GROW is Going on Tour!

This week, we will be updating our Social Media sites with info on Ted and Susan from Project Amigo-GROW’s sister program! They’ll be traveling to several natural food stores throughout the week promoting GROW! Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook and visit them if you’re in the area!

Organics Unlimited Twitter

GROW Twitter

Organics Unlimited Facebook

GROW Facebook

Introducing our GROW Earth Day Donation Project

In celebration of Earth Day 2010, we’re spilling the beans about our plans to launch the GROW Earth Day Donation Project! Working with the International Community Foundation, the Earth Day Donation Project is dedicated to raising funds and educating the community on organic produce and programs that help to improve the lives of farm workers in Mexico and Ecuador. In addition to funds raised by GROW-branded banana purchases, this project will allow those who wish to donate directly to the GROW Fund do so through an online webpage and will run for an entire year.

Organics Unlimited is also building a cause-specific tab on their GROW Facebook page, and linking the donation site through all social media outlets. This tab will feature a tree that “grows” with the amount of contributions made, and updates on donation progress and news.

We’re excited to offer contributors a way to donate directly to the GROW Fund, and can’t wait to get the program up and running!

GROW Gives Academic Scholarships to Deserving Students

Through funds raised by the GROW program, we’re able to send sons and daughters of farm workers to secondary school and college. Without an education, many of these deserving young people would continue in the poverty chain of generations of field workers.

Each year, GROW selects a group of about 20 to 40 applicants ranging from junior high to college age. They are the children of workers in the state of Colima– the area where most of our bananas are grown. The students are selected for their dedication to their studies and for their academic potential.

GROW is proud to play a role in assisting these remarkable students in setting and reaching their goals –students like Alberto Ramírez Rivera. Coming from a family of 9 and being raised by a single mother after his father died, he has had to work to help support his family. Determined and eager to learn, his life changed when he was offered an academic grant from GROW. Through the GROW scholarship program, he is now studying agricultural engineering at the University of Colima. His future is bright, as is that of his family, thanks to funding from the sale of GROW bananas.

When you purchase GROW branded bananas, you are helping people like Alberto succeed in life.

Unusual Banana Benefits

You already know that bananas are yummy additions to breakfast cereals and a great source of potassium (400 mg of potassium to be exact). What you might not know is that there are many other extraordinary uses for bananas and banana peels. Here are 5 unusual banana benefits that you may not be aware of:

• A dose of happiness:

Next time you’re feeling down, eat a banana! Researchers have found that bananas have tryptophan, which helps provide the body with serotonin, promoting feelings of happiness.

• Good for an upset stomach:

I won’t go into the specific icky details of how bananas can help someone suffering from an upset stomach (particularly diarrhea), if you won’t take my word for it, take a look at NIH’s Medical Encyclopedia. In one sentence: bananas help make stools harder and provide your body with electrolytes that are lost during bouts of vomiting and diarrhea. Enough said.

• Better than a bandage:

When you grow up in the home of a fourth generation family of banana growers, you’re bound to you get home remedies involving bananas. This one is one of my grandma’s personal favorites: whenever you get a scrape or small burn, place the inside of a banana peel on the wound. It will help with the pain and the healing. If you’d like to learn about other crazy family remedies, I’d be happy to share the healing powers of aloe, garlic, tea and potato skins.

• Hangover cure:

Banana smoothie anyone? A blended banana drink with milk and honey will help get rid of a nasty hangover. The banana helps rehydrate the body and the honey helps with sugar levels.

• Teeth whitener?

This particular use hasn’t been scientifically proven but I have heard various success stories. People claim that rubbing the inside of a banana peel in a circular motion on teeth will significantly help whiten teeth. I plan on trying this out and will report back on the status of my teeth whitening progress.