Michelle Folken

"To learn about things that are beneficial to do for our planet and for us, to get some new ideas for things that are easy to do, and to learn and be inspired by what others are doing"

POINTS TOTAL

0 TODAY
0 THIS WEEK
385 TOTAL

participant impact

UP TO

2.0

advocacy actions

completed
UP TO

9.0

donations

made
UP TO

94

gallons of water

have been saved
UP TO

7.0

meatless or vegan meals

consumed
UP TO

20

minutes

spent learning
UP TO

1.9

pounds

food waste prevented
UP TO

3.9

pounds of CO2

have been saved

Michelle's actions

Cultivating Communities

Share My Habits & Actions

Each day, I will make my sustainable habits or actions visible through a lawn sign, bumper sticker, pin, t-shirt, social media or other ways.

COMPLETED 1
DAILY ACTION

Enacting Equity

Research Indigenous & First Nations Communities

I will spend 30 learning about the past and present indigenous or first nation communities in my regions impacted by colonization, and what I can do to be supportive.

COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Cultivating Communities

Pull Together Items to Donate

Each day, I will find one or more items I can donate to a local thrift or resale shop.

COMPLETED 8
DAILY ACTIONS

Balancing Consumption

Needs Vs. Wants

Each day, I will practice a "Needs Vs. Wants" approach and only buy things I need.

COMPLETED 2
DAILY ACTIONS

Nourishing Food

Weekly Meal Planning

I will reduce food waste, excess carbon and save money by planning my daily and weekly menus so that I only purchase the ingredients needed.

COMPLETED 3
DAILY ACTIONS

Nourishing Food

Watch a Documentary about Food Sovereignty

I will watch 1 documentary(ies) about food sovereignty: the right of local peoples to control their own food systems including markets, ecological resources, food cultures and production methods.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Nourishing Food

Eat Plant-Based Meals

I will enjoy 1 meatless meal(s) and/or 0 vegan meal(s) each day this week.

COMPLETED 7
DAILY ACTIONS

Regenerating Nature

Support Local Pollinators

At least 30% of crops and 90% of flowering plants rely on pollinators to produce fruit. I will spend 15 minutes researching which plants support local pollinators and plant a few in my area.

UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION

Participant Feed

Reflection, encouragement, and relationship building are all important aspects of getting a new habit to stick.
Share thoughts, encourage others, and reinforce positive new habits on the Feed.

To get started, share “your why.” Why did you join the challenge and choose the actions you did?

Michelle Folken 10/31/2023 5:35 AM

I am going to focus this year on finding ways to conserve water and reduce my use of single use plastic. I am also going to work on eating more of a plant based diet. I think reducing my family's use of single use plastic will be my biggest challenge for me personally. I am hoping I find more information on solar panels as our family is interested in putting solar panels on our roof using IRA incentives.

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Michelle Folken 10/11/2022 11:50 AM

I realized this week I not only need to meal plan on the weekend for the upcoming week to try and use what we have on hand that needs to get used up but I need to look at the calendar and see what activities I have going on in the evenings too....this past weekend I meal planned for the upcoming week but I didn't look ahead to see what I had gong on in the evenings and I planned out meals that I don't have time to cook! Will work on that :)

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REFLECTION QUESTION
Nourishing Food Weekly Meal Planning

An average American throws out about 240 lbs of food per year. The average family of four in the US spends $1,500 a year on food that they throw out. Does this surprise you? Where would you rather use this money?

Michelle Folken 10/10/2022 4:25 AM

This does not surprise me. I know our household throws out food each week, leftovers usually, but sometimes it is produce that has gone bad. I mean to get to the produce and do something with it, but life is so busy and I don't get to it in time. Sometimes it is produce that is given to us by friends or family. Sometimes we get it from a grocery store we shop at where you can't buy just one jalapeno, for example, you have to buy a whole bag of them. I need to do some research on what can be frozen and what can't. Also need to work on meal planning with what produce we have to use up. I would rather use the money to pay for my son's college tuition coming up next year.

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