THUNDER BAY – The non-profit environmental organization EcoSuperior has launched an initiative aimed at encouraging Christmas shoppers to think local and think green. Their new selection of gift baskets offers environmentally friendly options for Christmas giving, including an Eat Local basket featuring a selection of locally produced foods.
“We’re working with local vendors from the Country Market to offer a unique selection of foods made right here in northwestern Ontario,” says Executive Director Ellen Mortfield. “The Eat Local basket includes items such as Thunder Oak cheese, Little Doo’s Vidalia Onion relish, Cranberry Orange chocolate bark from the Chocolate Cow, elk snack sticks from the Rainy River Elk Farm, and pizza dough mix made from Brule Creek Farm’s stone-ground flour.”
The group is also offering a Green Gardener’s basket that features water conservation tools, wildflower seeds and vermicompost, a natural fertilizer made by worms. A third option is the Home Green Up basket that includes a selection of items to help someone make their household more environmentally friendly, from non-toxic cleaners to recycling bags, a tire pressure gauge and more. Each gift basket retails for $35. Pre-paid orders for the gift baskets will be accepted until December 17 by cash or cheque only.
Shoppers can check out the gift baskets this Saturday when EcoSuperior celebrates its new Red River Road location with an open house and indoor yard sale. Proceeds from the baskets will support local environmental programs as well as a fund-raising effort to help renovate their new office space.
“We’re open Saturday from 10 am to 4 pm so that people can stop by to see our new space,” says Mortfield. “We have plans to renew this older building using green building techniques and technology and we want the community to be involved in every step of that process.”
Other fund-raising efforts at Saturday’s open house event include an off-season rain barrel sale ($50 for a fully equipped barrel made from re-purposed olive barrels) and indoor yard sale featuring bargain basement books and more.