Earth Day: Two April Events with Global Connections
As part of its efforts to celebrate Earth Day, the Alliance joined partners, celebrities and award-winning chefs at two exciting Washington, DC events that had global implications.
Global Citizen
Alliance staff helped educate attendees of the Global Citizen Earth Day Festival and Concert on the need for broader adoption of clean cookstoves and fuels. Thousands of fans showed up to for the day-long outdoor festival at the Washington Monument that featured global leaders, celebrity speakers, as well as a free concert with musicians Train, No Doubt, Mary J. Blige and Usher.
The Alliance teamed with the UN Foundation and GEN UN to talk about cookstoves and promote the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. A sunny, warm day led to a crowd of thousands who turned out to learn and take action to protect our planet.
On the day’s program was the Honorable Børge Brende, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Norway. He addressed the crowd and talked about Norway’s commitment to clean air, and their support of $40 Million over 4 years to clean Cookstoves initiatives.
“What are we waiting for? Get rid of the smoke and people survive. It is as simple as that…people should not be dying from breathing.”
Global Citizen is an initiative to help people to learn about, and take action on, global challenges such as extreme poverty, inequality and finding ways to make life more sustainable for people the world over. The key issues Global Citizen addresses are: Women & Girls, Health, Education, Finance & Innovation, Food and Hunger, Water & Sanitation, Environment and Citizenship.
Learn more at: https://www.globalcitizen.org
Charity Off the Hook
A second event held on Earth Day itself was Charity Off the Hook, in partnership with ProFish Seafood, at the well-known Tony and Joe’s Restaurant in Georgetown. This local fundraiser was focused on supporting sustainable seafood and donating the proceeds to worthy local charities.
The Alliance provided stoves from Midea, Dometic, Envirofit, BURN Manufacturing, and EcoZoom for the celebrity chefs to prepare their dishes and keep their food warm. Stoves were prominently placed on chefs’ tables throughout the event. Partners WonderBag and HotPot were also featured in a small exhibit of clean cooking technologies, and educational materials on clean cooking were strategically places throughout the restaurant. Celebrity chefs included: Spike Mendelsohn, Scott Drewno, Bryan Voltaggio, Erik Bruner Yang, Tarver King, Matt Baker, Adam Howard, Joy Crump, Bobby Jones, and David Stein.
This event was small compared to the thousands that attended to the Global Citizen festival, nevertheless the intimate setting of Charity Off the Hook helped introduce the Alliance’s mission to a new audience keenly interested in food, cooking and sustainability.
Learn more at: https://charityoffthehook.com/2015-charity-hook-fund-raiser/