Project Open Hand’s Blog

Green from the ground up

While we are (justifiably) proud of our new solar panels, making a building green means doing many things that may not be visible to the naked eye. Here’s an interesting article on what building construction looks like when green technology is integrated with design.

The Big Picture

We are big fans of the local food banks. As you may have heard, POH relies on the San Francisco and Alameda County Foodbanks for great deals on food items and plenty of free, fresh produce. Well, like the rest of us, the Food Banks are feeling the pain of this slowing economy. The Wall Street Journal has a sobering article on the troubles facing our nation’s food banks:

Add another institution to those getting squeezed by America’s economic crunch: soup kitchens.

Across the country, groups that provide food to people in need are scrambling to make up for a loss of government-provided surplus items as commodity prices have soared. Surpluses have dropped as some commodities, like corn, are being turned into alternative fuels and others are going overseas as the weak dollar makes U.S. exports more palatable to other countries.

At the same time, food banks and soup kitchens say that people struggling with mortgage woes, rising gas prices and layoffs are increasingly turning to them for help.

To cope, food banks are being forced to purchase more food, cut back on the amount they provide or even trade local produce with other food banks. United Food Bank in Mesa, Ariz., recently got volunteers to pick oranges, grapefruits and lemons, some of which were swapped for potatoes from food banks in Idaho.

You can read the rest of the article, here (sorry, the article is only available to WSJ subscribers).

A nickel here, a nickel there…

Project Open Hand was recently designated as a recipient for Whole Foods Berkeley’s bring your own bag program. If you’re not familiar with the program: Whole Foods donates a nickel to charity for every shopping bag that customers bring to the store. Thanks to Whole Foods Berekeley for raising $1020.00 for POH, one nickel at a time!

FYI: Whole Foods San Francisco (Franklin @ California) has also designated POH as a recipient for their program.

Disaster Preparedness is on our minds

Here at Project Open Hand we’ve been thinking about how to gear up for “the big one.”   And the best way for any organization to prepare for a disaster is to help each individual staff person create a personal preparedness plan. Personal preparedness means having an adequate supply of food and water on hand, at home. It also means knowing how to find your loved ones when phones aren’t working. It means contemplating a whole bunch of scary questions that we’d just as soon not. If you are interested in getting your own ducks in a row, we suggest you check out www.72hours.org , because disaster preparedness is totally, totally cool. 

Inkjet Solar

A company called Konarka has announced a flexible, non-silicon solar film that is flexible and promises to be cheap and easy to produce. Read more about it, here.

Attention Whole Foods Shoppers!

Help Project Open Hand Every Time you Shop! From now through June 14^th, every time you shop at the Whole Foods store on the corner of Franklin and California Streets in San Francisco, you can help support POH!  Customers who bring in their own grocery bags can donate 5 cents per bag to one of three charities. You probably know what we’re gonna say next.  That’s right, Project Open Hand is proud to be one of these chosen charities through June.  So next time you shop, just tell your cashier that you’d like to donate to Project Open Hand, and help us provide meals with love.  

Solar Manufacturing in the US of A

It’s not often that we here about manufacturing coming back to the United States so it was a pleasant surprise to stumble across this story.

Using Genes to Stop the Spread of HIV

Researchers at the University of Alberta have discovered a gene that can block HIV infection in cells. Read about this promising development, here.