Vote for Local Nonprofits that Will Receive Donations from New Leaf Envirotoken Program

Cast your vote by May 31 and help determine the six local nonprofits that will be beneficiaries of New Leaf Community Market’s Envirotoken program for a year starting this summer. The ballot can be accessed by clicking here.

The Envirotoken program has been in place since 1993. How it works: each time you reuse a grocery bag, you receive a token worth 10 cents that you can direct to one of the beneficiaries. In 2014, a total of $100,119 was donated by New Leaf to 44 different organizations.

The candidates on the online ballot for New Leaf stores in Capitola and Santa Cruz are: California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF), California Native Plant Society, Coastal Watershed Council, Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF), EcoFarm (Ecological Farming Association), Fish Wise: Sustainable Fishery Advocates, Friends of the Sea Otter, Friends of UCSC Farm & Garden, Homeless Garden Project, Live Earth Farm Discovery Program, Native Animal Rescue, Organic Farming Research Foundation (OFRF), Bike Santa Cruz County, Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, Save our Shores, Surfrider Foundation, Seymour Marine Discovery Center, and The Clean Oceans Project. Throughout May, these organizations will be tabling at New Leaf stores to educate the community about their mission and work.

New Leaf Community Markets introduced the Envirotoken program in 1993 to encourage the use of reusable bags and support local environmental nonprofits. Since 1993, New Leaf shoppers have reused bags over 5 million times, which generated donations of well over half a million dollars to local nonprofits. Since the introduction of this innovative program, many other retailers in the county and across the U.S. have implemented similar programs. For more information about the Envirotoken program and New Leaf’s other community giving programs, visit http://newleaf.com/community.