#GivingTuesday Grows Food for Generations

POCATELLO, Idaho - Dec. 2, 2014 - PRLog -- Tree Of Life Organics (TOLO) Joins the National #GivingTuesday Movement To Encourage Spending With A Purpose

TOLO pledges to provide communities with high performance urban agriculture facilities. The Earthship Vertical Aquaponics Smartfarms, or EVAS, are designed to bring cheap organic food and sustainability education to communities around the nation. For #GivingTuesday they will be giving away their first spring crops to their Local Food Bank and developing a center to provide them with a continuous supply of fresh produce to address food insecurity at a local level.

Pocatello, Idaho, December 2^nd, 2014 – Tree Of Life Organics has joined #GivingTuesday, a first of its kind effort that will harness the collective power of a unique blend of partners—charities, families, businesses and individuals—to transform how people think about, talk about and participate in the giving season. Coinciding with the Thanksgiving Holiday and the kickoff of the holiday shopping season, #GivingTuesday will inspire people to take collaborative action to improve their local communities, give back in better, smarter ways to the charities and causes they support and help create a better world. Taking place December 2, 2014 – the Tuesday after Thanksgiving – #GivingTuesday will harness the power of social media to create a national moment around the holidays dedicated to giving, similar to how Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become days that are, today, synonymous with holiday shopping.

TOLO joined #GIVINGTUESDAY because their mission is to continuously give back to the world and develop a network of sustainability hubs to lower food costs and provide a stable means to address food insecurity around the nation. 1 in 6 people are food insecure in the United States. This is largely due to increasing costs and low wages. TOLO provides economic growth through cheaper food and jobs for the local community. The new EVAS facilities they are building use Vertical Aquaponics for extremely high production rates of all types of produce, year round. Their campaign asks the people to come together to make this dream a reality by helping build their first large facility in Pocatello, Idaho. Their long term goal is to build sustainable education programs and farms in developing nations at no cost.


“We feel the major corporations of the world have not done enough to address the problems of society, so we are giving the people a way to build a community they can be proud of,” said Scott Richardson, CEO of Tree Of Life Organics, “We are starting in our own backyard. This #GivingTuesday we’re giving the people of Pocatello a way to benefit their community for years to come.”

Seeing an opportunity to channel the generous spirit of the holiday season to inspire action around charitable giving, a group of friends and partners, led by the 92nd Street Y (92Y), came together to find ways to promote and celebrate the great American tradition of giving. Thought leaders in philanthropy, social media and grassroots organizing joined with 92Y to explore what is working in modern  philanthropy and how to expand these innovations throughout the philanthropic sector. The concept gained steam, and with the help of the United Nations Foundation and other founding partners, more than 10,000 organizations have joined the movement and are providing creative ways people can embrace #GivingTuesday and collaborate in their giving efforts to create more meaningful results.

“It’s been a privilege to work with remarkable leaders all over the country building a movement around #GivingTuesday,” said Henry Timms, 92Y’s Executive Director. “This initiative has truly been crowd-sourced by some of the smartest and most connected minds among the next generation of philanthropists and entrepreneurs.”

Currently, more than 500 corporate and nonprofit organizations have committed to participate in the initiative this year.

“#GivingTuesday is a counter narrative to Black Friday and Cyber Monday because it reminds us that the spirit of the holiday giving season should be about community and not just consumerism,” said Kathy Calvin, CEO of the UN Foundation. “The most meaningful gift we can give our children, loved ones, friends and neighbors is the commitment to work together to help build a better world.”

Those who are interested in joining Tree Of Life Organic’s #GivingTuesday initiative can visit their Indiegogo campaign or Facebook Page

For more details about the #GivingTuesday movement, visit the #GivingTuesday website (www.givingtuesday.org),) or follow #GivingTuesday (https://twitter.com/GivingTues) and the #GivingTuesday hashtag on Twitter