Yesterday, Tech Go Green had the opportunity to be the nonprofit exhibitor at the Manhattan Beach Farmer’s Market. Since we have become more involved with the City of Manhattan Beach, I’ve learned that this city is a green champion. The city is already taking large steps to ban the use of plastic bags!

We decided to complement the city’s efforts and give reusable tote bags as gifts for donations to Tech Go Green. It was an excellent way to get to know the locals and spread sustainable awareness. At 12PM, the market picked up and the small street filled with friends and families. I expected nothing less on a perfect Tuesday afternoon in Manhattan Beach.





It wasn’t until after the rush that I had the opportunity to take a break and document our booth. As you can see, Heather was modeling our new TGG shirt and the tote bag we had printed for Manhattan Beach.





I was very surprised to see the amount of support that the locals had for our organization. Sometimes, shoppers would stop just to take a peek at our cork board and others just wanted to know how much were the tote bags. Every person we shared our mission with was excited about our involvement in Manhattan Beach. The locals were very encouraging and loved our cause. The few times our bags were refused were because people already had too many reusable bags. It was great to see such participation in reusable bags.

One lady took the time to tell me a story of her uncle who was a farmer in Mexico. One of their cows had become sick for months and no one could tell why. Even the doctors were unable to find a cure. After months of suffering, the cow eventually died and her uncle decided to have the cow opened up to find out the cause of death. Low and behold, there was a plastic bag in its stomach.

Shoppers left and right were sharing their green success stories to me. One lady was from an organization called Planet Pals where they have been able to reduce an entire school’s lunch waste from 75 bags to 3 bags! They have also set up an awareness and education program for the students. Her daughter, a student at the school, still had a stamp on her hand from their “Trash-less Tuesdays” event earlier that day (I think that’s what it was called).





At the end of the day, we were able to raise about $150 for Tech Go Green. Thank you to the Manhattan Beach community for your support and to Natalie for allowing us this opportunity!