While Amy is out on maternity leave (getting to know her own future TILE member), we’ve invited a few fabulous friends to keep up the dialogue. Anna Lappé is an author and public speaker focused on sustainable food issues. Along with her mother, Frances Moore Lappé (Diet for a Small Planet), Anna founded the Small Planet Institute, the Small Planet Fund, and Small Planet Media – all devoted to empowering people to make informed decisions about the things that affect their world.

Her most recent book, Diet for a Hot Planet, explores the relationship between the ways we choose to eat and… basically the future of humanity on planet Earth. Here are some of her tips for staying in control of your options when you’re out and about:

You’re the boss when it comes to spending your money, right? So why does it sometimes seem like you’re stuck paying for something you don’t really want? Or even something you wish weren’t for sale in the first place? For example, you’ve probably dropped plenty of cash on “travel”  food you would never touch if there were something better available. (Hello, fast food chains, candy bars, and “in-flight snacks.” We won’t even mention Newark Airport’s own “Dick Clark’s American Bandstand Grill.”) So how can you take control?

I traveled from Brooklyn to DC recently in the middle of “Eat In Week” – a week in which I challenged myself to stick to preparing my own whole, healthy meals at home. I braved a blizzard at La Guardia and a guy in a suit in 6F throwing up. (Thankfully, he went for one of those paper bags in the seat pocket you always wonder if anybody actually uses.) I knew this trip would fall in the middle of Eat In Week, but I had planned to pack myself off with meals to carry me through at least one day. Setting up my seven-month-old with her babysitter and getting out of the house proved a bit preoccupying, though.

As a result, I remembered a few basic principles of “sort-of eating in” on the road. To make it work I decided I would eat out… but only those things that I could make at home. That meant cutting out all processed foods and most of what you find in airports. It also meant planning ahead. So the first night, before ducking into the Metro to head back to my hotel, I spied a café with handmade sandwiches and just-made soups and salads… and dove in. A half-hour later, popping up somewhere in Maryland, I was glad I had. The only so-called food options out there were golden arches and a strip mall’s Chinese takeout.

Spending money on real food when you’re on the road is tough, but not impossible. Here are some tips for eating well when you travel:

1. Bring your own gear: Grist’s Umbra has a great video on the benefits and sourcing of cool to-go food gear. When traveling, I always try to remember to grab my coffee mug and bring my own tea bags – especially nice for late nights in hotel rooms when you’ve got a coffee maker and not much else.

2. Make your own to-go snacks: I love to bring along nuts and dried fruit: cashews and dried cranberries, almonds and raisins. Your own personalized trail mix is always a great snack in a pinch.

3. Keep your eyes peeled: When you see good food, go for it. You never know when you’ll find it again.

4. Tap online resources before you go: Use the Eat Well Guide to find farmers market hours, stores with great food options, and restaurants carrying sustainably raised and locally grown foods.

5. Ask the locals: Peep up on Twitter, check out Chowhound, see what the Slow Food USA chapters have to say. Even if you don’t know any locals where you’re headed, you can ask informed sustainable food devotees. You’ll be glad you did.

- Anna

Anna graduated with honors from Brown University and earned an M.A. in Economic and Political Development from Columbia University. Her other books include Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet and Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen. Anna is currently a Senior Fellow with the Oakland Institute and is one of the first Innovators of The Glynwood Institute for Sustainable Food and Farming.

(photo credit: Yorkville Common Pantry and the Robin Hood Foundation)

Last week, the TILE staff woke up early to volunteer at Yorkville Common Pantry (YCP) in East Harlem. This day of service was made possible for us by the one and only Robin Hood Foundation. YCP is a grant recipient in Robin Hood’s Survival program. “Survival” is not an exaggeration. YCP serves over 1.1 million meals per year, providing social services to many of the community’s neediest residents as the city’s only food pantry open 24/7. Three days a week, YCP provides packages of groceries to between 1,600 and 1,800 needy families. Volunteers (like us) prepare each bag, which provides enough food for each family member for three days. In addition to the food pantry, YCP provides basic services like helping people get food stamps, medical screenings, showers and laundry, mail services, psychiatric consultations, tax prep and even pet food. (People unable to care for their pets is big problem.)

We arrived at the pantry on Thursday having no idea what to expect. YCP’s dynamic and inspiring Volunteer Coordinator, Gladys, welcomed us warmly and quickly put us at ease. She gave the TILE team a tour of the three floor facility, showed us the ropes, and explained how we could be most helpful (and get in the way the least) over the next five hours. I was paired with Al, a full time YCP staff member, checking people in as they arrived to collect groceries to take home to their families. People arrived *non-stop* and waited patiently (for the most part!) while Al and I got into a good rhythm of working together, greeting and checking people’s YCP ID badges. We saw over 300 people come through that day. Other TILErs were busy hauling boxes and bags of food, operating the elevator, calling out names, and packing fresh meat and produce into individually-portioned bags. Although there was pizza waiting for us in the break room, the day was so busy that most of us couldn’t slow down long enough to even think about lunch till the the groceries had all been given away!

I’m so grateful for TILE’s day of service at YCP. We stepped out of our comfort zone for a few hours that day to serve our neediest neighbors. We’re a group of people who work for a finance-technology start-up in downtown Manhattan – what were we doing in Harlem handing out food, anyway? It turns out that helping families access something as basic and essential as food is something we all can relate to, no matter where we’re coming from. As we left the pantry, many of us agreed that as much as we had (hopefully) helped the hyper-efficient YCP machine work its magic, we had also given something to ourselves in the process. Which reaffirmed for us why TILE’s approach to connecting our members to charities as donors as well as volunteers is good for everyone involved.

Robin Hood is a foundation that funnels 100% of donor money into specially-selected programs that fight poverty. You may also want to check out DoSomething.org for volunteer opportunities in your area.

- Gita

“Our theory of social change is that new ideas are born from optimism, a curious mind and a creative spirit. We can make a difference by equipping people with the means to bring their ideas to life.  And, we believe social media and digital engagement can fuel, extend and inform these efforts.” – Bonin Bough, Global Director of Social and Digital Media, PepsiCo

Pretty interesting to see a large corporation like PepsiCo talking publicly about their theory of social change! For the first time in more than 20 years, Pespi opted out of paying the usual millions to run ads during the Superbowl and instead redirected those dollars to a new philanthropic initiative called Pepsi Refresh (refresheverything.com). Starting last month, Pepsi is awarding up to $1.3 million each month to the winning ideas… not too shabby!

Pepsi Refresh is a 12 month-long invitation to individuals, businesses and non-profits to submit their project ideas that will have a positive impact in the areas of health, arts & culture, food & shelter, the planet, neighborhoods, and education. They partnered with our friends at Do Something, and also the good folks at Good Magazine and Global Giving to both design and implement the program. It’s fantastic that they involved the expertise of social media/change leaders to launch this project. It will make this experimental social media campaign that much more effective as well as ensuring community leaders are invested in its success. Better yet, we all have the opportunity to help decide which ideas get funded! One thousand ideas are submitted each month and up to 32 will be funded – all chosen by participants (i.e. YOU) who go to the site to vote. A couple of examples of ideas that are well positioned to win this month are: “Purchase GED materials so students can prepare to take the GED Test in the Correctional Center education program” and “Help children of fallen soldiers deal with the loss of their parent.”

Pepsi Refresh is good news for both the non-profit and philanthropic sectors. It:

• expands the philanthropic “pie” and resources available to nonprofits
• brings visibility to all the different ways people are working on social and environmental issues
• engages thought leaders & activists (“ambassadors”) from six different issue arenas to help mentor the ideas they most believe in
• embraces transparency – each month voters can go and learn which groups have the most votes and which are doing work near to them.

Since Global Giving is overseeing the vetting process, the submissions are in good hands. Which is really important since Pepsi will want to avoid controversy related to disqualifying groups as the Chase Community Giving Contest experienced last year.

Pepsi is obviously using this charitable campagin as attempt to demonstrate that they care about doing good in the world. It’s also a test of the true power of social media. Will giving away $20 million to people who have good ideas inspire cosumers to reach for a Pepsi instead of a Coke next time they’re thirsty? Pepsi is betting on it. And here at TILE, we’re behind any effort that leads to more giving!

Happy 2010 from TILE’s Give blog!

Today we’re happy to share with you TEN reasons we’re proud to call these organizations our partners…

1. 1Sky brought together the force of more than 168,000 citizen advocates and 3,200 small businesses this year to fight for bold climate and energy policy.
2. Accion was ranked one of the top micro-finance institutions by experts in a study conducted by Philanthropedia this fall, and Accion CEO Michael Schlein was named one of the year’s “Most Influential in Business Ethics.”
3. charity: water helped over 1 million people gain access to clean and safe drinking water. They started 1,145 new freshwater projects; 200 of them located at schools and 26 at health clinics.
4. Global Fund for Children gave $1,193,500 to projects run by small community-based organizations working with some of the world’s most vulnerable children in 49 countries around the globe.
5. Mapendo continued its life-changing work of helping refugees in their efforts to find stability and safety. Munewar and Lana, Darfur refugees who trekked a thousand miles from Darfur to Nairobi with their four surviving children, found refuge when Mapendo connected with them and facilitated their resettlement in St. Louis, MO.
6. Millennium Promise partnered with GoodAdds.org and GE to launch a new online network that gives people the opportunity to directly support community projects in the Millennium Village of Ruhiira, Uganda.
7. Project Health‘s co-founder & CEO, Rebecca Onie, was awarded the MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship for her “exceptional creativity, promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishment, and potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work.” Congrats Rebecca!
8. Rainforest Action Network got Gucci and other fashion industry leaders to stop bagging Indonesia’s rainforests.
9. Stand for Children awarded Dakotah Keys a Beat the Odds Scholarship, an award honoring three high school seniors in Oregon every year who have succeeded despite daunting personal obstacles.
10. Witness‘ global platform for human rights media and action, The Hub, had over 8 million visitors!

We can’t wait to see the important social change these organizations accomplish in the new year… stay tuned, and as always, stay informed!

- Gita