One thing I used to hate about the Bay Area is how its population is so smug in its assuredness that we live in the best place in the world.
I don’t hate that about it anymore, I’ve just accepted that it’s true. Things happen all the time that make me so grateful that I live here (and more than that, that I am able to afford to), but recently there were two – and both of them pertain to this blog.
While I can’t claim a San Francisco residency, I am proud that recently, my neighboring city supervisors voted to ban plastic shopping bags from major grocery chains in the next six months. Of course this made us a laughing stock in other parts of the country, as if the city supervisors don’t have anything more pressing to do than this. But I think it sets an excellent example of raising awareness.
The second was much lower profile, and didn’t get any media coverage. In fact, I am afraid to leave the company’s name in this memo, because I know how companies can be about PR, where everything always has to go through approved PR channels. Even though I’d like this company to get the recognition it deserves.
My husband started a new job last month. It’s with a fairly large, and very successful company in Silicon Valley. The company still has some of the trappings that we heard about in the flush days of the dot-com era: his boss beats his subordinates in foosball or ping-pong regularly; lunch is brought in several times a week; a plethora of free snacks and beverages are always available.
Well, not too long ago, my husband “leaked” me this memo that he and all its employees got, and it made me so proud. Yes, I am sure there are a lot of companies who are doing such things; Google and its local café serving only food from within a certain radius is a great example.
What I like about this memo is that it states that it is making these changes not only for issues of sustainability, but because it cares about the health of its employees – how cool is that?
(I’m running the memo in full, with all brackets replacing the identity of the company just in case…)
My husband says there are still vending machines with junk food, because we all know that when a mid-afternoon pick-me-up is needed, sometimes the only thing that will do it is chocolate. But still, offering local, organic fruit and other healthy snacks for free is just cool. Perhaps some soda junkies will actually start cutting down on their high-fructose corn syrup habits in favor of organic teas and juices, and that certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Hello all,
We are excited to let you know that … we will be introducing the first in a series of changes towards providing healthier snacks throughout the company. These improvements are part of a general effort to move [the company] to the next level of commitment to environmentally sound and sustainable practices at the workplace.
[In our headquarters,] we will start serving locally grown organic fruit as well as locally produced organic milk. We are launching a pilot program at [the main building] that will start with a completely new snack selection, providing healthy and delicious alternatives to our current offerings. As an accommodation to requests we have received, we will continue to provide Coke, Diet Coke, Mountain Dew, Pepsi and Diet Pepsi for an interim period of two weeks to allow for a smooth transition to alternative beverage options. Other buildings will receive daily samples of the new snacks. The results of this pilot program will determine what will go into Promontory and other permanent buildings.
Welcome to [company’s] Healthy Snack Initiative!
We will be posting more informative content here before next week, so please check back for updates.
New Snack and Beverage Selection
[The company] recognizes that serving healthful snacks and beverages to [our] people is an integral part of the company’s commitment to environmentally sound and sustainable practices at the workplace. In this spirit, the changes we are making in the pilot program are guided by the following criteria:
• Eliminate food containing substances that are
o Known to be harmful (like trans fat or high fructose corn syrup)
o Possibly harmful and not necessary (like chemicals used as preservatives, colorings, flavorings, etc.)
o Overly sweet or salty
• Reduce individually packaged food items to
o Lessen the burden on the environment
o Support conscious portion control
• Select new foods according to
o Nutritional value and wholeness
o Whether the item comes from a local source
o Whether the item is organic and sustainably farmed and processed
o Taste
o Affordability

Sources of Our New Snacks and Beverages
All snacks and beverages have been carefully selected and tested by [our] people. We hope you will find the selection delicious and satisfying.
Note: This list is still incomplete and will be updated.
• Fresh Fruit and Vegetables
o The Fruitguys
• Dairy Products and Soy Milk
o Milk
o Wallaby Yogurt
• Dried Fruit and Nuts, Trail Mix, Granola
o Sunridge Farms
o Oat Cuisine
o Nature’s Path
• Chips and Crackers
o Stacy’s
o Garden of Eatin’
o Wasa
o Finn Crisp
• Breakfast and Energy Bars
o Bora Bora bars
o Larabars
o Powerbar “Harvest”
• Bread and Cookies
o Vital Vittels
o Esther’s German Bakery
• Miscellaneous
o Maranatha Nut Butters
o Dr. McDougall’s
o Santa Cruz Organics
• Beverages
o Honest Tea
o Purity Organic
o Knudsen Apple Juice
o Numi Organic Tea