Nonprofits Going the Extra Mile

At Green Mountain Energy, we know that change happens through people, and communities are stronger when we include a variety of voices. The events of the past weeks coupled with COVID-19 are presenting challenges to the most vulnerable members of our communities, but we are also finding inspiration around every corner. These challenging times have also spurred our communities to immediately step up, and local nonprofits are leading the way.

That is especially true in the work of the nonprofit partners of the Green Mountain Energy Sun Club that are bringing resources to the front lines and reinventing their operations to comply with social distancing guidelines. If you would like to help, volunteer or become familiar with much-needed resources, here are a few you might want to check out.

Past Sun Club Recipients at the Forefront of COVID-19 Response

Urban Harvest – Growing Gardens and Enriching Gardens in Houston

Urban Harvest enriches the Houston community by providing community garden programming, farmers markets, gardening classes and youth education. With the guidance of local, state and federal officials, Urban Harvest’s Saturday Farmers Market is open with new safety regulations, health measures and a drive-through service for online preorders. The market provides vital support to some of the most hard-hit regional farms and small businesses, while offering one of the safest methods for the community to access fresh fruits and vegetables.

You can visit Urban Harvest’s Grow Resilience to participate in its virtual fundraising.

Minnie’s Food Pantry – Feed Just One

Minnie’s Food Pantry is one of the largest food pantries in North Texas and provides over one million meals to more than 60,000 individuals annually! Minnie’s Food Pantry is now seeing a 39% increase in its clientele. The number of clients is naturally on the rise with the extended school closures and many people out of work, combined with the fact that many items are not accessible in local stores.

Minnie’s Food Pantry has a virtual basket for donors who prefer to pick exactly what items they want to bless Minnie's Food Pantry with. One dollar helps buy three meals. Check this link to help make a difference.

Global Links – Sharing Surplus. Saving Lives.

Global Links is a medical relief and development organization supporting health improvement initiatives in resource-poor communities and promoting environmental stewardship in the U.S. healthcare system. Global Links is leading a collaborative effort to locally source and manufacture face masks and face shields, and provide gloves, gowns, disinfectants and other protective medical supplies for distribution to local safety net organizations and other nonprofits to protect their workers and vulnerable communities.

As of May, it has distributed 224,000 personal protective equipment supplies to 134 agencies located in seven counties across western Pennsylvania. If you want to help Global Links’ local and global partners stay protected, join their COVID-19 response efforts by visiting this link.

EcoRise – Inspiring the next generation of green leaders!

For the parents reading this post, pay attention to this one. EcoRise brightens up conventional classrooms with a K-12 curriculum introducing students to environmental literacy, social innovation and hands-on design skills. As a result of extended school closures, EcoRise released its At-Home Learning Resources page at no cost for all the hardworking parents and guardians who now find themselves taking on an additional role...teaching!

Consider downloading its Personal Water Eco-Audit, in which students can explore how much water they use in a day, month and year. This helps kids apply scientific inquiry and math skills in a meaningful way, since they gain awareness about the implications of their water use. You can also download the Freemium Lessons available in English and Spanish. Support EcoRise’s mission by visiting this link.

These are only a few of our Sun Club partners making a difference for our neighbors across Texas and the Northeast. Make sustainability happen in local communities by helping Sun Club create a cleaner planet for us all through sustainability grants.

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