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The school year is off to a great start with kids of all ages walking and biking to school. With the help of GreenTown, parents from many of our local schools are hosting Walk or Wheel (WoW!) events to encourage kids to walk or bike to school. Some are even organizing bike buses that enable kids along the route to participate in a group bike party on the way to school and to build a sustainable bike commuting habit! National Walk to School Day takes place on Wednesday, October 7, and several schools, including Almond Elementary, Santa Rita Elementary, and Bullis Charter School, are hosting WoW! events on that day to celebrate and highlight the benefits of walking and biking to school. Other schools, with GreenTown’s encouragement, are hosting WoW! activities throughout the month, on the October date that works best for their school communities. Here’s a snapshot of what’s happening this month: Oct 2 - Springer WoW! Day (part of a monthly series) plus Bike Bus, Covington WoW! Day, and Loyola Walk ‘n Roll Event with GreenTown’s blender bike and a safety talk Oct 7 - Almond, Santa Rita, and Bullis Charter School WoW! Events plus a Santa Rita Bike Bus. GreenTown will be out at Almond’s WoW! Event with the blender bike and a safety talk. Oct 16 - Gardner Bullis WoW! Day and Bike Bus (part of a mostly monthly series) Oct 23 - Oak Avenue WoW! Event (part of a monthly series) Congrats and thank you to all of the parents who organize WoW! Days, and to those parents who help remind their kids to walk and bike to school. A high five to all the kids using their strong bodies to power their way to school. The more kids that are walking and biking, the better: it’s safer, it’s good for the brain, and the environmental benefits add up - from avoiding toxic air emissions to reducing greenhouse gases. Speaking of the safety in numbers, bike buses are a thing now, thanks to Terry Barton, a Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition member and GreenTown supporter, and the parents who are leading the charge! Momentum from a bike bus started late last year at Springer and has continued into this year. A weekly bike bus runs from the north towards campus and often celebrates with a victory lap around the blacktop. Gardner Bullis also added a bike bus to its Walk or Wheel! (WoW!) activities this year. The bike bus runs weekly from the University Ave neighborhood, and they will be adding a line from the Los Altos Ave attendance area. GreenTown worked with Gardner parent leaders to train them how to safely and successfully take a group of young kids to school in an organized bike bus. Finally, Santa Rita will run its first bike bus of the year on October 7! If you’re interested in learning more about how to engage parents and students around alternative transportation to school, contact us at info@greentownlosaltos.org. We’re happy to chat about it! Example of a recent bike bus in action! In other bike news: Cub Scouts focus on bike safety. The Cub Scouts locally are focusing on bike safety this year! Woo hoo! The Almond Elementary troop hosted a bike rodeo - an educational bike safety event - to recruit new scouts. The Cub Scout troop at Loyola participated in the school’s Walk ‘n Roll event by providing helmet fit instruction and a bike fix-it station. Keep up the great work. Los Altos High School (LAHS) Green Team students will “ride” in the Festival of Lights Parade. The Green Team in partnership with the LAHS PTSA Sustainability Committee made a successful bid for a group of lighted bicycles and bedecked bucket bikes to ride in the Festival of Light’s Parade this November 29! Make sure to give them a BIG shout out when you see them ride by! Congrats to all those that made this happen.

Today we are celebrating our second GreenTown garden, this one at the Woodland Branch Library. In collaboration with the Los Altos Library Endowment (LALE), we’re helping transform an underused outdoor area into a welcoming library terrace and native habitat teaching garden for South Los Altos. The new space officially opened with a ribbon cutting on August 15, surrounded by a wonderful fanfare of activities and attended by city and library officials, community partners, volunteers, neighbors and supporters. For years, GreenTown and our garden friends looked at this open space and wondered: What could this become? We watched students pass through on their way to the library after school and neighbors stroll through on weekends, while our volunteers worked nearby to restore and maintain the drought-tolerant demonstration garden at the entrance to this back area. We imagined the additional open space becoming something more, a place for nature, learning, and community. Now that vision is beginning to take root. A Garden Waiting for the Rain Our native plant consultant, Nikki Hanson of California Sisters Landscapes, outdid herself working alongside our garden friends to prepare both the existing demonstration garden and our new habitat garden for the celebration. But we’re not finished yet! For now, visitors will see a newly planted valley oak, surrounded by mulch and plenty of open ground. That is intentional. We’re waiting for the rains and the cooler planting season before filling the garden with California native plants. Over the coming months and into spring, expect several community garden workdays as we bring the habitat plan to life. The Los Altos Public Arts Commission also plans to have the library wall alongside the garden painted to complement the overall garden design, adding another creative dimension to the space. Young Artists Leave Their Mark Already adding color along the library wall are a collection of wonderfully painted pots, and they have their own sustainability story. The pots were reused from the City and given new life by a group of students from St. Nicholas Catholic School in Los Altos Hills, led by Clara A. During the school year, the students designed and painted the pots. This summer, they returned to plant California natives in them. It’s a small but beautiful example of what we hope this garden becomes: a place where young people can create, learn and get their hands in the soil. More to Come The native habitat garden is only the beginning. Future plans include a milkweed nursery, a rainwater-capture feature, and other hands-on educational activities that will help visitors learn about native habitat, water conservation, and the natural environment around us. Most of all, we are excited to see an open space become a community space. As we shared at the ribbon cutting: We looked at an open space and imagined what it could be. Today, it becomes a place for nature, learning and community. South Los Altos now has another place to gather, learn, enjoy nature and perhaps even get a little dirt under your fingernails. There is still more planting, learning, creating and growing ahead, and we invite you to be part of it. Welcome to the Woodland Library native habitat teaching garden. Come visit, and come grow with us.

Imagine growing your own food—lettuce, tomatoes, and squash—in your garden and watering, tending, and feeding it nutrients, only to throw out almost half of it.1 That's not unlike the food waste problem in America. The average American wastes a quarter of the groceries they purchase.2 But waste doesn’t only occur at the level of the consumer. Supermarkets, to meet perceived consumer expectations of full shelves and a large product variety, intentionally overstock produce and end up discarding up to 30 percent of perfectly edible food because it looks less attractive or has slower sales.3 Schools have rampant food waste as well. Approximately 40 pounds of food per student are wasted each year across all states. In total, each year, more than 165 billion dollars worth of fresh food is thrown out in America.4 According to the US Department of Agriculture, 13.7 percent of American households experience food insecurity.5 Wasted food not only could be redirected towards the people who need it, but also could be directed to address its severe environmental consequences. Food waste contributes a third of all greenhouse gas emissions globally and contributes to 70% of biodiversity loss through reducing natural habitats and replacing them with farmland.6 As food waste decomposes in landfills, it produces methane, a potent greenhouse gas. In Los Altos, around 4,000 tons of food go to waste each year, coming from a variety of sources, like single-family homes and restaurants.7 This corresponds to emissions of roughly 2,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO₂e) per year—the same greenhouse gas emissions produced by nearly 500 cars driven for one year or 300 homes’ annual energy use. If 75 percent of this food waste could be prevented, as stated in the goals of Senate Bill (SB) 1383, so much of the harm of food-related greenhouse gas emissions could be avoided. Data Source: CalRecycle SB 1383 is a California law requiring certain businesses to: (1) donate 20 percent of edible surplus food to food banks and; (2) reduce by 75 percent the amount of organic waste sent to landfills. The law was passed in 2016 and became enforced statewide in 2022. The law targeted Tier 1 businesses first, which include supermarkets with a $2+ million revenue, grocery stores with 10,000+ square feet, and wholesale vendors. In 2024, the law expanded to Tier 2 businesses, identified as restaurants and cafeterias with 250+ seats, hotels and health facilities, and large venues and events. To alleviate the impacts of the donation requirement on businesses, in January 2026, SB 881 was proposed, extending existing tax credits to farmers and organizations who met the 1383 requirements. While laws like SB 1383 target larger scale business, many local businesses and schools in Los Altos and Mountain View are nonetheless working to reduce food waste. At the Downtown Los Altos seasonal Farmer’s Market, many of the local produce stalls use their excess stock, donating to organizations like the Community Services Agency, feeding it to livestock, or using it for their other markets. Local businesses also take advantage of their surplus food, utilizing apps such as “Too Good to Go” or “Imperfect Foods”, which encourage customers to buy out their stock. Los Altos High School and local elementary schools, working with local waste hauling companies, make compost bins available to students. Compostable waste is then transferred to various composting facilities where it decomposes and is typically used as a soil amendment for farms and vineyards. Food waste is a significant challenge because its impacts extend beyond the food in the trash. Producing and distributing the food requires resources such as land and energy, which all end up wasted when food is uneaten. Meanwhile, millions of Americans experience food insecurity, while edible food accumulates in landfills and ends up contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. While policies like SB 1383 and local food recovery programs are working to address the problem, individuals can also make choices to help reduce food waste. Planning out your meals before grocery shopping, freezing food before it spoils, utilizing leftovers in creative ways can all reduce the amount of food sent to landfills. For more information on how food waste affects our society, stay tuned for an upcoming presentation by GreenTown summer interns. ___________________________ 1 USDA. Food Waste FAQs. Retrieved in July 2026 from https://www.usda.gov/about-food/food-safety/food-loss-and-waste/food-waste-faqs. 2 Mooney, C. The staggering environmental footprint of all the food that we just throw in the trash. Retrieved in August 2026 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/04/18/americans-waste-about-a-quarter-of-the-food-they-buy-and-the-environmental-consequences-are-staggering/. 3 FreshDirect. Overcoming Grocery Store Food Waste: Solutions for a Sustainable Future. Retrieved in August 2026 from https://www.freshdirect.com/blog/overcoming-grocery-store-food-waste/. 4 CNBC. America's $165 billion food-waste problem. Retrieved in August 2026 from https://www.cnbc.com/2015/04/22/americas-165-billion-food-waste-problem.html. 5 USDA. Food Security in the U.S. - Key Statistics & Graphics. Retrieved in August 2026 from https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nutrition-assistance/food-security-in-the-us/key-statistics-graphics. 6 WWF. Food loss and waste. Retrieved in August 2026 from https://www.worldwildlife.org/our-work/food/food-waste/. 7 CalRecycle. Solid Waste Characterization Home. Retrieved in August 2026 from https://www2.calrecycle.ca.gov/WasteCharacterization/.

About Us Mission OUR MISSION To protect and enhance the environment of Los Altos & Los Altos Hills through community engagement, education, and advocacy while contributing to and leveraging regional and global environmental efforts. OUR VALUES Leaving the environment a better place for the next generation Policy and decision-making based on data and scientific research Inclusion and partnership, and conducting our activities in a fair, ethical (and, when appropriate, fun) manner Education, mentorship and the inclusion of youth as much as possible in our activities Honesty and respect when presenting fact-based research and educating our community OUR BELIEFS A clean and healthy environment is vital to the health of our communities. Human activities impact the natural environment and contribute to climate change and pollution that directly affects human health Individual, community and governmental actions can mitigate the negative environmental impacts of human activities We can arrest human caused climate change and environmental degradation by individual, community and legislative action GreenTown is a project of the Los Altos Mountain View Community Foundation’s Local Impact Collective Team OUR TEAM Suresh Venkatraman President, Board Suresh’s daughters’ engagement in environmental causes were a major influence to join GreenTown. Youth all over the world are asking us, the current stewards, to do everything we can to reverse our effect on the planet’s environments and climate. Actions by individuals, communities, and governments must all come together to accomplish this monumental but achievable task. Suresh is passionate that we become acutely conscious of our consumption – from energy to products, from how they are manufactured, packaged to how they are disposed of – and make decisions and take actions to minimize our footprint. Don Weiden Treasurer Don’s career as a civil/environmental engineer and his personal enjoyment in wilderness camping since grade school have led to his interest in minimizing the impacts of our engineered and human activities on the natural environment. He became interested in GreenTown Los Altos when investigating residential solar panels for his home and is now a proponent of converting vehicles and equipment from using fossil fuels to clean electrical energy. Gary Hedden Past President, Board Member Conservation Lead Gary joined GreenTown in 2011 and now leads the effort to protect our natural resources. That means planting trees, cleaning creeks and advocating for sound conservation policies. He still likes to bike, and leads the Historic Homes Bike Ride, the Native Garden Bike Tour, the Hardy Jones Memorial Bike Ride, and the Summer & Winter Solstice night bike rides. Glenda Chang Board Member Water Lead, Woodland Library Garden Lead Glenda is a long-time reef and ocean conservation advocate, and pursues the Sustainable Development Goals, also known as the Global Goals. Change for a healthier planet can start at home, by young and old alike. As such, she is eager to learn, collaborate, and engage together as a community. Her interests include SCUBA diving, technological innovation, disaster relief, island nations and their people, discovering the outdoors, photography, and being foodies with her family. One of her recent projects is providing clean water to an indigenous mountain tribe. Laura Teksler Board Member Clean Air, Electrification Laura first became involved with GreenTown as the Almond parent lead for the Walk or Wheel (WoW) program over a decade ago. She is a life-long environmentalist and lover of the outdoors who has dedicated her paid and volunteer careers to sustainability efforts. Recently through her work on the Los Altos Environmental Commission and Acterra she has become an advocate for home electrification. Madhuri Davidson Board Member Schools WoW!, Zero Waste Madhuri has been a volunteer in many of GreenTown's conservation projects. Recently, she has taken on a pivotal role, working alongside Jana to maintain, update, and clean up our membership database. Madhuri is a Living Classroom Docent at Springer Elementary where her two children are students. She is also working with GreenTown and the City to revive the WoW program and Safe Routes to School education program at Springer Elementary! Carl van Reis Board Member Marketing and Outreach Carl van Reis has joined the GreenTown Board after serving on the Los Altos Environmental Commission for the last four years. He has worked closely with us during that time on our annual Living Electric Fair, first as the commission's liaison and then as a steering committee member. He previously ran communications for the non-profit 350 Silicon Valley. Cary Anderson Eating Green Lead Cary enjoys an active lifestyle as a retired CPA and as CFO in private equity and commercial real estate industries. Cary currently volunteers for the YMCA basketball programs, the LAHS Mentor/Tutor program and, recently, a vegan farm / animal sanctuary. Cary enjoys learning how things work, being hands-on and has a strange attraction to performing manual labor ("brawn over brains"). As the Eating- Green lead, he aims to have fun challenging himself and encouraging others to better understand how our food choices impact all forms of life. Connie Miller Clean Air Lead Past Board Vice President As a Bay Area native and Los Altos resident who has spent her entire life enjoying the abundance of nature our region offers, Connie sees the urgent need to act boldly to create a sustainable and thriving environment for our children. All actions start with one person and grow into a collective wave of change. Connie believes Los Altos and Los Altos Hills are perfectly poised, with their educated residents, affluence and regional influence, to be the leaders of change and leave a lasting positive legacy for our planet. Through GreenTown Los Altos programs, education and policy influence, Connie hopes to be a resource for and inspire positive environmental change in others. Kim Jelfs Adopt-A-Highway Lead Past Board Member, Kim first became involved with GreenTown through our "Skip the Straw' campaign and hasn't looked back! She loved our hands-on, "can do" approach and immediately felt at home. A former H.R. Manager, she has volunteered in schools and local communities and is passionate about waste reduction, eliminating single-use plastics, and living sustainably. When not growing food in her garden, you can find Kim hiking local trails and traveling. Kris Jensen Consulting Director, Development Kris is our quintessential perfect match. The living embodiment of an advocate, starting at age 13 by penning a note to Pres. Reagan protesting removing the White House’s solar panels. He lives sustainably, is a certified permaculture designer, gardens, cooks and does woodwork when he’s not guiding our community efforts. Michele Gerstel Marketing Support Michele admits joining the GreenTown team was a no brainer. Why? Who wouldn’t want to be a part of a team of passionate, brilliant residents working to improve our community’s future? Marketing its programs are just plain fun. Not to mention rewarding. Enough to keep anyone smiling. Jana Schlanker Organization Support Jana is our organizational go to. Her smiling face makes it easy to make any request and know it will be readily handled. From managing our growing database, organizing volunteers and coordinating events, she has an eye for details that we enjoy having on board.

WHY EAT GREEN? Eating Green BACKGROUND When it comes to plant-based diets, what’s not to like? It’s good for our planet, good for our health and good for the animals! GreenTown Los Altos is here to support YOU and local restaurants in transitioning to more plant-based meals! Here’s why. Healthy Planet = Healthy People Healthy Bodies = Happy Bodies Happy Animals = Happy Planet Los Altos and Los Altos Hills residents want to eat more plants References RESOURCES Greenpeace Less is More Campaign Food Revolution Network One Meal a Day for the Planet Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine Veghead, etc. VegNews Email Us For inquiries about the "Eating Green" program contact us at: info@greentownlosaltos.org

Eating Green Why Eat Green? BACKGROUND When it comes to plant-based diets, what’s not to like? It’s good for our planet, good for our health and good for the animals! GreenTown Los Altos is here to support YOU and local restaurants in transitioning to more plant-based meals! Here’s why. Healthy Planet = Healthy People Healthy Bodies = Happy Bodies Happy Animals = Happy Planet Los Altos and Los Altos Hills residents want to eat more plants References Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies! RESOURCES Greenpeace Less is More Campaign Food Revolution Network One Meal a Day for the Planet Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine Veghead, etc. VegNews Email Us For inquiries about the "Eating Green" program contact us at: info@greentownlosaltos.org