Whole Foods Market(R) Invites Shoppers to Welcome 2010 With ‘This Is My Year to…’ Campaign

By Simply Sharing Aspirations, Shoppers Will Also Log Support for Non-Profits

AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — To kick off the New Year, Whole Foods Market invites shoppers to share their aspirations for living and giving through in-store declarations and a new Facebook application that will give back to three national non-profit food organizations.

In lieu of traditional New Year’s resolutions, Whole Foods Market’s first-ever Facebook application encourages shoppers to declare “This is my year to…,” choosing a food-related mantra that best describes their aspirations for the coming year. Shoppers and fans of Whole Foods Market’s Facebook page can update their status by deciding their “This is my year to…” aspirations while logging their support for a non-profit group.

In the spirit of giving, Whole Foods Market with its media partner Health Magazine and vendor partner Odwalla hope to raise awareness for three selected non-profit organizations. Each group will receive a $10,000 donation, and the non-profit with the most votes will receive an additional $10,000.

The application is available for download at http://apps.facebook.com/thisismyyearto. Throughout January, fans can vote for their favorite mantra and its related non-profit organization:

This is my year to…

* Know Where My Food Comes From: The Non-GMO Project is a non-profit collaboration of manufacturers, retailers, processors, distributors, farmers, seed companies and consumers. The organization’s belief is that everyone deserves an informed choice about whether or not to consume genetically modified products, and the mission is to ensure the sustained availability of non-GMO choices. www.nongmoproject.org

* Choose Organic: Mission Organic 2010 (The Organic Center) is an ambitious campaign with an exciting goal: to increase the current market for organic food from 3 percent to 10 percent by the end of 2010. When consumers demand more organic foods, farmers and food companies will supply this growing demand. The result is healthier people and a healthier planet. www.organic-center.org

* Share My Plate: GrowingPower is a national nonprofit organization and land trust supporting people from diverse backgrounds, by providing equal access to healthy, safe and affordable food. Growing Power provides hands-on training, outreach and assistance in developing community food systems that help people grow, process, market and distribute food in a sustainable manner. www.growingpower.org

“We believe small, simple steps are the best way to enjoy healthy eating and living well on a budget, and we hope our shoppers will share their aspirations and ideas with others through the new ‘This is my year to…’ Facebook application,” says Barry Hirsch, Whole Foods Market program coordinator. “Collectively, our shoppers will also be supporting three terrific non-profit organizations.”

Whole Foods Market will highlight five more of its favorite mantras for the New Year in promotions and materials displayed throughout its stores and website: Eat My Greens, Know My Food, Learn to Cook, Save Without Compromise and Make Simple Changes. In addition, stores will host tours to help educate shoppers about healthy food choices, with emphasis on fresh fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

Shoppers can also share their personal aspirations in-store where Whole Foods Market Team Members will post customer declarations in a community area.

About Whole Foods Market®

Founded in 1980 in Austin, Texas, Whole Foods Market (www.wholefoodsmarket.com), a leader in the natural and organic foods industry and America’s first national certified organic grocer, was named “America’s Healthiest Grocery Store” in 2008 and was recognized as one of “America’s Healthiest 100″ in 2009 by Health magazine. The Whole Foods Market motto, “Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet”(TM) captures the company’s mission to find success in customer satisfaction and wellness, employee excellence and happiness, enhanced shareholder value, community support and environmental improvement. Thanks to its 51,100 Team Members, Whole Foods Market has been ranked as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” in America by FORTUNE magazine for 13 consecutive years. In fiscal year 2008, the company had sales of $8 billion and currently has more than 280 stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Whole Foods Market, Fresh & Wild(TM), and Harry’s Farmers Market® are trademarks owned by Whole Foods Market IP,LP. Wild Oats® and Capers Community Market(TM) are trademarks owned by Wild Marks, Inc.”

Image courtesy of economistmom.com

One of the key elements for a sustainable life and world is community. To make your community a sustainable one you need to invest a lot of time and effort.
Now for the last 2 months I have been making that investment and now the time has come to leave this bubble of support and be reinstated back with the rest of the planet. I have learned to appreciate diversity in a way I never thought I could.

The “me” before this tour wouldn’t even imagine that I could interact, and live the way I plan to/have been doing. It’s time to apply this knowledge and share it with the people around me.
Otesha’s Prairies Sky tour 2009 ended today in Regina; half our crew of 10 is gone and the remaining will be gone in a day or 2. I will be heading west of here still on my bicycle towards Vancouver with a few stops in between. This change to traveling alone is going to be an interesting one, I now have to start providing my own food again, luckily “Eat healthy foods” on 12th.St. in Regina can provide me with some good ol’ lentils, granola, and some type of grain undecided as of yet.

I’d like to jump back a bit and tell a pleasant story from this tour about one of the awesomest people I met. I began the ride that day heading south from Saskatoon to Kenaston, and about 15 km north of our stop my bike partner, Mille, noticed my rear tire bulging out! I sprang into action jumping off of Evelyn (my bike), ripping off my panniers, and examining the damage. I decided I had no choice but to ride on it, but I gave one of my bags to Mille to lighten the load. As we arrived in Kenaston I took instant notice of the fact there is no way I’m going to buy a new tire in this little town and probably nowhere else until Regina.

I began conversing with the locals trying to find a solution, as they are bending over backwards making phone calls to help this poor fellow out. Eventually it is decided to call our host who lives about 15 km outside of town on a gravel road to come and pick me up as I cannot ride there. So the farmer comes to get Mille and I, we hit it off with great chatting, and picking everyone else up too as the gravel was just laid making for an impossible bike ride.

Following dinner it is offered to me to ride to the next town about 30 km’s away to buy a tire found in the discontinued section of the hardware shop. While driving there I learn more about our host whose name is Arnold Taylor, and is the president of Canadian Organic Growers!! (www.cog.ca)

After picking Arnold’s brain some more I went to work fixing this tire problem, as I pull it over the rim and start pumping it up I notice a huge split in the tire! The reason it was in the discontinued section is because someone cut it with box cutters by accident I imagine. I get pretty frustrated at this point, my group gets a little scared of me, and I go to bed not too happy.

First thing in the morning Arn suggests I go to the back of the farm where some old, weather/sun beaten bikes reside. Going back with a fair trade, organic coffee in my hand I locate the machines find the one with 27 inch wheels and commence to remove them. These tires have seen better days, much, much better days, I mean really, you could see through part of them!

I get to work as quick as possible as we perform in about an hour’s time. I put the good front tire on the back and well this next part is easy put the tube into the tire, pull the tire over the rim and pump it up.  That day however was much different, after several ripped tubes and about 16 patches I finally get the rear tire on and working, but now I have to fix the front!

Arn gives me a lift to the performance then we drive together to the next town and spend a little more time repairing the front while I wait for the others to arrive on their bikes (see photograph).

Once its working I bid farewell to Arnold and continue my ride on the transparent/ancient tire for almost 200 km’s into Regina where I purchased top notch German tires!

A quick note on Arnold and his farm, Taylor Farms, is registered for WWOOFING (www.WWOOF.ca) and one of our Otesha crew is headed that way to work with him, and you should too he is a wealth of knowledge.

This little story turned into a bit of a big story but I feel it was important to share, and I’m sure I will share more as the weeks go on. I hope you continue reading about what I’m up to while I ride to a new destination with a different but similar goal.

Love, peace, and bicycle grease,
Joshua

Image courtesy of Katrina Siks