I’m so excited to announce that Green Planet Parties has launched!  As of today, we’re open for business.

What is Green Planet Parties (GPP) you ask?  Well, as one of the co-founders, I would love to explain.  For the past year, my partner for GPP and I have been trying to reduce waste, eliminate plastic, and think about ways to help the environment in small ways with our family and children.  With 6 kids between us, like all parents, we’ve become experts at sourcing birthday party supplies, decorations, goodie bag items, and presents.  We both hosted eco birthday parties this year and had such incredible feedback from guests and parents, we wanted to keep the education ball rolling with launching this company.  We are here to assist parents with sourcing sustainable, biodegradable, compostable, reusable party supplies.  GPP has done the work of finding these products - now they are a fingertip’s reach away.  Green Planet Parties has a web store and all sustainable decorations, tableware, and goodie bag items can be ordered online and shipped to your house. 

Imagine being able to eliminate the hours of work driving and researching party supplies to give your child the ‘perfect’ birthday party? Here are some sample images of what we offer:

Eliminate plastic at your party by adding cloth goodie bags as the perfect finishing touch to your give-aways!

 

Set the scene for your guests with our beautiful, biodegradable, compostable, cups, plates, cutlery, and napkins.

 

Customized 8 flag Birthday Banners to be reused year after year, long after the party is over.

 

Customized tile necklace package includes 11 necklaces - 10 for the guests and one for the birthday girl. A magical give-away for your guests with their name personalized!

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Most families have experienced the amazing taste of local produce, meat, berries, etc. via our Farmer’s Markets this month. Why not try and preserve this treat by picking blueberries, raspberries, or blackberries before kids return to school?  Kids love this activity and it’s very green and will save you money if you freeze your berries.  A friend did some research and wanted to share with Mommy Footprint readers tips about picking and preserving food from the farm.  Thank you Tracy!  What an amazing opportunity to feed your family with local food all year long!

Berries (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries):

-      For absolute freshness pick in the morning before the sun warms the berries and process in the afternoon.  If you can’t get to them the same day, keep them in a cool dark place for no more than 2-3 days.  For strawberries, keep the tops on since it will preserve freshness. 
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Fundraising campaigns for schools, athletic teams, and clubs is changing.  The desire to do the right thing for the environment has crept into all aspects of parenting and education with our kids…why not fundraising?!  Tracy Green of Green Hands Fundraising has found a great way to generate money for schools, while supplying parents and children an avenue to eliminate waste from school box lunches.  Her vision is to create litterless lunches by supplying stainless steel bottles and laptop lunches.  

Tracy Green started this green fundraising company when she recognized the lack of environmentally conscious and socially responsible products available to schools and organizations wanting to fundraise. In the midst of the BPA controversy, she decided to run a fundraiser with Klean Kanteen bottles to try and eliminate all of the plastic water bottles children were drinking from. In the hope of raising a few hundred dollars, the success of this fundraiser went off the charts!  Selling a product that parents need, while helping our environment seemed to be the perfect fit.  Also, have you attempted to source stainless steel bottles lately?  The prices are very expensive and they are hard to find.  With Green Hands, the sourcing of bottles has already been done, the prices are fair or even below retail cost, and money goes back into your school for finding a product you need!  How awesome is that?

Not only does Tracy run the fundraiser hand-in-hand with the PAC or teachers, she will educate regarding BPA and healthy alternatives. She is branching out to Eco Bags and has lots of cutting edge, cool ideas for fundraising products.  She is one of the most knowledgeable people I’ve spoken to locally about environmental issues, and has been successful since starting up just before the school year wrapped up last year. So if you are looking for fundraising alternatives to selling Entertainment books or wrapping paper, you can contact Tracy in the Fall when school starts back. This awesome company, based from the common sense approach of giving parents products they actually need, is very successful with generating dollars to help schools and athletic teams.  Klean Kanteen, Bilt Bottles, Laptop Lunch Kits, Eco bags, and Eco cleaning supplies are all on her list of fundraising possibilities.  Visit the site Green Hands Fundraising for more information or to contact Tracy with questions.

Another inspiring day in the life of hanging with mom entrepreneurs.  I met so many lovely, Eco driven, knowledgeable moms at Mommies On Main today.  They’ve all created products that blossomed from their natural talent and passion from becoming a mother.  I got to spend a few minutes talking to Sarah, one of the talents behind Meals for Mums.   Is this company ever something!  The idea was ‘born’ when two Vancouver moms realized shortly after having babies, that friends and family stop bringing healthy, home-cooked meals by about week 4.  Working with two other women specializing in culinary arts and holistic nutrition, their company was started.  The goal is to create convenient food that is healthy, made from fresh, local, and when possible, organic ingredients.  So you can focus on being a busy mom (and wouldn’t this be amazing for mom’s that work outside of the home?) so you don’t have to feel guilty about quick and easy foods that are not healthy, but something we all do when schedules get busy.

They have incorporated so many other wonderful messages into this company.  Sarah mentioned that the majority of their clients opted to have their meals delivered in glass Pyrex dishes rather than plastic.  Concerns about plastic with food storage and thinking about reducing waste in the environment made this a standard feature of Meals for Moms.  Kudos on this environmentally responsible initiative by these moms - what a powerful message for other food establishments to hear.  When given the option, customers want to reduce waste for the environment, even paying extra to help our planet.

When you visit the Meals for Mums’ site, you can feel their passion for nutrition.  Like my nutritionist reference Jen, you can tell promoting healthy eating is their passion.  There is a section on their site that talks and educates customers about healthy eating.  I personally found the feeding a fussy eater article a good read!  Also, there’s a section that features a food of the month (spinach, rhubarb) with a description about why that item is healthy with an easy recipe to follow.  What an awesome feature for those of us who never think to try new ideas with our family (we just rotate the same 7 meals around here).

To begin ordering, you simply create a profile and start ordering meals.  This service is only available to certain areas of Vancouver, but I believe if you email about a surrounding area, Spud can assist with the delivery.  They have orders for large plates, kids food, lighter plates, and gift certificates!  Yummy…the smoked wild BC sockeye salmon pasta plate must be mine. The description and picture looks amazing. Wow - next time you visit your friend in the hospital with a new baby (or anyone facing a new challenge in life), take them a gift certificate instead of an expensive bouquet of flowers..wouldn’t that be the BEST thing ever?  Baby shower gift?  Helloo!  Offer your friend or loved one great nutrition as a way to send your congratulations.

I left this Mommies On Main symposium today, recharged that everyday moms are creating these magical businesses that help other families lead more sustainable and healthier lives.  A wonderful event that is well worth checking out for folks local to the Vancouver area.

Thank you to Amanda who informed me about Mommies On Main.  I normally don’t write about events that are only local to my city, but this is something that could (and should be) recreated anywhere.  It’s very inspiring and I’m so excited to learn about it!

Vancouver is hosting a first annual ‘mamapalooza’ featuring creations from local Mom artisans and designers.  It is called Mommies On Main and will arrive July 12th and 13th.  I took a look at their Vendor-roll and OMG..it’s like Etsy has come to life here in Vancouver.  Many of these Vendors actually have Etsy stores.   What an awesome opportunity to support local moms who are using organic and eco friendly products.

Okay…hold up!  After looking through the Vendors again I haven’t been able to keep my drool inside my mouth.  There is an Etsy artist/store called Superfly Lullabies and they make Owl hoodies!  Oh my…do you think I could wedge my body into a size 4T?  It wouldn’t be pretty, but I’m sure I could make it happen!  <grin>  Not only is there a pink owl, but the fabric is my other Etsy learned favorite - Amy Butler.  Ray if you are reading this - maybe hide my wallet the weekend of July 12-13th.

Picture Source: Superfly Lullabies site

 

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