Hemmert interviews Sheryl Cohen, co-founder of the Green Zebra
guide.
| Amy:
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Hi
Sheryl. I understand that you've been working hard in
preparation for the big Green Zebra launch this month.
Can you tell us a little bit about what the Green Zebra
guide is? |
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| Sheryl:
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Green
Zebra is a new local guide that makes it fun and easy to explore
the best of natural living in San Francisco. Through discount
passes, the 2007 Green Zebra guide promotes environmentally
conscious and community-oriented businesses. It's like the Entertainment
Book but green and local. Instead of coupons from big box and
chain stores, the guide includes over 250 exclusive offers from
organic restaurants and markets, eco-friendly retailers, green
home services, yoga studios, spas, bike shops, retreats, museums,
independent bookstores, and more--with total savings of over
$12,000. |
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I
like to tell people that with Green Zebra"it's easy to
change your stripes!" The guide contains practical tips
and relevant articles that show readers how to embrace a more
healthy and sustainable lifestyle. We include simple action
steps for greening your life today--to ensure a greener tomorrow.
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| Amy:
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Who's
been involved in putting the guide together? |
| Sheryl: |
Anne
Vollen and I, former co-workers and friends for 20 years. We
also had a great deal of help from Jeffrey Cohen, a friend of
mine from junior high school. (They use to seat us alphabetically
in school!) He did most of our design work. |
| Amy:
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What
sparked you to start Green Zebra? |
| Sheryl:
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Both
Anne and I had been out of the work force for a few years. Anne
had worked in Hollywood and I had built a high tech company.
We wanted to do something that we believed in and that was purposeful.
I've always been intrigued with the green sector, and Anne was
running her children's school fundraising auction. We thought
that creating a green guide would be a unique way to combine
these interests. |
| Amy:
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What
do you hope to achieve? |
| Sheryl:
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Our
goal is to move sustainable living into the mainstream. We attend
a lot of green events and it seems like we keep seeing the same
faces. Because Green Zebra will be distributed through multiple
channels, such as retail stores, corporate programs and school
and non-profit fundraisers, it's our hope that a wide variety
of people will be exposed to the guide which will encourage
them to make greener choices every day. |
| Amy:
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What
types of businesses have been receptive to the idea? |
| Sheryl:
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One
of the best things about putting together Green Zebra is that
nearly everyone we spoke to has been really helpful and excited
about the guide. The project has truly been a community effort.
San Francisco's Department of Environment was particularly helpful
to us, as were retailers such as Cole Hardware, Rainbow Grocery,
Global Exchange, Goodwill, and the SF Bike Coalition. We were
especially pleased with the reaction we got from restaurant
owners and chefs. Many of them had never offered discounts before
but chose to participate in Green Zebra because they believed
strongly in our mission. |
| Amy:
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Schools
and other organizations can be slow to adopt fundraising programs.
Have you encountered any resistance? |
| Sheryl:
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Not
at all. It seems like schools and non-profits are hungry for
new fundraising ideas, particularly ones that are aligned with
their values. Green Zebra offers an appealing product that is
reasonably priced and provides a fair return. Many of our participants
have been generous in donating incentives to schools and students.
For example, Bay Solar Power is supplying a functional solar
and wind power system to the school that sells the most Green
Zebra guides. |
| Amy: |
What
surprised you the most about this project? |
| Sheryl:
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The
biggest surprise was the amount of work that was required. I
ran a company with 80 employees and I never worked as hard as
I have on Green Zebra. This is actually difficult to admit as
we thought we would be shining examples of busy urbanites living
a well-balanced, green lifestyle. While we certainly explored
our participant's services and products, the visions of doing
yoga every day or taking trips and excursions every weekend
didn't quite pan out. The bright side, however, is that we are
thrilled with the book we've created, and we imagine next year
will be easier. |
| Amy:
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What
are your hopes for Green Zebra in the future? |
| Sheryl:
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This
year's guide is centered on San Francisco, but we believe that
there's room to expand further. We also hope that the market
for "discounted" green products and services will
continue to grow. We're not yet sure how that will look, but
we hope that Green Zebra will be there to help make it happen.
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| Amy:
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Some
of our readers are from the Bay Area, but many are from other
parts of the country and world. Are green guides available in
other cities? |
| Sheryl: |
Yes.
The ones we know of seem concentrated in the Northwestin cities
such as Vancouver, Bellingham, Seattle and Portland. Los Angeles
has Greenopia, which is more of a Zagat-type directory that
rates how green local businesses are rather than providing incentives.
Also, organiccoupon.org offers incentives from national manufacturers
and online retailers. If anyone is interested in starting a
guide in their community, please feel free to contact us. We'd
be happy to share what we've learned. |
| Amy:
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And
finally, where can the Green Zebra guide be purchased? |
| Sheryl:
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Please
visit our Web site at www.thegreenzebra.org
or email us at info@thegreenzebra.org.
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What
Works...Success Stories
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When I saw photos of lots of Laptop Lunches on www.flickr.com,
I looked at the pictures and made a list for my mom of what to put
in my lunches! I saw so many things I want to eat in my lunch! I have
my list taped in my kitchen cupboard.
– Olivia (10 years old) |
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"My
laptop lunchboxes came last week and I'm THRILLED. They are wonderful,
compact and of such great quality. I'm looking forward to putting
them into use. I'm a 22 year-old who recently graduated as a nurse
and was looking for something compact that I could bring meals to
work with. Keep up the wonderful work."
– Joan Pham, Vancouver, BC
"I
am a dieter, so your lunchboxes appealed to me as a good way to
break out of the Lean Cuisine lunch rut and encourage me to pack
healthy lunches with a variety of fruits and vegetables.
When
I'm not Lean Cuisine-ing my lunch, I will pack yogurt, fresh fruit
and granola, or salads and fruit, but then end up with a paper sack
full of bulky Ziploc containers and bags that seem to take up quadruple
the space required for the foods I'm carrying. I find it both annoying
and cumbersome when I am heading out the door for the day with a
gym bag, laptop bag, and an ungainly lunch sack.
I
also am peculiarly inclined to use the smallest dishes possible
for my meals and keep a variety of small plates and bowls at home,
but have been frustrated in finding similarly sized lunch containers.
The small proportions of the inner containers were a definite selling
point, as were the bright colors and obvious quality of all the
pieces.
I
have had Japanese lunches in restaurants that were served in bento
boxes and really love the artfulness of that presentation. Kudos
on a terrific translation of that form into a practical lunchbox
for everyday use!"
–
Margo McKee, Atlanta, Georgia
Do
you have a success story or photo to share? Email it to us at newsletter@obentec.com.
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Featured
Web Site: http://www.saferoutesinfo.org
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www.saferoutesinfo.org
provides tips for finding safe routes to school and strategies
for remaining safe in traffic. Walking or biking to school provides
children with exercise and helps them gain more independence.
It also reduces air pollution and traffic congestion. |
Did you know...?
- A
mere 16% of children these days walk or bike to school compared
to nearly 50% in 1969.
- Children
have become less independent while traveling to and from school.
- 20%–30%
of morning traffic is generated by parents driving their children
to school. This means more wear and tear on roads, longer commute
times, and increased air pollution.
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Resources:
- Starting
a Safe Schools program in your community
- Training
programs
- The
SRTS online library
- Federal
grants
-
Safe Schools Video
- Contacting
a Safe Schools Coordinator in your state
- Celebrate
International Walk to School Day
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November Highlights
Potatoes
Recipes, Green Opportunities, and an Obentec Interview!
©
October 2006 Obentec, Inc.
849 Almar Ave., Suite C-323
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
831-457-0301
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Inc. by email at info@obentec.com
or by phone at 831-457-0301, or visit their Web site at http://www.obentec.com.
Reprint permission granted with this full notice included."
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