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The Mississippi Farm to School Network has been shortlisted to receive additional funding from Newman’s Own Foundation, but they need your vote! Newman’s is giving away $100,000 to support food justice for kids, and if awarded MSFSN will be distributing microgrants to schools across the state for school gardens. Your vote could make the difference, so please join the grapevine here and vote for the Mississippi Farm to School Network in the Nutritious Food in Schools category. Voting is live through Nov. 28. If you have any questions, please reach out to sydney@mississippifarmtoschool.org.

Women’s Earth Alliance is thrilled to announce the World Weaver Solution Series — a three-part event designed to provide an opportunity for community members to connect directly with WEA leaders as they share their stories about healing from environmental and gender-based violence, while collaborating to solve pressing environmental, food, and health challenges. At the event, held Nov. 28 through Nov. 30, you'll meet participants in WEA's 2023 Regenerative Agriculture and Health Accelerator, who are advancing critical initiatives to increase food access and sovereignty, promote sustainable farming techniques, and ensure health equity. Click here to register!

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Join Nature in the City in San Francisco this month to learn more about the value of nature in cities and to meet like-minded people. The project will be hosting a nature walk on Market Street showcasing living roofs and downtown nature on Friday, Nov. 17., a volunteer workday of winter planting in the city’s Green Hairstreak Corridor on Saturday, Nov. 18., and a nature expedition with monarch butterfly monitoring on Sunday, Nov. 19. RSVP on Meetup, or drop in! To further feed your Bay Area curiosity, check out the recent offering from Food Shift: The Food Shift Kitchen Companion: Getting the Most Out of Your Food. You can view and download the free eBook here and learn from the Food Shift community how to minimize your carbon footprint, and stretch your food budget.

Conservation Kids and Audubon Canyon Ranch recently teamed up for a conservation photography workshop at the beautiful Bouverie Preserve in Sonoma County, California. Conservation photographer Sarah Killingsworth led the children, as they encountered lizards, water insects, birds and a variety of other flora and fauna. Over 1,000 images were taken. Many of these photos are on display on the Conservation Kids website. Meanwhile, Green Schoolyards America continues to transform the environment around children. The project, which is dedicated to helping schools transform asphalt-covered grounds into living schoolyards, was recently featured on KQED’s MindShift podcast, highlighting how schoolyards can combat the urban heat island effect and be used as outdoor learning laboratories with the help of Green Schoolyards America’s “How Cool is Your Schoolyard™” activity.

Building on the work of Earth Island’s Law Students for Climate Accountability, the University of Toronto Law Union has published a first-of-its-kind report analyzing the Canadian legal industry’s work for fossil fuel companies and the role that five of the most influential Canadian law firms play in the climate crisis. The report sheds light on the ways these firms enable the energy industry’s exploitation of Indigenous communities and the planet’s natural resources. It also highlights these firms' facilitation of resource extraction by criminalizing Indigenous resistance.

Viva Sierra Gorda is pleased to see the story of Grupo Ecológico Sierra Gorda featured as part of the Sustainability Storytelling Competition 2022. As grand prize winner, GLPFilms debuted an eight-minute documentary at the UNDP’s Nature for Life Hub conference on Nov. 7 that helped tell the success story of a local climate action protocol the group has helped establish. Learn more about the Sierra Gorda Alliance here and help conserve the cloud forests of these Central Mexico mountains. Meanwhile, the California Institute for Community, Art, and Nature is celebrating the completion of a project to preserve and catalogue the archives of acclaimed Karuk artist Brian Tripp (1945-2022) within the Special Collections Library at Cal Poly Humboldt in Arcata, California. The preservation and cataloguing was done by California ICAN’s California Indian Archives Project consultant Susan Gehr (Karuk) in collaboration with members of Tripp’s family, with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Earth Island recently added four new staff members to its growing team. Megan Mubaraki (top left) and Cecilia Mejia (top right) joined as program advisors on our project support team, where they each serve as a liaison, administrative coordinator, and coach to a portfolio of projects within our network. Steve Fox (bottom left) has come on board as our development director and is responsible for oversight, planning, and implementation of Earth Island’s fundraising efforts. Finally, Charli Cleland (bottom right), our new general counsel, will be overseeing Earth Island's legal affairs and serving as the director of Earth Island Advocates.