Allegheny Cleanways on April 1, 2013 at Sustainable Monroeville's April Meeting!!

Join Us for a double feature! Myrna Newman, the Executive Director of Allegheny Cleanways will present the work of their Non Profit at the Monday evening April 1, 2013, from 7:00 to 8:30 PM meeting of Sustainable Monroeville at the Monroeville Public Library. 

Michelle Johnson, the Chief Executive Officer of the Spectrum Charter School in Monroeville and co- founder of Sustainable Monroeville's Recycling Committee will give an update on the Recycling Committee's work and also talk with us about the Spectrum Charter School's participation in the Green Schools Academy.

The meeting on April 1, 2013, will take place in the downstairs program room of the Monroeville Public Library from 7:00 to 8:30 PM. Free and open to the public! Please bring along a friend or neighbor or two!

Stan Beck speaking about Sprouting techniques at last months meeting of Sustainable Monroeville. We sampled sprouts and green juice and learn from one another!

Sprouting with Sustainable Monroeville on March 4, 2013 at 7:00 PM!

Our dog, Mango with wheat grass

Learn about indoor sprouting and growing techniques from Stan Beck who has his very own indoor sprout farm for himself, family and friends! Join us on Monday evening, March 4, 2013, at 7:00 PM in the downstairs program room of the Monroeville Public Library. Stan will be demonstrating how to sprout wheat, pea and sunflower seeds and how to grow them too. He'll talk about what is involved in  the middle of winter and all year round.

We'll sample some wheat grass juice and the Hippocrates Health Institute recipe green juice made of cucumbers, celery, pea sprouts and sunflower sprouts and have some sprouts to eat too! 

Janet McKee, producer of the newly released documentary Bethany's Story about the power of food to heal at the Q&A at the February meeting of Sustainable Monroeville.

Close to thirty people joined us for the screening of Bethany's Story!

Angella and Don Jackson at the raw pot luck dinner prior to the movie screening of Bethany's Story at last month's meeting!

Mmmm, raw foods and raw foodies are fun! Wonderfully delicious and healthful mostly raw vegan food. We must admit the vegan, cooked cup cakes were on the next table and they went fast!

The Power of Food To Heal: Bethany's Story with Janet McKee and Raw Vegan Pot Luck!

"Let Thy Food Be Thy Medicine." ~Hippocrates

Sustainable Monroeville is proud that the Monroeville Food Garden, that sprouted from Sustainable Monroeville, produced 500 pounds of fresh vegetables for five local food banks for the past two summers. Lois Drumheller, Third Ward Councilwoman in Monroeville is the one leading the way with many local helpers from Sustainable Monroeville and beyond.

Things are changing! We are honored and excited to screen the newly released film Bethany's Story at our Fourth Anniversary Meeting of Sustainable Monroeville in the downstairs program room of the Monroeville Public Library on Monday evening, February 4, 2013. The Executive Producer of the film and local Pittsburgh region Holistic Health Counselor and Food Educator, Janet McKee, will join us to discuss the film. How exciting!

At 6 PM on Monday evening, February 4, 2013, we will have a mostly Raw Vegan, locally sourced, if possible, pot luck dinner. Please bring your place setting as this will be a zero waste event. We will screen the film from 7:00 to 8:15 PM. 



The film is about the power of food to heal. Bravo to our local celebrity Janet McKee, her dedication and her great work! This meeting will be in partnership with the Monroeville Public Library to support the film and facilitate Sustainable Monroeville bringing the film to Monroeville and the library. Thanks so much Monroeville Public Library! Payment is not required, but donations of $5.00/person are suggested. Nobody will be turned away.

Paraphrased quotes from the movie trailer:

“Diet and Lifestyle induced dis-ease has never been reversed by surgery.” “Doctors are the fourth leading cause of death in the United States!” “You can actually reverse the aging process. It is the foundation for all healing. “

“Doctors are never taught this information. What the doctor is telling them, is killing them. Food plays a large role, and not just a small role…What is more basic than eating food?"

We are in the worse shape we’ve ever been in. Now, a number of people that are saying, ‘Wait a Minute.’

The body wants to heal itself. Is this diet for everybody? No! Why? Because you have to want to heal yourself. And does everybody want to do this? To love themselves enough to heal themselves? The answer is no.”

We look forward to seeing you on Monday evening, February 4, 2013 at the Monroeville Public library. 

Join Sustainable Monroeville on Facebook!

Gift Circle and Promised Land

Our monthly meeting of Sustainable Monroeville will be on Monday evening, January 7, 2013. We will have a short discussion about the movie Promised Land whether or not you've seen it, hear a talk by Wanda Guthrie of Murrysville Marcellus, and host a Gift Circle. You can bring a gift of any kind to share with others and/or be prepared to take whatever there is to give! 

See you at the Monroeville Public Library in the downstairs program room at 7:00 PM! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHQt1NAkhIo Here's the link to the trailer for the new movie Promised Land. 

Vegan and Vegetarian Holiday Pot Luck Dinner December 3, 2012

Join us Monday evening, December 3, 2012, for our December raw vegan and vegetarian pot luck holiday feast! Dinner at 6:00 PM followed by discussion and planning for 2013. Please pack your plates and utensils and we will pack in and pack out, and of course compost yet another zero waste event! We like to begin meetings by talking about what we have done over the past month that is 'Sustainable." What does 'sustainable' mean anyway?!

How is our Monroeville Food Garden a model for the Food Not Lawns movement for our suburbs? We will discuss the opening of the Schwartz Living Market as a new model for hatching green businesses and linking the urban and suburban Food Not Lawns Movement with the urban core throught the Schwartz Living Market Transition Town process in Pittsburgh's Historic South Side. See http://1317eastcarson.blogspot.com for details and join us as our guest on Saturday, December 1, 2012, to get a preview of what's to come and to become part of the dialogue and creative process!

Sustainable Monroeville meetings are free and open to the public and are held at the Monroeville Public Library. We give thanks for our public library that has been hosting our meetings for the past almost four years. We are thrilled that the Monroeville Food Garden outside the library produced over 500 pounds of vegetables for five commmunity food banks for the second season in a row. Thanks to Lois, Sandy, Pam, the Girl Scouts and all of the other volunteers that continue to make this project a success. This permaculture style food garden has some of the healthiest soil around, and healthy living soil is a huge key to good health!

Nick Hein, Rachel and Stan Beck looking at the pedal generator powering a blender!

Pedal Generator built by Nick Hein of Postive Spin in Morgantown, WV. bike donated to the Schwartz Living Market project in Pittsburgh's Historic South Side. What will be powered by this set up? How much pedaling is needed to recharge a cell phone? How about a blender?

We look forward to being with you and eating and drinking with you on Monday evening! Elisa Beck:)

A Drop in the Ocean: Sustainable Monroeville

A Drop in the Ocean

From the album: Cover Photos

By dropintheocean.co

What has Sustainable Monroeville, rather the people in the group, and the Monroeville Library and the Monroeville Food Garden and all the volunteers accomplished over these past, almost four years?Perhaps just a drop in the ocean, but we certainly have begun to educate ourselves about what it means to be a sustainable community and help to move Monroeville forward in the Green Economy. Join us this coming Monday evening, November 5, 2012 to plan our future! 2013, Here We Come!

Please watch this video short and share images of what you see here in Western, PA so we can reach out further and educate more and more people here in Western, PA and around the world for the need to understand and implement the work we do. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4abGpdEXf6g

Who conceived this video? It was a group of folks, including my friend Diana Rotberg Bray and a few of her children, and their friends. We have known each other since perhaps even before kindergarten. We were in a photography class together in eleventh grade. And then she married an amazing Australian man, had four children and well, what led to this video, that part, is history.

Be present in this moment. Linking the world together. Connecting the dots. Raising Awareness. One moment at a time.

See you on Monday, November 5, 2012 in the downstairs program room of the Monroeville Public Library from 7:00 to 8:30 PM.

Elisa Beck
Sustainable Monroeville, founded February, 2009
A Transition Town Process

Act 13 Educational and Accountability Event, Monday, October 15, 2012

Act 13 Educational and Accountability Event
Monday, October 15

Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale Gas Act (Act 13) will have a mayor impact on the environment and on communities in our region. It is therefore important to know how our representatives voted on Act 13, why they did so, and how they would like to see Act 13 amended.
 

6:30-8:30 PM, Monday, October 15,Murrysville Community Center
3091 Carson Avenue
Murrysville, PA 15668

Act 13 is Pennsylvania's controversial new oil and gas law, which stripped local governments of their right to plan where natural gas drilling operation can happen in their communities. In July portions of this new law were challenged by local township government officials, a Monroeville doctor, and Delaware Riverkeeper, and overturned by the Commonwealth Court and declared “unconstitutional.”

But the battle continues, as Governor Tom Corbett and his administration appealed the Commonwealth Court decision. These two sides, will argue their cases before the state Supreme Court on Wednesday, October 17th in Pittsburgh.

Many other municipalities and organizations have filed amicus briefs in support of the Commonwealth Court’s decision that preemption of local municipal control over shale gas extraction is unconstitutional, including American Planning Association (Pennsylvania Chapter), Association of Boroughs, Association of Township Officials, Clean Water Action, Mountain Watershed Association, Murrysville Council, Pittsburgh City Council, and the Sierra Club. 

Two days before the historic court October 17 hearing, the public is invited to a free, educational discussion about the new law, which covers all aspects of natural gas development in the state, as well as how the law came to be.

Our event will include a question and answer period and conclude
with an optional phone bank to call state legislators. 
For more information, contact Melissa at Mountain Watershed Association,
724-455-4200 ext. 6#  or Melissa@mtwatershed.com.

Sponsored by: Clean Water Action, Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania, PennEnvironment, Sierra Club, and Westmoreland Marcellus Citizen Group.

===============

Genetic Roulette and Pot Luck Dinner on October 1, 2012 at the Monroeville Public Library

On Monday evening, October 1, 2012, we will have a vegetarian, non-GMO pot luck dinner at 6:00 PM followed by the movie Genetic Roulette at 7:00 PM. Remember to pack your plates and utensils as this will be a zero waste event.

 Join Us! All meetings of Sustainable Monroeville are free and open to the public. They take place in the Monroeville Public Library. See you on October 1! Elisa Beck :)

Genetic Roulette Movie Trailer - YouTube
► 2:27► 2:27	www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv96D_ZURzsUploaded by GeneticRoulette This seminal documentary provides compelling evidence to help explain the deteriorating health of Americans ...

Food Not Lawns in White Oak, PA!

What a joy to see the descendent of a farming family farming her own suburban property and feeding the neighborhood! We went to the home of some friends in White Oak, Pennsylvania, and across the street I had the honor of finally seeing the garden my husband had been telling me about for ages:
Rows and rows of corn, tomatoes and more crops were abundantly producing all summer with only water from the sky! Amazing and wonderful!

The tall fence is to keep the deer from eating all the crops!

Natural Choices Lawn Care and A Chemical Reaction Movie on September 10, 2012n

Join us for the next meeting of Sustainable Monroeville on Monday evening, September 10, 2012, at 7:00 PM to hear Ed Hoffman of Natural Choices Organic and Natural Lawn Care and to view the movie A Chemical Reaction Go to http://www.safelawns.org/a-chemical-reaction/ for details.

Transition Pittsburgh http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dTcvO-o8NTA

So many beautiful colors! These tomatoes on the shelf in Pittsburgh's East End Food Coop are locally grown by responsible farmers. Yippee for the East End Food Coop!

How do we figure out where our food comes from and if their genome has been genetically modified? Peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, apples, peaches, tangerines. Would you grow these on your front yard? Do you spray chemicals on your lawn? If so, would you consider not doing that any more and morphing your lawn into a lawn that produces Food Not Lawn? How bold are we anyway?

How long does it take to transform a formally sprayed lawn into one where we are comfortable growing food on it and eating that food?

The food grown in the Permaculture style garden behind the Monroeville Public Library that supplied 500 pounds of fresh vegetables for four local food banks last summer (we are still counting the bounty from this summer) does not use genetically modified seeds. How do we know?

What is the relationship between understanding the composition of the soils on our urban and suburban lots and how the grass is growing and our food systems in the United States? So much to learn! For the October meeting of Sustainable Monroeville, we will show a movie on genetically modified organisms called Genetic Roulette. Join us at the Monroeville Public Library for our meetings. They are free and open to the public!

Jeff Newman of Steel City Soils talking about Permaculture at the Cedars of Monroeville. The Cedars has worked with Jeff to put in a Permaculture garden as part of their landscape. The hearty local plants have done extremely well this season!

Jeff Newman Peddling with his Pierogies on Pittsburgh's Historic South Side! Peddlin' Pierogies uses whole wheat flour from Clarion River Organics and wonoderful organic potatoes too! Mmmm, mmm good!

Alcosan Draft Wet Weather Plan Public Meeting on September 5, 2012

Where, oh where, does water go once it falls from the clouds? What happens to sewage? What alternatives can we suggest to Alcosan? Join the Public Meeting that is FREE and open to the public in the Eastern suburbs on Wednesday, September 5, 2012 from 9:30 to Noon, learn and speak your truth. You can make a difference!

Sustainable Monroeville at End of Summerfest in Monroeville, PA

This was the first 'officially' combined composted and recycled event, that we know of, in Monroeville, PA. How exciting! Kudos and thanks to PA Resources Council, PRC.org, and their Zero Waste Pittsburgh program for making this possible! In collaboration with Sustainable Monreoville, the Municipality of Monroeville, and Temple David at the End of Summerfest, the PA Resources Council provided 10 recycling containers and one compost container for us.

Kyle came to pick up the compostables and enjoyed posing for this photo with his Steelers Zero Waste shirt! Thanks so much Kyle for all you do! Thanks Temple David, and the Municipality of Monroeville for making all of this possible! Here's Kyle Winkler, of PRC helping out at the end of the day along with a member and huge organizer and helper of the End of Summerfest from Temple David. 

Hey, we wanted a bunch of compost containers, but were educated by Kyle and changed our minds. We decided one compost container for this first collaborative event would be just right. But why? Well, folks, that is, the general public, understands recycling and what to do with their plastic bottles and aluminum cans. But composting? That's a whole different story!

In the 1500's, composting must have been the norm. Or was it? These Renaisasance folks sure were a bit confused looking at these oversized plastic containers. They had chalices hanging from their belts and carried their pewter plates with them. Now that's a vote for sustainability! To learn more about the Renaissance and have lots of fun, consider going to the Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival sometime between August 25 and September 30, 2012. Go to www.pittsburghrenfest.com for details. And tell the King and Queen we sent you!

The King and Queen recycling their water bottle. Wait you might think, we just mentioned that the Renaissancers were carrying chalices with them. So here's the real scoop: They were adding bottled water that was supplied by the festival to their chalices in the big tent on the field, their hideaway for the day. But those Renaissance folks are responsible, yes they are. At the end of the day, one of them asked where to recycle the 70 bottles of plastic they had accumulated over the past many hours! They put all of their empty used bottles in the proper blue receptacles. We were informed that usually they have a giant urn filled with water that they use to fill their chalices. Another vote for sustainability! We sure are interested to know more about the Renaissance and what we can learn from looking back. Thanks for being such wonderful participants in our frecycling and composting efforts, King's Court and the King and Queen! We had fun dancing with you too!

    Ira, of Sustainable Monroeville and his beautiful wife visiting us at our booth.

                                                                                         

These ladies were sampling meatballs and cheese. Neither of these food items could go in our compost. Why is that? For small scale composting, meat and cheese are kept out of the pile so as not to attract pesky animals. If not eaten, that meat and cheese was put in the trash. 

        

Dana of Healcrest Farms in Garfield, an awesome urban farm, was selling delicious teas and other wild provisions. Their booth this year was the only booth that intentionally provided compostable tea sampler cups this year. Bravo to Dana and Healcrest!

Who are these groupies? Must be Lois, the hugger guy, a local couple,Pam, Skip, and Lu! Check out that wheatgrass on the table, the beautiful flowers, the great photos of the Monroeville Food Garden and more!

Elisa, founder of Sustainable Monroeville, with Kyle of PRC, at the end of the day. PA Resources Council is the oldest environmental non-profit in the state of Pennsylvania and their work is fantastic!

Thanks again and again for working with us!