October 2012 
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 article1Food Action Plan to be released on October 24

The City of Seattle will release a Food Action Plan on Food Day, October 24. The plan aims to  get more fresh, healthy food to more people: improving public health, strengthening our local economy and enhancing our environment. 

 

The plan outlines strategies in four areas: 

  • Healthy Food for All: All Seattle residents have enough to eat and access to affordable, local, healthy, sustainable, culturally appropriate food.
  • Grow Local: It should be easy to grow food in Seattle and in our region, for personal use or business purposes.
  • Strengthen the Local Economy: Businesses that produce, process and sell local and healthy food should grow and thrive in Seattle.
  • Reduce Food-related Waste: Food-related waste should be prevented, reclaimed or recycled.

For example, the plan recommends exploring incentives for locating grocery stores in areas with low food security and poor food access; expanding a program that connects local farmers and their fresh produce with childcare facilities and senior meal programs; and leasing underutilized City-owned land to urban farmers.

 

The plan will be available here after October 24.

article2Community Power Works Helps Homeowners Button up for Winter

Over 3,000 Seattle homeowners have signed up to participate in Community Power Works for Home, committing to improve their homes' performance, while achieving greater comfort and energy savings.   

  

Joshua Curtis, Community Power Works Program Manager, appeared last week on King 5's New Day Northwest with Charlie Rogers, CPW auditor, to explain the Community Power Works process and to promote the program's deeply discounted $95 home energy assessment.

  

Community Power Works upgrades to residential, commercial and institutional buildings will reduce energy use in Seattle by 91,800 MMBtu. That's the amount it takes to power 918 homes for a year and eliminate 44,900 tons of greenhouse gas emissions. It's equivalent to removing nearly 8,000 cars from the road for one year.

  

Community Power Works rebates are slated to end in 2013. What are you waiting for? Sign up now at www.communitypowerworks.org, or by calling 206.449.1170.

  

article3Community Project Highlight: Rainier Valley Greenways

Rainier Valley Greenways started up this year with funding from Seattle Climate Action Now. It's part of the Seattle Neighborhood Greenways initiative to grow groups in economically and culturally diverse neighborhoods.

 
Over the summer, Rainier Valley Greenways developed a steering group, partnered with Bike Works in Columbia City, and held a number of meetings for special interest groups as well as sponsored bike rides and back to school events.

 

Because Rainier Valley represents a wide variety of neighborhoods, cultures, and people, the group translated some of its outreach material into Spanish. Their slogan "Safe Healthy Streets" is on a banner that includes 35 languages.

 

At two major "kick-off" community meetings on August 31 and September 5, about 30 people took part in exercises to identify important community assets and streets that could become safer and healthier. This community input is being collated into a crowd-sourced Google map.

 

The group now has 62 people on Facebook, 37 on Twitter, and 36 in the Google Group. Join them!  

 

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The purpose of this newsletter is to keep you informed about the City's environment and sustainability programs, partners, and initiatives. We welcome your feedback and suggestions for future issues at [email protected].