Second Harvest is Going Solar!
As part of our larger Green Initiative towards a more harmonious relationship with our planet, we have installed a Solar Panel Array in our field that supplies around 25,000 kWh’s a year, enough to offset most of the energy we need for our executive office. This means less funds spent on bills, and more spent enriching resource-insecure communities in East Central Indiana.
We want to expand our solar array to power the warehouse. With your support, we can build another 40-panel array in 2021.
One Retail Donation can Mitigate 18,000lbs of CO2!
Food Banks are important for conservation. Food that might have been thrown away is instead donated to food banks, who can then distribute it to communities in need. Yearly, food banks save 2.68 million metric Tons of food, mitigating over 10 billion kg of CO2 emissions. In 2020, Second Harvest itself has mitigated over 4,000,000 kg of CO2 emissions through food donated to us that would otherwise have gone to a landfill.
Between 20-25% of resources used to produce food in the United States are wasted – over 30 trillion gallons of water, and 170 million acres of farmland. We are glad to be part of the ongoing global effort to reduce this needless waste.
Upgrade, Upgreen
It’s easy to do things the way we’ve always done them, but that’s not how we do things here. In order to reduce waste, we’ve been steadily upgrading our spaces and procedures towards a greener future.
We re-lit our warehouses with LED lighting, a much more long-lasting light source, and we’re working to reduce paper usage at events and distributions by developing systems using portable technology.
Grow at Home
One way to reduce waste and ensure access to healthy nutrients is by growing food at home! Food is much less likely to become damaged or mold in transit if you’re eating it right out of your garden or kitchen window.
In this video, Carol, our Forward STEPS manager, walks you through a basic, kid friendly way of growing your own food. While this video uses a pea plant, the same method works for most things you’d want to grow. If you’d like to pick up a Seeds of Hope starter pack, find our booth at the United Way Celebration Concert on May 15th.
