Ubuntu Green E-Newsletter

The long fight to create parity between transit commuters and workers who drive may be hitting another bump in the road. A provision that allows employees to receive a $230 per month tax-free benefit to ride transit to work is set to expire at the end of the year and revert to $120 a month. Employees who drive to work would still be eligible for $230 a month for parking costs. Congress must act in the next few weeks to preserve this important tool, which has been proven to get workers out of their cars and onto public transit. The bills in the House and Senate are H.R. 891 and S. 322 respectively. Please contact your Representative and Senator and urge them to maintain the current transit benefit!

New Polling Data Indicates Broad Support for Efforts to End Hunger

In a recent poll, an overwhelming 80 percent of Americans believe that hunger is a serious problem to be addressed. These findings are timely in light of last week's passage of the Child Nutrition Act which was funded in part by reductions in SNAP, the food stamp program. Among the results, nearly three-quarters of respondents say that SNAP is a program very or fairly important for the country; 71 percent say that cutting SNAP would be the wrong way for Congress to reduce spending next year; and 73 percent say that Congress should reduce other kinds of spending-- not cut SNAP-- to pay for increased funding for school lunches. The poll was commissioned by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC). For more information on the results, visit www.frac.org.

Rural-Urban Connections Strategy Forum

The Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) will host a forum on Friday, December 10, to discuss ways to protect the region's prized agricultural lands and open spaces. The event will highlight the importance of agriculture to the Sacramento region, explore current agricultural conditions and challenges, and identify ways to maximize market opportunities for locally grown or organic food. The forum will is from 7:30 am to 12:30 pm at the Sacramento Convention Center.

Successful First Step in Mapping Food Access in South Sacramento

Last Tuesday evening, Ubuntu Green hosted 25 concerned citizens at the Boys and Girls Club on Lemon Hill Avenue to explore food access issues in South Sacramento. Participants were given maps of South Sacramento and were asked to identify areas that were served by grocery stores, farmers markets, fast food establishments, liquor stores or areas that had no food access at all. The initial session revealed a dearth of healthy food outlets in the target area of the Building Healthy Communities project of the California Endowment. Data from Tuesday's session and future convenings will be compiled and analyzed by graduate students from UC Davis' Agricultural Sustainability Institute. Stay tuned for updates as this critical process goes forward!

Announcements

12/8/10-- 12/10/10 - 8 am to 4 pm-Green California Schools Summit and Exposition, Pasadena Convention Center, Pasadena, CA. Learn how green schools can: save operations costs to fund essential programs; provide healthy environments to improve student performance; provide models of sustainable behavior for students and communities, and much more! For more information, contact Green Technology at conferences@green-technology.org, (626) 577-5700 or visit www.green-technology.org/gcschools.

12/9/10--10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.-Going Green with the EnviroBro Radio Show. Tune in every Thursday on KDEE 97.7 FM.

12/10/10-- 7:30 am to 12:30 pm - Rural-Urban Connections Strategy Forum, Sacramento Convention Center. Learn about the tools and innovations that will help conserve our agricultural lands and maintain our agricultural economy in changing times. For more information, contact Monica Hernandez of SACOG at mhernandez@sacog.org or (916) 321-9000.

12/ 14/10-- 10am to 11:30am--Safe Routes To School (STRS) Coaching Action Webinar: Top Ten SRTS Engineering Treatments for Improving Walking/Bicycling located at 909 12th Street, Suite 122 Sacramento, CA. Participants will learn how to identify physical barriers to walking and bicycling, how to create SRTS maps, how various treatments will help address safety issues, and how to implement and maintain these treatments. This webinar is part of the Safe Routes to School Coaching Action Network Webinar Series developed by America Walks and the National Center for Safe Routes to School. For more information please contact Michelle Gulley at mgulley@americawalks.org.

12/ 16/10-- 6:30pm- 9:30pm-- Sacramento Sustainability Forum located at SMUD Auditorium 6201 S Street, 1st Floor, Sacramento, CA 95852. The Forum is a monthly venue for connecting businesses, non-profits, government and interested citizens in the Sacramento region in order to promote sustainability, share insights and resources, and support movement towards a more sustainable future. Please visit www.SacramentoSustainabilityForum.com for info on this month's speakers and venue location or contact Jacob Griscom at jgriscom@betterworldtelecom.com or (530) 230-2211.

The unauthorized disclosure or interception of e-mail is a federal crime. See 18 U.S.C. § 2517(4). This e-mail is intended only for the use of those to whom it is addressed and may contain information which is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosures under the law. If you have received this e-mail in error, do not distribute or copy it. Return it immediately with attachments, if any, and notify me by telephone at Thank you.