Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms out there! Hopefully, many of you were the recipients of your favorite treats today – quite possibly flowers! If you did get flowers and if they have the Whole Trade Guarantee™ seal on them, you can know that they helped support communities and families (and moms!) where they were produced. Here is the story of one mom behind the flowers.
Maria lives in Juan Pablo Sesundo, Colombia and works on a farm producing Whole Trade Guarantee flowers. She has been with the farm for 11 years (and working in the flower industry for 22 years). Maria works the flower beds in the greenhouse, maintains the crop and harvests the flowers. “Every day I come to work with a positive attitude filled with love that makes me want to do my best. Our farm is filled with people who love their job and are very devoted to producing the best and most beautiful flowers that we can,” says Maria.
The Whole Story blog is a great place to find value tips from The Whole Deal, the Value Guru and even from our customers sharing with one another. Well, we here at Whole Foods Market University (WFM-U) are joining the value conversation with our “Virtual Value Tour.” Originally created to help our Team Members better understand how to become more astute value shoppers in our stores, this short WFM-U course will also assist you in making smart, value-oriented choices the next time you visit Whole Foods Market.
In celebration of Earth Day 2009, we challenged our readers to make a simple green resolution, and boy did you deliver. Your overwhelming response was truly inspiring; thousands of you shared both green resolutions and tips on how to lead a cleaner, greener, more sustainable lifestyle. Your responses covered everything from biking to work to reducing water waste to composting to reusing shopping bags to teaching children and co-workers the importance of recycling. All of these simple changes added together can and will go a long way towards greening our planet.
As promised, we randomly selected one of you as the winner of a FEED100 Bag and $25 gift card. And the winner is:
Kim Taylor Knight:
I have been riding my bike to work for the past month, and I will continue, but my real earth day resolution, is to waste less and to compost all organic scaps for my garden this year. I am planting arugula, tomatoes and herbs for a start at becoming a more sustainable me!
Now that Earth Month is over, we’d love to hear your ideas on how to keep these green resolutions growing throughout the year. How could your resolutions help inspire and challenge other Whole Foods Market customers to make simple green changes in their own lives?
With the change of the season, which brings a change in the fresh produce available, I’ve been dusting off recipes from last spring. I bet you have too! So what “best meals” have you had lately? I need some inspiration!
Remember, “best” is highly subjective: healthy, super quick, inexpensive, fabulously delicious – or a combination of all that and more. Post your “best” in the comments below.
My fellow teammates said some of their faves have been Gazpacho (Whole Foods Market Cookbook version), Chicken Lo Mein with Whole Wheat Pasta and Red Cabbage and “the first basil of the season from my own garden minced with a little fresh garlic and spread on a veggie burger with goat cheese mozzarella and fresh tomato on a whole wheat bun.” Yummy!
A wheel of Hervé Mons Camembert is a strong, earthy, creamy little piece of heaven. Check out the footage of my interview with Mons during my spring visit – including footage of the caves and the surrounding region. We’ve partnered with Mons, one of the most well respected French affineurs, who selects Camembert exclusively for us from small producers near the lush green pastures of Normandy and then oversees the aging process. Delicately salty and smooth, Hervé Mons Camembert is exquisite when paired with a sparkling wine or a dry French cider and warm, crusty bread.
Interested in learning more about cheese? Follow our Global Cheese Buyer and Cheese Fanatic, Cathy Strange on Twitter @WFMCheese.
Ava, one of our Whole Story readers, sent us this idea for a recipe makeover just in time for a Mother’s Day brunch:
Blueberry Coffee Cake
This recipe is very good, however it’s bad for your figure and unhealthy… Can you give me a healthy look on coffee cake? 2 tbs. butter 1 box white cake mix 3 eggs 1 cup sour cream Crumb topping 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/3 cup finely chopped nuts 1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen
Coffee cake can be a sweet start to your day or an evening dessert, but the word “healthy” does not necessarily come to mind when this baked good is mentioned. We’ve improved the nutrition profile of this crowd-pleaser by making a few substitutions: whole wheat pastry flour in place of conventional boxed cake mix, nonfat plain yogurt instead of sour cream, and extra blueberries rather than the whole amount of sugar.
Thanks for all the great recipes you submitted when we asked for your recipes honoring Mom in anticipation of Mother’s Day this coming Sunday, May 10.
Your recipe ideas and stories certainly confirmed some basic truths about mothers, such as:
Moms are creative and resourceful.
Learn to maximize your groceries by following these moms’ tips. What to do with elderly bananas and avocados? Follow the leads of Anita’s and Audrey’s mothers by making Banana Bread or Avocado Cake.
Gerald praised his mom for making great food without all the fancy gadgets and on a limited budget. She made Skillet Cabbage, combining garden items and home-canned goods.
Jackie’s mom excelled at making something absolutely wonderful out of simple ingredients. A supper of Ham, Cabbage and Potatoes is one of her favorites.
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the government agency that’s responsible for managing fisheries in U.S. waters, is asking for public comments on proposed policies for addressing what’s known in the industry as illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing (a.k.a. pirate fishing) and bycatch (unintentional or incidental catch) of protected species like whales and sea turtles. Okay, there are a lot of acronyms in that first sentence (I even left some out) but the point is: as citizens we have an opportunity to express our opinion about how these public resources are managed.
Here’s mine: Hats off to NMFS for addressing these critical issues! Together with my colleague, Margaret Wittenberg – Global Vice President of Quality Standards and Public Relations, we’ve submitted comments to NMFS letting them know that Whole Foods Market cares about sourcing seafood sustainably and minimizing the impacts of fishing on the marine ecosystem. To source seafood right, though, we need strong regulations that address illegal fishing because as a grocery store, we can’t police the oceans.
We’re urging our fishery managers to do everything possible to provide the tools necessary to help us avoid sourcing from fisheries that catch fish illegally or take protected species. For example, denying port privileges to nations fishing illegally and prohibiting the import of fish products in violation of these rules would be a huge step forward; it would put the onus of responsibility on nations to fish responsibly, rather than on a grocery store like Whole Foods Market to figure out who is fishing legally and who isn’t. Finally, there may be fisheries that operate legally within a country that is found to be engaging in illegal fishing in other sectors. Consequently, we agree with NMFS’ approach to have alternative certification procedures that allow products to be certified on a shipment-by-shipment or shipper-by-shipper basis.
All things in moderation. Who hasn’t heard that one? But what exactly does “moderation” mean and how can we apply it to our eating? When I went looking for the dictionary definition of moderation, here’s what I found: “quality of being moderate and avoiding extremes”, and “the trait of avoiding excesses.” Of course this makes perfect sense, but when it comes to eating, “moderation” can be a highly subjective thing. Let me explain: To the person used to drinking six diet cokes a day, going to two is moderation. In the same light, eating one or two donuts twice a week is moderate compared to eating them every morning.
In general, when I think of moderation with food, I think of enjoying all of the foods I love, but consumed with thought or regard, and in limited amounts. This means one cookie for me, and not two. For another person, it might mean two cookies. I tell my clients to practice eating to the point of feeling done and satisfied, but not full. Eating an amount of food that satisfies hunger and provides pleasure without filling us to capacity is a good way to think of moderation. Eating this way helps us feel mental clarity and provides energy for our day. Read the rest of this entry »
At WFM, we just happen to celebrate Team Member Appreciation Week during the same week as Earth Day, so at the Global office, it always turns into a great party. This year we enjoyed perfect Texas weather on the Plaza, complete with live music from Colin Gilmore, seed planting, face painting, cake and gelato eating….we held a trash art contest, played “Pin the Continent on Mother Earth” (in which Team Members donned a bandana, were twirled around a few times, and tried to pin all the continents to the correct geographical location on the map, ha!) and “Wheel of Waste” (in which Team Members spun the wheel and determined whether the selected item should be recycled, reused, composted, or thrown away). It was super FUN!
But I saved the best for last…for the second year in a row we held a voluntary pledge in honor of Earth Day. Last year, we had over 100 Team Members pledge to take the stairs, conserve energy, carpool, bring their own water bottles, etc.-in general, they pledged to become more conscious of the simple, daily things they could do to help the earth.
This year, we asked Team Members to take it one step further and give up their trash cans! “Think Trash Last” was the theme. We asked them to take the following things into consideration:
Can I reuse? …use a SIGG bottle, drink from a reusable coffee mug, bring your own silverware and containers – skip the plastic silverware, re-use bulk bin/produce bags and containers!
Can I recycle? …recycle glass, aluminum, #1,2 (& soon #5) plastics, paper, cardboard, batteries, electronics, etc.
Can I compost? …compost uneaten food, soiled napkins, soup & salad bar containers…even gum.
Can I buy better? …make some changes in my purchases that will eliminate the trash that I am producing…less packaging!
And guess what?! 77 brave souls gave up their trash cans. They are now having to pile their trash on their desk, which will force them to want to reduce the amount they generate, which will force them to re-think what they are buying, which will eventually eliminate more and more waste going to the landfill. We are making Earth Day every day, that’s for sure.
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They are now having to pile their trash on their desk, which will force them to want to reduce the amount they generate, which will force them to re-think what they are buying, which will eventually eliminate more and more waste going to the landfill. We are making Earth Day every day, that’s for sure.
