Dancing Deer Baking Company
December 11th, 2006
As if you needed one more excuse to indulge this season…
Dancing Deer Baking Company could replace your annual phone call to Harry & David this year! By choosing to make a perishable product without artificial preservatives or other ingredients, Dancing Deer blends traditional artisan baking with innovative flavor combinations. In their words, they “believe in the principles of purity and freshness in food.”
Their products are always all-natural, baked from scratch and Kosher.
This Brownie and Cookie Medley teams eighteen classic Chocolate Chip cookies with eight big rich and fudgy Caramel Pecan Brownies, packaged in an artful gift tower. On sale for $29.95.
The Decorated Holiday Cookie Tower contains three pounds of yummy, seasonal cookies, arriving in two shaker-style wood boxes. The cookies will go fast and the boxes will keep all year long! On sale for $57.95.
What could be better? Just this — purchase any “Sweet Home” cake & cookie gifts and Dancing Deer will donate 35% of the price to education, job training, child care and housing through One Family Inc.
As part of the Sweet Home charitable product line, the Sweet Home Pick includes a Dark Gingerbread Cake and 18 pack of Molasses Clove Cookies, which are major award winners - the “Oscars” of the Food Industry. On sale for $29.95.
Now I need a cookie…
VFW Unmet Needs Program
December 10th, 2006
We’re all vaguely aware of the sacrifices being made by the men and women that serve in our armed forces, but did you know that deployed National Guard and Reserve members can lose 50% or more of their incomes? Or that the average military household makes less than $25,000 per year?
To help meet the needs of military families at home, the VFW and Vermont-American Power Tool Company have established the Unmet Needs Program. Through donations of both monetary funds and in-kind services, the program has made grants of more than $1.2 million to more than 750 U.S. military families so far.
How does it work? Military families make grant requests at www.unmetneeds.com, and those requests are reviewed by the VFW staff. Approved recipients receive financial assistance of up to $1,500 to help pay for home or auto repairs, medical costs, mortgage or rent bills and even child care costs. Some seek and request vouchers for donated “in-kind� service assistance (repairs, etc.). Most of the money comes from charitable donations from individuals, businesses and groups nationwide.
Vermont American’s seed money of $1.25 million to cover the administration of the program ensures that 100% of all subsequent donations to Unmet Needs goes directly to grant recipients.
Whether or not you support the war, you can definitely support the families of the those who fight — check out their website and find out how you can lend a hand!
Eat Well Guide
December 9th, 2006
This post is for my friend Robyn, one of the most faithfully conscientious eaters I know!
If you’re traveling for the holidays and can’t bear the thought of driving through the fast food nation, welcome to the Eat Well Guide, the easiest and most comprehensive way for you to find wholesome, fresh, sustainable food in the US and Canada.
Simply pop in the zip code of the area you’ll be traveling to, and find a listing of bed and breakfasts, restaurants and markets that carry the healthy, sustainable food products you enjoy at home!
Advanced search features allow you to narrow your search by food type, production methods (i.e. biodynamic, grass-fed, non-confined, etc.) and location.
As Robyn could tell you, it takes a little bit of planning ahead to eat healthy, but the results are always worth the effort!
Thank Yous With an Even Better Message
December 9th, 2006
At the close of the holiday season, if you’re like most people, you will be awash in mountains of gift wrap, a pile of returns and a long list of thank you cards that need to be sent.
If you’re looking to give your thank you cards a face-lift, why not send this beautiful screen-printed thank you from Nest?
Designed by San Francisco designer Leigh Metcalf of Notes, Ink, the set comes in a pack of 8 for $16.
The best part? All of the profits from Nest sales go toward providing micro-credit loans to women entrepreneurs in the developing world.
Can’t get enough of the fabulous Nest products? Find out how you can volunteer for Nest and help spread the word today!
Go Wild This Holiday Season!
December 9th, 2006
At a loss for what to get the person who has everything? When’s the last time you tried a wolf, a polar bear or a tiger?
Check out the Wildlife Adoption Center for some outside-the-box gift giving ideas!
Defenders of Wildlife, sponsors of the Wildlife Adoption Center, is dedicated to the protection of all native wild animals and plants in their natural communities, focusing on the extinction of species and the loss of biological diversity, and habitat alteration and destruction. And your money goes where it counts: 89% of your contributions are allocated to program and support services.
For a donation as small as $25, you can adopt a wolf or adopt a tiger and send a cuddly plush toy, with a Certificate of Adoption suitable for framing.
For $250, you can adopt an entire wildlife sanctuary! Send a holiday box filled with all 12 of the most popular plush toys - including a wolf, tiger, jaguar, sea otter, polar bear, dolphin, snowy owl, panther, elephant, whale, cottontail, and black bear, plus a Certificate of Adoption suitable for framing.
Parents can rest assured that your donation doesn’t entitle your child to a real tiger or wolf, but your donation does make an important contribution to further the work with that species as well as the work with other imperiled wildlife and the habitat it needs to survive.