Tag Archives: Earth Day

Earth Day Dinner With Mother Nature

Posted on by
1

Every week we feature a fun and/or educational activity you can try at home or in the classroom. Teaching kids to live healthy, sustainable lives can be a challenge. On April 22, celebrate Earth Day 2013 with an eco-friendly meal and invite Mother Nature to dine with your family.

Earth Day Meal

Photo credit: sheknows.com

How to Prepare an Earth Friendly Meal:

  1. Grow Your Own Food: If you don’t have a green thumb, a few easy-to-grow herbs can help you make tasty treats like mint tea or rosemary bread.
  2. Visit a Farmer’s Market: At your local market, you can find healthy, organic foods and also support local farmers.
  3. Shop Seasonal: If a farmer’s market is unavailable, explore the option of visiting a local farm to pick your own produce. During the trip, explain the planting and harvesting process to your kids.
  4. Reduce Packaging Waste: Foods packaged in plastic and boxes use a lot the Earth’s resources. Start with a simple switch and make your own bread. Artisanbreadinfive.com gives healthy, fast tips for fresh bread.
  5. Use Cloth Napkins: You can turn this step into a project all its own. White cotton napkins, or faded colored napkins, can be naturally dyed using tea. By upcycling old items, excess waste is reduced and creative expression flourishes.
  6. Create a Centerpiece: Pick up extra fruit and colorful vegetables at the farmer’s market to make a “green” centerpiece for your table; you can always eat it later. Rather have flowers? Keep an eye out for wild flowers growing on the roadside or make a bouquet from backyard trimmings.

Visit the Earth Day Network and learn about The Face of Climate Change

See how Heifer cares for the Earth in its projects around the world.

Heifer Around the Web: Preschoolers Trike-a-Thon for Heifer

Posted on by
0

Every Sunday we will highlight some of the people who are funding our work creatively or helping us spread the word of our mission online. If you spot Heifer International while you’re surfing the web or know of a fun or creative fundraising effort, please share it with us here in the comments.

Photo credit: The Henshaw Family Blog

Proud mom Joy blogs about her 3-year-old daughter participating in her preschool’s trike-a-thon to raise money for a playground and for Heifer International. Her class decided to donate a hive of honeybees.

The student-run newspaper at  Leesville Road High School in Raleigh, North Carolina, tells about a very successful fundraiser many classes and clubs have taken part in. They hadn’t decided which animals to buy at the time the story was written, but are considering a camel, goats or llamas.

The University of Arkansas’ Heifer International student organization  held a concert to benefit Heifer in Fayetteville. The lineup for the benefit included Tim Meitzen, The Skinny Quartet, Teenagers, Swimming, Allison Williams and the Hot Ash String Band, and DJ Hayden Luckenbach. Thanks to the bands for playing, and the audience, who paid $5 per person to listen to good music and help fight hunger and poverty around the world.

Creative sixth graders at Kinawa Montessori came up with an idea that raised about $650 for Heifer — selling friendship bracelets made of twisted colorful thread and hearts made of construction paper, and asked local businesses for cash donations. That’s enough to buy a cow, goat, sheep and 50 chickens, and help families across the world.

Great Cloth Diaper Change

The Great Cloth Diaper Change. Photo Credit: Can I Decide Later Blog

I spotted Lisa’s blog first, Simple Journeys, where she shared some photos from her visit to the Heifer International Campus for Earth Day last weekend. She referred her readers to her daughter Kristin’s blog, Can I Decide Later, for the “low down” of the day’s events, including the record-breaking Great Cloth Diaper Change. Great photos and a great read! We are glad you had so much fun!

Author and blogger Carole Carson found a recipe for kale and bean soup in the Fall 2010 issue of World Ark, a magazine published by Heifer International, and offers her revised version of the recipe (including options to lower the calories). You can find the recipe here; let us know if you try it out.

Franny Bolsa gives Heifer a mention on her blog 8 Mother’s Day Gift Ideas. After all, she so cleverly notes, a Heifer gift doesn’t have to be dusted!

 

Make a Bowl and a Statement on Earth Day

Posted on by
0

Once a week we will be featuring a fun and/or educational activity you can try at home or in the classroom.

Bowl made from magazine pages

Photo Credit: artprojectsforkids.org

This year to help celebrate Earth Day we have compiled a number of activities you can try on a Pinterest board. One I’ve always wanted to try is making recycled magazine bowls. I’ve seen them at craft shops for the last few years and have always been intrigued by them.

All you need to do this activity is:

  • 1″ x 12″ cardboard stick
  • Scotch tape
  • Magazine

Tear out the magazine pages, the more colorful, the better. Put the stick on the corner of the page and wrap the paper around it tightly, carefully folding and creasing. When done wrapping, pull the stick out add tape the corner down to prevent unwrapping. Coil the completed strip tightly, and tape the end. Each new strip is attached with tape where the last one ended. The result will be a flat roll. Keep adding strips until it is the desired size and shape it into a bowl. Apply a generous coat of Mod Podge on one side and let dry. After it is dry, coat the outside.

For a more detailed description of this activity, go to the original blog post on Art Projects for Kids. For ideas and inspiration of different bowl designs, check out these pins we found on Pinterest.

Other cool Earth Day activities can be found on the Earth Day board on Heifer’s Pinterest or in the Classroom Resources section of Heifer’s website.

As always, once you do this activity, we’d love to hear about your experience in the comments and/or see photos that we can share to inspire others.

 

 

In Context: Save the Rainforests!

Posted on by
0

Editor’s note: In Context is a new series designed to inform and educate you on Heifer’s work in each country we have a presence. Every two weeks we’ll tackle a different country and examine unique situations related to hunger and poverty, how Heifer works to address them as well as take some time to explore local culture and traditions.

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons tauntingpanda

The rainforests are still in trouble. By the time you finish reading this blog, about 200 football fields worth of rainforest will be torn down.

Once upon a time, rainforests covered 14% of the earth’s surface. Today, they only cover 6% and scientists say that they’ll be gone within the next 40 years.

The Amazon rainforest or the “Lungs of our Planet” covers over a billion acres and produces more than 20% of the world’s oxygen. If it were a country it’d be the ninth largest in the world.

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons, JorgeBRAZIL

Almost half of the world’s species of plants, animals and microorganisms are found in the rainforests. Experts estimate that we lose 137 plant, animal and insect species everyday– that’s 50,000 species a year. Bad news for the earth and for us humans because right now, at least 121 prescription drugs that are sold worldwide come from plant-derived sources. 25% of western medicines are derived from rainforest resources but less than 1% of these tropical tree and plant species have even been tested by scientists. Think of all the cures just waiting to be discovered and those that we’ll never know about because of all the plant species that are extinct due to humans.

Experts agree that by leaving the rainforests intact and harvesting it’s resources- fruits, nuts, oils and medicinal plants, it would provide more economic value than if we were to cut down the forests to make grazing land or for timber.

Click on the infographic below to learn more about the Amazon rainforest deforestation.

Infographic on Amazon Rainforest Depletion

We can do our part in helping to save the rainforests by creating demand for sustainable rainforest products. We can all be part of the solution in saving one of the world’s most precious natural resource.