Thank you, Seena. Using this technology to help people start businesses is a great idea. We were more focused on the immediate need to feed people and give them the tools they need to provide themselves with hot water and hot meals but what you are doing sounds great! Un abrazo, Jose

When do you invite me? Un abrazo, Jose

When the earthquake struck Haiti I like many people wanted to help. So happens I was talking to some friends, Carlos Fresneda and Manolo Vilchez, and they were talking about bringing solar kitchens to Haiti. Many people don't realize that Haiti has very little trees so burning wood is not a possibility. The technology allows people to use the power of the sun even if it is cold. I prepared something in my house during the big snow we had in Washington! Thanks to this ovens we could give people hot food, hot water, basic things we take for granted that they had lived without for weeks. I am not the designer but I am a cook so I prepared meals and showed the people how to use the solar kitchens. The people were wonderful. I hope to go back later this year and do more.

The solar kitchen works even in a blizzard! I used it during snowmagedon in Washingotn when we had the most snow I have seen in my life. The solar kitchens were alSol and sell for 300 euros http://www.alsol.es/alsol14.html

the obesity epidemic is a huge problem and all the diseases that come with it. It is bad enough for adult but like many parents I am concerned about the impact of obesity on our children. It is crazy that we have kids today who don't play outside, live their lives in front of television or computers. Really though this is about food and poor habits. I have been working with my duaghters' school on a curriculum to teach children about food, how to prepare it, nutrition, production, its impact on culture, history, energy, enviroment

Here in Washington, I work a lot with a group called FRESHFARM. They have been responsible for reviving farmers markets in the city. Now we have thriving markets in neighborhoods across the city. These markets are a place for people to gather, for local farmers to sell their goods, they help to build the community. And all of this happened because a group of concerned citizens, Ann Harvey Yonkers and Bernice Prince, organized themselves into a nonprofit to administer and market these farmers markets creating these opporunities. While they have a team that handles permitting, marketing, etc, the markets themselves are staffed largely by volunteers. They wanted to make the product accessible to all so they accept the EBT card at all markets, making it accessbile for people on public assistance. This was something no one else was doing. School lunch programs are another opportunity and I think it is possible to find a creative solutions to make those better. www.freshfarmmarket.org

Ciao Alessia!

For the moment, Solar for Hope is a private relief effort. It was something that was done very fast, we wanted to get there and help. As we move forward we are thinking of ways to make it better. It is too soon to say but we are committed to helping the people of Haiti and sharing this technology which cna help so many.

Chefs Move to Schools is a program that encourages chefs to adopt local schools and take an active role in helping the school feed children better, teaching the kids about nutrition. I think chefs can play a tremendous role in influencing how the public eats. We have very specialized knowledge. While our industry has been very generous to chairty, donating food, cooking at fundraiser, up to now, we have not gotten involved on this level and I think we need to be leaders on these issues.

Hello Dany. I can't really answer your questions about the solar kitchen manufacture but I invite you to look at http://www.alsol.es/alsol14.html to learn more about the kitchens. What I can tell you is that they made tremendous difference in the lives of the people we met in Haiti. To be able to have a hot meal in that situation is a small miracle especially when you consider starting a fire to cook was not an option. There are no trees left to burn!

Thank you amigo

Hola Marine.One thing I think is important is that we need to apply some of the principles of business to charity. By that I mean we need to be responsible about our finances. When people donate, they are showing great faith in what we do. We also need to set goals, enact plans to meet those goals. We need to be transparent about what we are doing the way a responsible publicy traded company would do, reporting to our supporters on our activities. We need to have some measurement. What did we want to do? how did we go about achieving that goal? were we successful? why or why not? And we need to think about our employees. We should provide our employees with the same benefits that private business does. Health care, retirement and investment plans, education benefits. We want the same caliber of people working for social businesses that work in the for profit sector and the only way to do that is compensate them adequately. Un abrazo, Jose

The trip in April we brought ten kitchens to Haiti and set them up at various relief centers through out the country. It is not the kind of thing where you would have one per house necessarily. The kitchens look like big shiny satellite dishes, bigger than a man, and have a rack where you can put the pan or pot. You point to take best advantage of the sun and cook. They work even when it is not sunny. The tehcnology is very straightforward. I hope to return with more later this year. Un abrazo, Jose