Blog
Farm Fresh Workplaces Come to Life
Samson Rope connects the employees to local food One of the things we love most at Sustainable Connections is helping to make more local food connections. For the last 7 years, we have been connecting local employers with local farmers in the Farm Fresh Workplaces...
Pollen Folly Farm
A passion for fighting food desserts By Alex Smith Next time you drive down Mt Baker Highway, I want you to try something. Take the time to notice and count the number of places you can buy fresh produce. I know, it’s hard to take your eyes off of the breathtaking...
The Rome Store
Farm to Table Food Without Any of the Fuss By Diana Meeks The Rome Store, on Mount Baker Highway, is more than a hundred years old. In 1915 the store was moved, atop giant rolling logs, from Goshen to its current location. It’s easy to imagine it as a bustling...
Busting Waste With Beers!
n the beginning a massive beer party seemed like a daunting task and I had my doubts how we could make the Toward Zero Waste efforts a successful one. Events themselves pose additional challenges and each event has its own intricacies that complicate the process. When you combine hordes of people, music, food trucks, a festive atmosphere and a few adult beverages, at first one may think as I did, this could be a recipe for waste stream contamination disaster!
Viva Farms: Growing delicious food & Launching the next generation of farmers
By Alex Smith The farming lifestyle is an alluring one. Waking up with the sun, spending time outdoors, the independence of knowing that your food is coming from within walking distance – what’s not to love? Given this idyllic picture of the American farmer, it may...
30,000 Pounds of Food and 12,000 Meals
The recurring image of edible foods discarded into the compost bin or worse the landfill bin was constantly on my mind and a catalyst for a major initiative I was hoping someday Sustainable Connections as an organization could take on. Other local hunger relief organizations are working hard to collect and deliver non-perishable foods and redistribute them but where a large gap exists is prepared edible foods that need to be redistributed in a much shorter time frame.
Homeskillet: Wild, wonderful, and a little bit weird
By Diana Meeks If you don't know these two, I'd like to warmly introduce you to Kirby and Tina White, owners of Homeskillet. Antartic dwellers, world explorers, artists, community builders and comfort food extraordinaires. In 2012, they opened Homeskillet to instant...
Bellingham Finishes Third in Nationwide Competition for Innovative Energy Efficiency Solutions
By Mark Gardner, Legislative Analyst / December 18, 2017 The city of Bellingham tied for third place in the final round of the Georgetown University Energy Prize (GUEP), a two-year, nationwide competition involving 50 communities to rethink the way America’s small...
Appel Farms
The second generation of Appel Farms ownership, from left to right: Rich and Ann Appel, and Ruth and John Appel The Fine Art of Farmstead Cheese By Alex Smith, February 2018 Take a moment to think about the word 'values'. It's come to be used in a number of ways and...
Dandelion Organic Delivery
The Dandelion Organic Delivery family, from left to right, Jonny, Thanos, Sotiri, and Maria Fresh & local, delivered right to your door By Diana Meeks, Feb 2018 Garlic parmesan shrimp scampi, veggie Thai curry with coconut rice, spicy buffalo wings and homemade...
Sustainability, Business and Community
The energy in the room was palpable and it was so inspiring to see the audience engaged and ready to take the next step in regards to measuring and improving their sustainability efforts. Businesses are thirsty for knowledge how they can be a more sustainable.
2018 Sustainability Champion Awards
Thank you to Julien Scherliss for these great photos Congrats to our 2018 Sustainability Champion Award Winners! Sustainable Connections awarded four Whatcom County businesses and two individuals Sustainability Champion Awards last Thursday for their deep commitment...
Growing farmers, growing community
The Food to Bank on Program By Alex Smith How many farmers have you seen in a single room at once? If you're like most people, the answer is probably between zero and two (unless you count the farmers market depot as a room). In fact, it's really quite difficult to...