Wake-Up Wednesday Wins! (Round IV)

Hip-hip hooray, it’s Wednesday! Time for another round of Wake Up Wednesday Wins. This week, as with all weeks, we’re connecting the dots between this list and our oceans: with food, clothing, and youth activism. Wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, I hope you find this list inspiring; I know I sure did! Happy Wednesday peeps.

Food + Oceans – What’s the Connect?

When I shifted my habits to be less wasteful, I started eating better and became more connected to my food. I saw faces at farmer’s markets rather than price tags and plastic wrap at the grocery store. My food was fresher! It turns out that shedding plastic from our diets also helps us shed pounds from our bodies. (It also helps shed middlemen from our purchasing decisions.) For me, the local food movement and the movement against wasteful plastics go hand-in-hand.

When I hear of a local chef working to connect her diners back to the roots of their meals, I get pretty freakin’ jazzed. Aman, the face behind The Paisley Notebook, creates “edible storytelling” experiences. She connects her guests with their food through story. It’s an intimate, slow experience and one that puts diners closer to the source of their food.

Bring the Veggies to the People

This month, she’s hosting an all-vegan, all-local pop-up and the idea just has me tickled pink. Why? Because of what it represents: it’s vegetables in winter without the carbon (and plastic) footprint of produce being shipped to Canada mid-winter. She’s going to teach diners that it is possible to eat your (local) veggies in northern climates – with stories to boot!

To me, dining experiences like this break the mold on all levels. It teach us consumers that there are different ways to eat. It puts us in touch with our food and keep our trash bins a little lighter. All good things for our oceans. I’m grateful to people like Aman who make this kind of thing happen!

Readers, I want to know: do you have this kind of pop-up dining experience where you live?

Thrifted Threads – Platform for Advocacy

I attended a festival in Kelowna (almost a year ago) dedicated to all things vegan and it was the bomb diggity. There were food vendors, speakers, activists, and all kinds of neat things promoting a plant-based lifestyle.

One such vendor was The Peace People Project. Tasha, the face behind the brand, takes thrifted threads and up-cycles them to create unique, statement pieces. Not dissimilar to what Okanagan Lifestyle is doing with their #OKGNThrifted campaign (“Do Less, Be More“). I noticed a variety of garments emblazoned with the phrase, “Stop Using Plastic” at her table and thought, “Here is another human making connections between our eating habits and the plastic problem!!”

Even better? When you purchase one of these garments, she donates 50% of the purchase price to animal sanctuaries. Stop using plastic, help an animal out – what’s not to love here?!

Youth + Oceans = Heroes Among Us

You guys! I’ve run into so many stories involving youth taking action on plastic pollution this week. It’s bringing me lots of smiles and hope.

1. Jan and I met with a local teen activist and her mom this week to chat about plastic. They’re heading to Mexico and are excited to help the locals do beach cleanups and share the story with their Kelowna community. FYI: Her school started this this wicked cool project.
2. My former university academic advisor put me in touch with a high-schooler in Maine working on a plastic pollution research project. She wants to know how plastics affect our oceans and what we can do about it. Hoo-ray!
3. This organization in Whistler, BC is run by a young person who got sick of waiting on the world to change and decided to do something about it. She educates her community about how our actions impact the environment (and oceans) and brings her dog along for the ride. She rocks.

To wrap up, I realized this week that I started this blog 10 years ago. Can you believe it? Seven In the Ocean has been around for a decade!! Turns out I was cooking up the idea for this series way back then…cheers to being ahead of my own time. O:-)