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Natural Awakenings Central New Jersey

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Healthy Food at the Front Door

A growing trend is the ringing of a doorbell heralding the arrival of healthy food. In addition to the convenience and time savings, having a grocery delivery van make roundtrips to and from multiple customers’ doorsteps generates far less emissions than traditional shopping. Home deliveries of local and organic fresh fruits and vegetables have customers clamoring for more.

After serving most of the New York metro area for more than a decade, online grocer FreshDirect (FreshDirect.com) began delivering in the Philadelphia metro area in October 2012 and expanded to other parts of Pennsylvania, plus New Jersey and Delaware, last fall. “Our hyper-local, farm-to-fork food systems result in healthy relationships between consumers, food and farmers,” says David McInerney, co-founder of FreshDirect. The company also supports hunger organizations and provides nutritional counseling. 

Planet Organics (PlanetOrganics.com) serves the San Francisco Bay area. Beginning last fall, Instacart partnered with Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods and Costco to begin delivering food to homes in 13 neighborhoods in Chicago. Beginning in Colorado, where it’s based, Door to Door Organics (DoorToDoorOrganics.com) now provides its service in Michigan, plus metro areas of Kansas City, Chicago and New York. Green BEAN Delivery (GreenBeanDelivery.com), based in Indianapolis, now also delivers organic and sustainable foods in Cincinnati, Columbus and Dayton, Ohio; Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky; and most recently, St. Louis, Missouri.

Irv & Shelly’s Fresh Picks (FreshPicks.com) taps into 100-plus farmers within a day’s drive of its Niles, Illinois, center, to serve the Chicago and Milwaukee metro areas. “We’re able to concentrate on reaching people of all incomes and get deep into the communities,” says co-owner Shelly Herman. The eight-year-old company also partners with community groups, food pantries and schools.

Going a step further, other companies are delivering prepared healthy meals. In one example, Power Supply (MyPowerSupply.com) recently partnered with Mindful Chef to foster this connection with 50 yoga and other fitness facilities, as well as other businesses in the Washington, D.C., metro area.

Eco Tip
Tick Talk

Spring officially sprung on March 21. We have turned our clocks ahead. We are looking forward to warm winds, sunny skies and the smell of fresh cut grass. The daffodils and tulips have recently bloomed and we are just starting with the yard work that comes with the warmer weather.  Sadly, another season has started ramping up.  Tick season.

•             The best form of protection is prevention. Educating oneself about tick activity and how our behaviors overlap with tick habitats is the first step.

•             According to the NJ DOH, in 2022 Hunterdon County led the state with a Lyme disease incidence rate of 426 cases per 100,000 people. The fact is ticks spend approximately 90% of their lives not on a host but aggressively searching for one, molting to their next stage or over-wintering. This is why a tick remediation program should be implemented on school grounds where NJ DOH deems high risk for tick exposure and subsequent attachment to human hosts.

•             Governor Murphy has signed a bill that mandates tick education in NJ public schools. See this for the details.  Tick education must now be incorporated into K-12 school curriculum. See link:

https://www.nj.gov/education/broadcasts/2023/sept/27/TicksandTick-BorneIllnessEducation.pdf

•             May is a great month to remind the public that tick activity is in full swing. In New Jersey, there are many tickborne diseases that affect residents, including Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, Ehrlichiosis, Lyme disease, Powassan, and Spotted Fever Group Rickettsiosis.

•             For years, the focus has mainly been about protecting ourselves from Lyme disease. But other tick-borne diseases are on the rise in Central Jersey. An increase of incidence of Babesia and Anaplasma are sidelining people too. These two pathogens are scary because they effect our blood cells. Babesia affects the red blood cells and Anaplasma effects the white blood cells.

•             Ticks can be infected with more than one pathogen. When you contract Lyme it is possible to contract more than just that one disease. This is called a co-infection. It is super important to pay attention to your symptoms. See link.

https://twp.freehold.nj.us/480/Disease-Co-Infection

A good resource from the State:

https://www.nj.gov/health/cd/topics/tickborne.shtml

 

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