Stories about Local Champions

The Local Champions Blog highlights some of the amazing work our community accomplishes and motivates us all to work better together. We are lucky to work with so many champions who are a model for positive behavior change and influence us to go the extra mile. Our local champions are building connections within the community every day. Filter our stories by categories listed below or browse them all. We hope you’re inspired by the local champions in our community, too! 

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Complex Conundrums

Complex Conundrums

By Mark Peterson Sustainability pursuits don’t exist in vacuum and despite our hopes and dreams they are still subject to Newton’s 3rd law of Physics. We sometimes refer to this law loosely as action-reaction, where the force exerted is the action and the force...

Ashes to Ashes

Ashes to Ashes

In our culture we often shy away from conversations around death and generally don’t talk about it at all, let alone the impacts related to how we end up at our final resting place. In a traditional burial many resources are utilized including reinforced concrete, embalming fluids, steel and hardwoods for caskets and cremation requires fossil fuels. Green burial is part of an ecological restoration and the process and body become a vehicle for restoring a natural ecosystem.

Sauk Farm

Sauk Farm

Constant improvement in harmony with nature By Alex Smith The Japanese language has a concept called “Kaizen”. This roughly translates as “continuous improvement.” It’s a concept often used in business to describe ways of making processes more efficient. Companies...

Cloud Mountain Farm Center

Growing Community Through Education  By Alex Smith September 2019 We all know that good food is important. Eating well is one of the most beneficial things you can do for general wellbeing. We don’t all eat well all the time, though. There are a number of reasons why,...

Late to the Party

Late to the Party

These and other like-minded businesses found a way to stay true to their values and find success and profit in spite of market forces perpetuated by the very same Business Round Table who now has had a change of heart. How long this change of heart will last, I’m not sure anyone really knows. Shareholders are already starting to revolt.

The Future of Food Recovery

The Future of Food Recovery

Thanks to the participating businesses, volunteers and agencies receiving the food we have recovered over 51,000 pounds of food, with over 47,000 pounds of that food redistributed to hunger relief agencies, who in turn served over 39,000 meals to members of our community experiencing hunger insecurity. That is no small feat!