Cook for America.

Our public schools have faced barriers to restoring fresh cooking to our cafeterias, despite public health cries to do so, for many years. Constricting budgets, outdated or insufficient facilities and staffing have presented seemingly insurmountable struggles for administrations across the country. As a passionate practitioner in the health and healthcare world, I have long felt this troubling, but was thrilled to read a New York Times piece on the topic recently, which debunked many of the myths surrounding this challenge.

It also highlighted Cook for America, a new program which believes that school food is a powerful and effective tool in the fight against childhood obesity (I couldn't agree more), and emphasizes holistic, systemic change through the creation of a foodservice force that is both capable of preparing health scratch-cooked meals from whole, fresh foods, and motivated to do so. Their motto is "school food is the solution, not the problem!" I love the spirit of the organization, and its emphasis on making these ends possible in all communities.

Their work in Colorado is specifically highlighted in the NYTimes article, which I would highly recommend.

Lastly, as a strong proponent of hands on exploration of the joys of food and cooking with children at a young age (thanks Mom), I found their Jr. Chef program to be pretty exciting. Check it out.

Cooling Down.

The Global Cool Cities Alliance's white roof project made Doonesbury today!! 
I think this organization is pretty spectacular, and my dad sits on the advisory board!

The concept is simple. Light colored surfaces reflect more sunlight than dark ones do, turning less of the sun’s energy into heat. Increasing the reflectance of our buildings and paved surfaces—whether through white surfaces or reflective colored surfaces—can reduce the temperature of buildings, cities, and even the entire planet.

A white roof in temperate or tropical regions absorbs about 70% less sunlight than an ordinary roof. Permanently replacing dark roofs and pavement around the world with highly reflective materials would have the same effect on the earth’s climate as avoiding over one year’s worth of global man-made CO₂ emissions.

Steven Chu (Go Bears!), US Energy Secretary, on the topic: “Cool roofs are one of the quickest and lowest cost ways we can reduce our global carbon emissions and begin the hard work of slowing climate change”

The Anti-Bottle.

Vapur has created "The Anti-Bottle." This BPA-free bottle collapses completely and rolls up easily when empty. Fill it, drink it and you don't have to lug a bottle around with you once it's empty. Have we seen similar products? Maybe, but the clip is innovative!

Grand Challenges Exploration.

I have long been intrigued by the Gates Foundation's Global Challenges Explorations, and have been known to spend extended periods of time perusing the applications. Well, 2011's winners have been announced!  Check out the press release:

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced 88 new winners of the Global Challenges Exploration will receive $100,000 each to support innovative research that has the potential to dramatically improve lives in some of the world’s poorest countries. The program will enable researchers worldwide to test unorthodox ideas that address persistent health and development challenges.

“One bold idea is all it takes to catalyze new approaches to global health and development,” said Dr. Tachi Yamada, president of Global Health at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “Despite the progress in global health and development, we vitally need creative ideas to discover and deliver life-saving vaccines, eradicate the next disease or slow the spread of preventable diseases."

GCE asked researchers to tackle problems such as speeding progress toward assuring polio eradication; leveraging cell phones for global health solutions to improve access to life-saving vaccines; using new technologies to improve maternal and newborn health; finding ways to eliminate all reservoirs of HIV from a patient; and, creating next generation sanitation technologies to help reduce the burden of diarrheal disease.

“GCE winners are expanding the pipeline of ideas to address serious global health and development challenges where creative thinking is most urgently needed. This effort is critical if we are to spur on new discoveries that ultimately could save millions more lives,” said Chris Wilson, director of Global Health Discovery at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Roll On Up and Repair.

Article via Pop Up City.

Bike Fixtation is a DIY bicycle repair station recently launched to serve stranded bicycle riders in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area. The smart initiative offers self-service kiosks on an extended-hours basis for bicyclists.

The place offers all equipment needed to get unlucky bicycle riders back on the track. You can buy a tube or patch kit, pump your tires for free, and make simple adjustments using supplied tools. Bike Fixtation is open for 365 days a year from six in the morning to midnight.

The guys from Bike Fixtation share their knowledge to others who want to start a small self-service bicycle repair kiosk in their own town, with all different items such as a customized vending machine selling inner tubes, patch kits, lights, snacks, drinks, sunscreen, or the bicycle repair stand and the self-contained inflator. Setting up your own Bike Fixtation would help the local cycling community as it provides useful service. In addition, I see an interesting combination with the issue of vacant urban spaces.

The Netherlands are full of bicycle repair shops. After bars and a bakeries they are probably third on the list of most necessary services in each village or neighborhood. Most of them, though, are closed after five in the afternoon, which means getting there in time is complicated when having a full time job. As a lot of people use their bicycle to go to work, many urban bicycle riders spend their evening hours to repair their own bike somewhere on the sidewalk under a lamp post. Bike Fixtation would be a great solution here.