|
Think Green: simple lessons from Simply Food
|
by Ronna Sweeney, KUAM News
Monday, March 31, 2008
|
KUAM Video requires Flash 8.
download it Here.
|
|
Hoping to both impact your health and the environment, Simply Food in Agana Heights is not only offering up a vegetarian lunch counter five days a week, but is also selling variety of eco-friendly products. Owned and operated by the Seventh-Day Adventist Mission of Guam, Simply Food first began as a tiny lunch counter in the 1970s. Today, however, it has blossomed into additionally offering both a vegetarian supermarket and Christian bookstore.
Manager Sharon Schmidt told KUAM News, "We promote healthy living, vegetarianism, and healthy spiritual living as well. Now we're trying to promote a healthy environment." The store offers up a wealth of products to get you thinking green: the fruit and vegetable wash, for example, aims to rid your produce of both bacteria and toxins before you bite in. Continued Schmidt, "Most fruits and veggies that we get have pesticides on them because they have been treated out in the fields. So these products help to remove the toxins from the fruits and vegetables before we consume them."
Another earth conscious choice recently brought into simply foods is the EarthShell brand of paper products, which are made out of corn, potato and limestone. Initially Schmidt was just going to utilize the line at the lunch counter, but then decided it would be smart to offer it up for customer's to purchase, as well. "They're biodegradable, they're microwaveable and they decompose within a couple of years, so they're much, much better for the environment than Styrofoam, which lasts for hundreds and, thousands of years," she explained.
Along with EarthShell's paper products and the fruit and veggie wash, simply food offers up a wide variety of non-toxic, environmentally friendly cleaning products and toiletries. Plus, if you're looking to make a dietary change, the grocery section of the store offers up all you'll need to go vegetarian or vegan.
A 2006 United Nations report said that raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined, leading to global warming. Cashier and a vegan for the past six years Robert Van Cleave said of adopting a healthier lifestyle, "If you want to start going vegan, you will inherently help the environment. That's just how it works...I think a lot more people are concerned about the environment, about they're health and what they're using for their families. So it's really starting to take off."
Simply Food's fully vegetarian lunch counter is open from 11am-2pm Monday through Friday. The grocery store is open from 8am-5:30pm Monday through Thursday and Friday from 8am-3pm.
|