Food for a Cause: Top Reasons You Should Start Buying Local Food

Written by Marketing Intern Nandini Kavuri

1. Taste and freshness: Locally grown food tastes better because it is freshly picked and is not packaged. Fruits and vegetables shipped from distant states and countries can spend as many as seven to fourteen days in transit before they arrive in the supermarket. This freshness not only affects the taste of the food, but also the nutritional content. 

2. Strengthen your local economy: Buying local food keeps your dollars circulating in your community. 

3. Support family farms: More than one million acres of farmland are lost to residential and commericial development each year in the United States. By purchasing local foods, you are helping local farmers to stay on their land and thrive economically. A recent study in Maine showed that shifting just one percent of consumer expenditures to the purchase of local food products would increase farmers' income by at least five percent. Also, eating locally allows you to form valuable relationships with the people who grow your food.

4.  Safeguard your family's health: Food that has less distance to travel has less susceptibility to contamination.

5. Protect the environment: On average, most supermarket foods travel about 1,500 miles to get to your plate. Buying food locally eases our dependence on oil, helps clean up the air, and reduces greenhouse gases. 

6. Greater variety: You can also find greater variety among locally grown foods, including heirloom fruits and vegetables that chain stores rarely stock. 

Find a local Farmer's Market in your area and start buying locally grown food today! Visit http://www.simplesteps.org/eat-local/farmers-markets

Eat for a Cause: Be a Hero on Miracle Treat Day at Your Local Dairy Queen

Article written by guest blogger Melissa Long

This Thursday only, Dairy Queen is hosting their annual Miracle Treat Day! On August 13, you can make a difference in the life of a child in your local community just by enjoying one of summer's best desserts from one of America's favorite ice cream shops.

For every blizzard purchased on this day, $1 will go to fund your local Children's Miracle Network hospital. Just last year, Miracle Treat Day raised $5.7 million nationwide and has collected a total of $77 million since the first Miracle Treat Day in 1984.

They say one person can't make a difference, but $77 million is nothing to overlook! So grab your family and friends for one last celebration before summer ends and school begins. Find your participating DQ and learn more about Miracle Treat Day and The Children's Miracle Network at www.miracletreatday.com.

Paul Newman Quietly Donates over $120 Million to Charity

I have always admired Paul Newman for a variety of reasons - his talent, his modesty, the fact that he has lived his life out of the Hollywood limelight for decades, how he has turned the tragic events in his life to make a difference for others, and his charity work.

So I was not surprised to learn (from reports) that during 2005 to 2006, he turned over his entire ownership in Newman's Own - his company that makes salad dressing, pasta sauce and a variety of snacks - to charity. His donations to the Newman's Own Foundation come to an impressive $120 million, and in 2006 he personally gave away over $8.7 million to organizations that support children, hurricane relief, education and the arts. The total amount donated to charity by Paul Newman and the Newman's Own Foundation total a staggering $200 million dollars.

Married to actress Joanne Woodward for over 50 years, Newman created the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp with seed money from Newman's Own. Their mission, in collaboration with its associated camps in the United States and abroad, provides children with cancer and other serious illnesses and conditions a camping experience of the highest quality, while extending year-round support to their families and health care providers. The organization also runs camps in Africa every year to help ill and poverty-stricken children.