by Rick Wilson As people across the United States face massive cuts to Medicaid, SNAP and other vital programs, many are asking: What happens when the systems we rely on fail us? And what happens when our communities are torn apart by toxic inequality, political fragmentation and declining social trust? The solution may lie in something that humans have been doing throughout our existence: taking care of each other, often without realizing it. Today that’s what some of us cal

by Sarah Henry Heads up, green thumbs struggling to offload excess edibles: Aid is out there. A growing movement, designed to help people eat well, save money, and get to know their neighbors, is planting seeds in communities around the country. Crop swaps – meet ups where people exchange their surplus backyard bounty – are thriving from the San Francisco Bay Area to Boston in city and suburban enclaves and online, too. Of course, there's nothing particularly new about this p

by Vicky Osterweil According to a report by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the United States throws away a staggering 40% of the food it produces every year. There are a number of reasons for this: restaurants and bakeries that throw away what’s left uneaten or isn’t sold; people who buy more groceries than they can use; and food distributors who throw out whole pallets when things go bad in transit. But one of the major culprits of food waste is supermarkets

“Free Food Fridge Albany wants to make fresh food and produce accessible to all, especially in marginalized neighborhoods and communities.” They believe, "everyone should have access to food without jumping through hoops or having to prove they are impoverished." "Free Food. In a Fridge. On the Street." is licensed under a Creative Commons 1.0 Universal License .

"This [booklet] provides a step-by-step guide for starting a grass-roots fresh food rescue program in your own community. Depending on the situation of food waste and hunger in your community, you might need to take a slightly different path than is outlined here. However, these steps are meant to be applicable to a wide range of environments and are drawn from our own experiences developing Boulder Food Rescue."

Republished from Dilate Magazine Like a lot of people, when I first heard of permaculture, I had no idea what it was, but I knew that it had something to do with growing your own food. However, once I discovered what amazing things can be done with permaculture, I was an immediate fan. Permaculture is a system, an integrated approach to farming/agriculture and land management design. The goal of permaculture design is to mimic patterns found in nearby natural ecosystems in or

BottleDrop (The Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative) is running a campaign to help Oregonians struggling with putting food on the table. They recently dipped into their emergency fund to donate $30k to 12 nonprofits in the state, and have announced a new donation-matching program. If you make donations through your BottleDrop account before November 30th, BottleDrop will match them, with a maximum matched donation amount of $35k. Here are some of the organizations supported

“I have witnessed my garden become a tool for the education, the transformation of my neighborhood. To change a community, you need to change the composition of the soil. Gardening is the most therapeutic and defiant act you can do, especially in the inner city. I want us all to be ecolutionaries, renegades, gangstas, gangsta gardeners. Get gangsta with your shovel, and let that be your weapon of choice” — Ron Finley, Guerilla Gardening expert, “The Gangsta Gardener   With gr