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Sep 27

Fall Into Clean Air: We Can All Be Idle Free

by SLCgreen Staff Brijette Williams

It’s that time of year again! The temperatures are starting to drop, leaves are showing hints of change, and that crisp scent of incoming autumn is the air. The changing seasons also mean it’s time to think about fall and winter air quality season. 

September also marks Idle-free Awareness Month and the annual Governor’s Idle-free Declaration for the month and for Utah’s upcoming winter season. The initiative began in 2006 by Utah Clean Cities and was a statewide effort by 2010 – spurring statewide idle-free policies and action at school districts, cities, towns, counties, and even within Zion National Park.  

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Sep 27

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Food Not Bombs Is Working to Alleviate Food Waste & Hunger in Salt Lake City  

By SLCgreen Intern Kellen Hunnicutt

There is a difference between what is safe to eat and what can be sold at a grocery store. Best-by and sell-by dates are not designed to be safety dates; rather they’re reference points indicating when foods may have the best flavor or quality. Similarly, bruised or oddly shaped foods may be rejected by grocery stores, even though they’re still nutritious and safe to eat.  

Food Not Bombs is a global organization committed to food recovery, equity and mutual aid. The Salt Lake City chapter has been operating continuously since 1999. The group has built relationships with local food providers such as Natural Grocers, Good Earth Markets, and City Cakes Bakery. Each week, volunteers pick up food from these locations that is edible but unsellable to redistribute to the community.  

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Sep 15

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Salt Lake Canning Co. takes excess fruit from neighborhood trees and turns them into shelf-stable staples for seniors 

by SLCgreen Intern Charles Bonkowsky

In the summer, the Salt Lake Valley is ripe with fruit. Through farmers’ markets or programs like the Green Urban Lunch Box, people all over the valley are able to enjoy it. But come winter, that fresh supply dries up.  

Katie Lawson’s Salt Lake Canning Co. is working to fill that gap: in 2021 and 2022, the organization canned hundreds of jars of local fruit for distribution to senior citizens, and with the money received from Salt Lake City’s Food Equity Microgrant program, she hopes to do even more this year. 

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Sep 7

Check out Salt Lake City’s Seventh Annual VegFest this Saturday! 

Graphic of person eating salad. Text: Go Green By Eating Green.

The Seventh Annual VegFest event is coming up this Saturday, September 9 at Library Square.  This is one of Salt Lake City’s ACE-sponsored events and one our Department particularly loves attending every year. 

We’ll be there tabling all day and encourage you to stop by and say hi if you’re out and about on Saturday. 

The event is focused on celebrating veganism and raising awareness of the many plant-based foods and products available to us here in SLC. 

In honor of VegFest, we wanted to highlight some of the environmental reasons to choose more plants, rather than animal products, in your weekly meal planning. Even swapping one meal per week can make a difference. 

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Aug 30

Sabores de Mi Patria: Sharing Traditional Gardening Practices with the Community 

By SLCgreen Intern Emma Johnson

Image of sign in garden. Sign has text: Sabores de mi patria. Three sisters - MILPA. Calabaza, maiz, frijole.

In mid-July, Wasatch Community Gardens is filled to the brim with lush green vegetable plants, vibrant swaths of flowers, and stooping trees laden with fruit. It is mostly organized into neat sections and rows, but a verdant patch on the southeast edge, boasting many different textures and massive sunflowers reaching to the sky, is more freeform.  

This is the Growing Traditions section of the garden, designed for the Sabores de Mi Patria program with Artes de Mexico en Utah to represent traditional agricultural practices from Mexico and other parts of Latin America. Sabores de Mi Patria translates to “flavors of my homeland.”  

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Aug 24

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The Rainbow Garden: Celebrating Diversity in People and Produce

By SLCgreen Intern Iris Tang

Priya Chidambaram, founder of Vanavil Gardens stands behind a garden bed in her backyard.

Vanavil Community Garden, one of the 2023 food equity microgrant winners, is located in the Ballpark area and is run by Priya Chidambaram. Priya started the Vanavil Community Garden as a renter; with her landlord’s approval, she transformed the yard into a garden and built a community around it. Since then, Priya has purchased her own house in the Ballpark area and relocated the gardens there.  

Priya named the garden ‘Vanavil’ as it means ‘rainbow’ in her native language, Tamil. The name initially came from the desire to grow colorful and diverse crops such as yellow tomatoes and purple carrots. However, Priya notes the name has grown to represent inclusivity as well. 

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Aug 18

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Old Traditions in a New Land: New American Goat Club Allows Youth to Connect to Family Cultural Practices 

By SLCgreen Intern Emma Johnson and Staff Jude Westwood

On Salt Lake City’s West Side, near the old water park, lives a sizable herd of goats. The same piece of land also houses sheep, chickens, beehives, and many garden plots filled with a variety of plants.

Although the Farm is managed by Roots, Utah’s first farm-based charter school, fifteen of the goats on the property are owned by the “The New American Goat Club.” The Goat Club is a summer educational program for refugee and immigrant youth interested in learning about goat husbandry. It’s also one of SLCgreen’s 2023 Food Equity Microgrant awardees.  

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Aug 15

Salt Lake City Announces Food Equity Microgrant Awardees 

Today Mayor Mendenhall and the Salt Lake City Sustainability Department announced the list of groups that have been awarded funding through the SLC Food Equity Microgrant pilot program, which launched earlier this year.  

The new grant program provided $35,000 in total funding to increase residents’ access to fresh, healthy, affordable, and culturally relevant food by supporting community-led projects aligned with the recommendations from the City’s Resident Food Equity Advisors’ 2021 Report. Projects led by and serving those who identify as members of groups that have been most negatively impacted by the food system were prioritized for funding, and accessibility and equity were central to the program’s design and goals. 

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Aug 3

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Mapping Urban Heat Islands

By SLCgreen Interns Frances Benfell, Emma Johnson, and staff Jude Westwood

Picture of two people outside holding a heat watch sensor and guide.

When my friend Tia made plans to spend the weekend in Salt Lake City, she didn’t know what she was in for. A few days before her visit, I texted her and asked, “How do you feel about waking up at 5:30 am to go heat mapping with me on Saturday?” She responded, “I don’t know what that is, but as long as you buy me coffee!”  

As we drove to pick up our heat sensor on a Friday afternoon in mid-July, I explained the project to Tia. We were volunteering to drive one of ten routes across Salt Lake City with a sensor attached to our car that would measure temperature, humidity, and location along the way. Our role (along with over 40 other volunteers) was to gather data for a citizen science research project funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Salt Lake City was one of 18 communities chosen to participate in this year’s mapping project. Over 60 communities have participated since the program started in 2017. 

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Jul 27

Carpooling: The Extroverted Way to Commute Eco-Friendly

By SLCgreen Intern Kellen Hunnicutt

Most of us do a lot of driving in our lives. We drive to school, work, to run errands, and to meet up with friends. Not only is all this driving time bad for our air quality, but so much time in our cars can also be bad for us. Studies have shown that long commute times can produce stress and fatigue, and hurt mental health.  

So why drive alone when you can carpool? 

Carpooling saves money, reduces pollution, and can transform a routine commute into valuable social time. Consider carpooling to work with a coworker who lives nearby or coordinating a carpool for your kids to get to school. Carpooling can also be a great way to get to events or out into nature with friends and family. 

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