Whole Story

We are wrapping all our holiday gifts in festive green Whole Foods shopping bags with red ribbons tied to them! The bags will include fair trade and organic treats and home-made goodies as well as wind power gift cards.

My gift giving is two fold this year: 1. For work-mates I will be putting together some vegan chocolate chip cookie ingredients into some funky recycled preserve jars that I found at a local flea market - and will be using recycled paper products to attach the recipe and instructions. (I will be posting this giving procedure on my website - check it out) 2. For family members and close friends I will be giving memberships to Eco-organizations. Happy Giving!

This is a wonderful blog! Thanks for doing this, Whole Foods. I feel like sometimes we are just giving people something we don't even know if they need or will like. Why don't we think about what these people's interests are instead and give them a gift that will keep on giving? If they have kids that love animals, give them a zoo membership that helps sustain a local community organization and that they can enjoy all year long. They will think of you every time they go. Pair their interests with a donation in their name to an organization that is a good match. I have often given $ in the name of my teacher friends and relatives to organizations that allow African children to get an education. There are so many organizations, people, and animals out there that need $/gifts more than we do. When you give a gift like this, you really are doing two kindnesses at once. And I think we all know that we could use a little more kindness in the world! Happy Holidays! Meghan Rubinstein Denver, CO

I'm putting all of my women's/girls gifts in vintage handbags. The men's will be in reused baskets purchased at the thrift store. All of my gift shopping is going to be done at flea markets, thrift and vintage shops and I'm giving a lot of fair trade chocolate, honey, and spices, too. I use newsprint when I absolutely must wrap a box, and make a big ribbon out of yarn, which can be re-used.

I recycle brown paper bags by using them as wrapping paper. After wrapping, decorate the gift with pine cones and greenery.

For years my family has made each year's gift tags from the previous year's Christmas cards and envelopes. (We do the same with other greeting cards and envelopes. I love Jennfer s idea of using the leftover wrapping for "stuffing" bags and baskets, and will now also shred the scraps from the greeting cards and envelopes as well. Thanks, everyone, for helping my family have and spread a greener Christmas!

I give gifts that require no wrapping whatsoever. I give flower pots full of potting soil and packets of seeds with instructions to grow your own kitchen herbs. I give bowls with organic flour, dried fruit and nuts with a recipe attached to the side. I have always used old maps to wrap gifts for guys. Kids love brightly colored water/travel bottles--the ones from Whole Foods are great--filled with granola mix or caramelized nuts!! Why should the treats for kids be plastic non-reuseable tubes filled with fake candy full of dye and sugar? This year, I made all my friends and family a cookbook of all my favorite recipes. I made each one a CD for the computer. I give gift certificates to Goodwill. Going green does not mean that we "try" not to be wasteful. It means we have drawn the line to excess and waste in every way possible. Here's the gift that will score you the most points: buy a canvas shopping bag at Whole Foods. As the gift tag, attach a gift certificate to Whole Foods. Inside, add a cookbook, some great ingredients, a water bottle and voila---the gift that just keep giving!!

I tend to give whole grains (or foods) in jars that I've painted with recipes attached or if I give kitchen accessories, I will wrap them in towels that match the recipient's kitchen, likewise if I give something for a bathroom, wrapped in the towels to match.

While I appreciate the arguments put forth above. I wonder why a company that asserts they are a "Green Company" does not provide customers with transit directions to the stores. I know that <a href="http://www.publicroutes.com" rel="nofollow"> PublicRoutes.com </a> provides both transit and driving directions to websites so that users can get transit directions with a single click from Whole Foods website. I submit that Whole Foods by providing transit directions in such a way that user does NOT have to go to three transit sites to find out how to get the store, Whole Foods will be truly encouraging people to use Public Transit to get to the store. I mean think about it if 50 people per stores used public transit instead of driving to Whole Foods a day, and grew by 5 or 10 people a day until 500, the impact would be significant. Does this make sense? PublicRoutes is like MapQuest which is free to websites to provide driving directions, but if your promoting green initiatives it seems that you want to promote transit, where possible as well. Best regards, David Smith