Friday Night Wine Lounge is a hit!

by palmbeachgardens, May 12, 2009 | Permalink

In February of this year a few team members and myself got together and brainstormed what has turned out to be a fabulous fundraising event - the Friday Night Wine Lounge. The first event was at the end of Febuary and the beneficiary was Autism Speaks of South Florida. DJ Bert from South Florida donated his time for this event and truly set the tone of the wine lounge. The first event raised $950 from customer donations.

So we said, “whew! , let’s try it again and see what happens, what a fun and easy way to support the local charities we care about”. The end of March rolls around - we support the Whole Planet Foundation at this wine lounge - raising $1,000! Not only did we have 70 customers come to this charity event, we had atleast 30 Whole Foods Market team members. I was in awe at the number of people who came to support my favorite core value of this company: caring about our communities and our environment.

At this point we feel that we are on to something so we brainstorm a twist on the wine lounge. We call April’s event “Barks & Brews” - a benefit for our four-legged friends. Safe Harbor Animal Sanctuary is the recipient of this month’s dog friend beer tasting. Another success raising $800 in donations in a mere 3 hours!

Here we are in May, the Friday Night Wine Lounge is scheduled for the last Friday, May 29 - 6pm to 9pm. DJ Bert will be here, now I refer to him as our “resident DJ” - we will have an array of food & wine all for a $10 donation. This month 100% of the donations will be given to Loggerhead Marine Life Center. It’s turtle season, so come out to the Friday Night Wine Lounge and support a great organization!

At this point I can only revel in the fact that our customer base truly cares about our community and our environment as well.

Let’s continue to push forward together.

–Brenna, Marketing & Community Relations Specialist

Project Hunger: Volunteer Opportunities in Palm Beach Gardens

by palmbeachgardens, February 18, 2009 | Permalink

There is such a growing need to feed the hungry as we know, and sadly, it’s now more than ever.

Last month we hosted a troop of Girl Scouts and several customer volunteers while they made sandwiches. In one short hour they made over 450 sandwiches for St. Ann’s.

Two years ago in Palm Beach County alone, there were over 1700 registered homeless adults and 1600 registered homeless school children. This number doesn’t include the families who just don’t have the money to feed themselves – which is now becoming even harder. The recent census taken on January 28-29 is expecting these numbers to grow now to be about 14% of the population. Unbelievable.

Our goal at Whole Foods Market in Palm Beach Gardens is to make this a monthly event on the last Thursday of every month. The goal is to provide 750 sandwiches a month to St. Ann’s Place.

If you are able to volunteer 1 hour of your time on our next sandwich making day May 28, please sign up at customer service.

Crazy about Arctic Char

by palmbeachgardens, January 21, 2009 | Permalink

Truly not just another fish story, Arctic Char is a delicious fish - great baked, broiled or grilled. Arctic Char is a cousin to trout and salmon, and is farm raised in Iceland.

Whole Foods Market sources Arctic Char from an Icelandic co-op in ice cold, pristine waters that are filtered through centuries-old lava rock. Pretty cool huh?

If you are interested in learning more about our Aquaculture at Whole Foods Market, please visit this website: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/products/aquaculture.php

Girl Scouts make sandwiches for Homeless

by palmbeachgardens, January 20, 2009 | Permalink

We had a great thing happen yesterday. A troop of Girl Scouts from Palm Beach came out to make sandwiches for the homeless. The girls and several volunteers set up shop in our cafe. In less than an hour the group made over 400 sandwiches for St. Ann’s Place in West Palm Beach.  

We were so moved by this event that we want to do it again. If you are interested in making sandwiches for the shelter on February 27 at 3pm email me at Brenna.Bertram@wholefoods.com to sign up.