Shop for the basket and other updates

Just a few updates for the changes that are slowly occurring with ESOA and life in general:

• I made a more or less big deal about "shopping for the basket" to provide donations for the Capital Area Food Bank.  Our old basket was getting pretty broken down.  Finally, duct tape just wouldn't do the job.  Thanks to our decisive president, Rebecca Fisher, we now have a new basket.  This one is green (various shades of which will now be our official color for ESOA stuff) and folds up nicely for storage. John Thiess, our treasurer, is also the dedicated volunteer who takes our donations to the Food Bank and keeps a tally of our donations.  The good news, from my perspective, is that we now have a more or less permanent place for the basket--under the Ethical Action display table.  You no longer have to look around and wonder where the yellow basket is, nor do you have to climb over chairs and people to get to it.  When you walk in the door now, you may be looking for coffee, but the basket will be right in front of you.  With a sign even.  Subtle, huh?

• And speaking of the Ethical Action display table, we have one.  We are making every effort to park the thing right in your way and even entice you with sweet treats to grab your coffee and come over and hang out.  
• This is where you can make your donations to the Capital Area Food Bank--canned goods and ink cartridges in the basket, money in the Feed Me canister.  Test your skills at putting a whole meal in the canister without spilling it!
• While you're there you can sign up for a shift at the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless.  This is a once-a-month opportunity to help make a difference by serving dinner at the shelter.
• The EA table is the place to find updated lists of opportunities for issue education and cultural events that seem likely to appeal to ethical humanists.  (Thanks to John Thiess for his weekly activity list.)  
• Advocacy training and briefing materials will also be placed on the table.  This is where you can look for more information about the issues that we are talking about and resources on how to address them. There will usually be something different there for you to look at each week, so come on by!

• In other Ethical Action news, we are updating our page on the ESOA website.  As ethical humanists we act through giving, serving, advocating, and living.  While I try to explore some of these actions on this blog, at ESOA we are really doing the stuff I'm thinking about.  How cool is that? Very.  Check out the Ethical Action page to see what we have done, what we have planned, and--soon--more of those resources on issues and actions to take.  

• Also, too, very big news (big for me anyway--learning new skills here).  We now have an Ethical Action Calendar.  This may change to become a calendar with all ESOA events on it, but, for now, this is where you can look for service events, advocacy events, and the educational and cultural events that may inspire you as an ethical humanist.  Does anyone know how to sync this with my smart phone?  clueless

• Finally (well, probably), we have managed to complete our transition to waste free potlucks.  Some months ago, we decided to try to eliminate disposable eating and serving ware from our monthly potluck dinners.  We started with the napkins--moving from paper to cloth.  Then we accumulated some donated flatware.  Dishes we had to haul in from home each month, but we've just had a generous donation of those as well (thanks, John).  We seem to be set to enjoy our monthly dining and fellowship from now on knowing that, with a little extra effort, we have reduced consumption of products destined for the landfill or even the recycling bin. A little elbow grease, some soap and water, and, of course, some composting.  

• Finally (really this time), Trish Taylor has moved but she hasn't forgotten us.  Trish continues to serve ESOA as its webmaster--and now she's blogging about her move and this new chapter of her life.  Join her at Tea Pad Tales.  Lovely walks, lovely photography, lovely spirit.

This makes me a happy human.  :)  What should we do next?

How shall we eat?

When Felix Adler thought about ethical culture meetings, he thought:  "Mostly lecture, a little music."  The Ethical Society of Austin has an additional mode of meeting:  The Potluck.  That is, on the first Sunday of the month, members (and some repeat visitors) bring a covered dish, and those of us who don't have other commitments sit down together to eat.  Sometimes parents will stay to have their children join us, so it becomes a multigenerational feast.

ESOA meets in fairly sparse facilities. Tables and chairs have to be set up and taken down for the meal.  There is no stove, but there is a microwave.  Most dishes are, therefore, served cold.  Occasionally someone brings a crockpot.  We have had a wild assortment of table cloths.  Both the setting and the meal are simple.  It is the sense of community that develops over these meals and the delightful conversation that serves both to build the society and to deepen our understanding of the day's platform or colloquy that elevate the event beyond the place.

From the very first potluck, I noticed a concern among members to reduce the environmental impact of our meals.  One person gathered up the compostable items, others made sure that recyclables were put in the proper receptacle.  A problem arose almost immediately as we realized that the paper plates used that day were not compostable because of a plastic coating.  The plastic utensils were washed, but I can't say whether they ever showed up at another potluck.  We were producing trash!

Slowly a solution has emerged.  I have long been interested in switching from paper napkins to cloth napkins to reduce at least one reason for killing trees.  I inherited many cloth napkins from a mother who often set a color-coordinated table.  It was easy enough to offer to bring in some of those napkins for use during our monthly meal.  John and Susan Theiss brought their own plates and eating utensils to one potluck, introducing another idea.  We are now working on a plan for ESOA to have its own set of dishes, which we will wash and store between potlucks.  We have the flatware, but the dishes are still being worked out.  In the meantime, I bring all of my dinner, salad, and soup plates once a month so that we don't have to resort to paper plates.

Now a new element of community has been added as we clear the tables and do the washing up.  Not only do we share the labor of making a communal meal, we also work together to reduce the impact of that meal.  In the process, we become more mindful of our world and how we might work to protect its resources in ways both small and large.

One other element of mindful living has been added to these meals.  We have a little set of cards (reused) and holders (handmade) to list ingredients that might trigger food allergies or somehow not meet the dietary restrictions under which some members live.  Little notes about the presence of nuts, dairy, sugar, gluten, etc. can be lifesaving.  We have no desire to restrict those who bring dishes in their choice of ingredients, and our cooks do add nuts and other good things to their dishes, but thinking about what we add helps us be mindful of the needs of others. Noting the risky items also shows respect for their situation.

Update: Veggie Bags

I ventured out of the house Friday, my first attempt at driving since the eye surgery.  So far so good.  I had to get to the grocery store to pick up a few things for the monthly potluck luncheon for Ethical Society of Austin.  I had a couple of adventures with the veggie bags, so I thought I'd share my progress so far.

• Have I mentioned that the first step in using the reusable veggie bags is to remember to bring them?  They can get lost in the mass of reusable shopping bags that we accumulate in Austin, so it takes a little extra effort to make sure that they are handy when needed.  So far I have gone off and left them in the house only once.  I decided that I would just have to do without fresh produce that day, so the lesson was quickly learned.  I now hang them separately so that I don't miss them when I need to get them back to the car.
• On a recent trip to a store where other items are available in bulk and/or bag your own bins, I discovered that the bags could also be used for fresh bread and for some bulk foods, in this case, non-sticky candy.  
• A friendly baker voiced approval of my bags and then told me about how other shoppers have dealt with the sticky tags used to tell the cashier how much an item will cost.  He demonstrated how people would stick them all over their clothes, "just about everywhere," and then mimed the cashier trying to scan them.  The important point for me was that I didn't have to be so neat about getting my tags on a special piece of paper--all the cashier wants to see is the bar code.
• The cashier was, however, happy with my tags stuck on a sheet of paper. She "voted" my strategy the best of any that she had seen.  Oh, sweet validation!
• Friday's adventure was a little less positive.  The cashier was happy to see the bags and the little sheet of stickers, but the bags were kind of floppy.  I didn't pull the string all the way to close the cucumber bag, so, yes, that was my cucumber rolling out of the basket.  Worse, the lemons were missing! The cashier rang them up because they were there on the sheet, but the lemons, bag and all, were gone.  I backtracked and ended up in the produce section near the lemons--and there was my bag complete with three lemons. Apparently, I weighed them, printed the label, stuck the label on my sheet of paper, and then walked off without the lemons.  *sigh*  

Well, yes, now that you ask, my life is rather like The Perils of Pauline. Adventures aside, reusable veggie bags--whether you make your own or buy some for the purpose--do seem to be becoming more common here in Austin and do help reduce the need for plastic produce bags.  Of course, if you have secondary uses for the plastic bags, that's good, too.