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organic food

via Meg Sullivan (used with permission) and Canva/Photos

A volunteer hands out food in a food bank and Meg Sullivan shares her dad's kind gesture.

When we consider people who have had a positive impact on the world, we often think of those who have made grand gestures to improve the lives of others, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Greta Thunberg, or Mahatma Gandhi. Unfortunately, that type of effort is out of reach for the average person.

However, O Organics would like to remind everyone that they can positively impact the world through small, consistent acts of kindness that add up over time. Much like how a small creek can create a valley over the years, we can change lives through small, consistent acts of kindness.

O Organics is dedicated to the well-being of all by nourishing people everywhere with delicious organic foods grown by producers who meet USDA-certified organic farming standards.

Upworthy's Instagram page recently posted a touching example of everyday kindness. Meg Sullivan shared how her father, Tom, peeled oranges for her lunch just about every day from kindergarten through high school. But on the final day of her senior year of high school, he sent his 17-year-old daughter unpeeled oranges with a touching note about how she’d have to start peeling them for herself.



“It’s Time Baby Girl,” he wrote on a wikiHow printout on how to peel an orange with a drawing of himself crying. For the father, this daily ritual was about more than just making lunch; it was about showing that he cared by going the extra mile. “I could have put money on her lunch account,” Tom told Today.com. “But it’s one of those little things I thought was important, that she knows somebody’s taking the time to take care of her.”

The small, daily gesture taught Megan an essential lesson in kindness.

The post reminded people how their fathers’ small acts of kindness meant so much to them. “My dad peeled my oranges until I graduated high school, too. Now, I peel my daughter’s oranges and will for the next 7 plus years,” Katie wrote in the comments. “Love this. My dad peeled mine, too. When I moved out, he gave me an orange peeler gadget,” Mary added.

o organics, albertson's giving backO Organics has a wide array of foods and flavors covering almost everything on your shopping list.via Albertson's

Did you know that every time you go to the supermarket, you can also change the world through small gestures? O Organics not only allows you to feed your family delicious and nutritious organic food, but each purchase also gives back to help people and communities facing food insecurity.

Through contributions from customers like you, O Organics donates up to 28 million meals annually. The company’s contribution is essential when, according to the USDA, 47.4 million Americans live in food-insecure households.

O Organics has a wide array of foods and flavors covering almost everything on your shopping list. “Over the years, we have made organic foods more accessible by expanding O Organics to every aisle across our stores, making it possible for health and budget-conscious families to incorporate organic food into every meal,” Jennifer Saenz, EVP and Chief Merchandising Officer at Albertsons, one of many stores where you can find O Organics products, said in a statement.

O Organics now offers over 1500 items, from dairy products such as eggs and milk to packaged meats and breakfast staples such as cereal bars, granola and oatmeal. You can also enjoy affordable organic produce with O Organics’ fresh salads and fruit.

Everybody wants to make the world a better place. With O Organics, you can feed your family healthy, organic food every time you go to the market while paying it forward by contributing to the company’s efforts to end food insecurity nationwide. That’s a small, daily gesture that can amount to incredible change.

All photos courtesy of Albertsons
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Summer is officially over, which means we’re looking for any excuse to get together and watch a game or grill outside in the cooling temperatures.

The thing about hosting though is figuring out what to feed your guests—especially with rising prices all around. And frankly, everyone is sick of pizza.


Albertsons has you covered with fresh, organic ingredients to create delicious meals that cost under $5 per serving to create. The philosophy of their O Organics® product line is “NON GMO. AND YES GTF (Great Tasting Food).”

All photos courtesy of Albertsons

Eating organic is good for your body and the planet, but it doesn’t have to break the bank. By following a few suggestions, you’re almost guaranteed to impress whatever crowd you’re serving: friends, family, colleagues, even a romantic interest.

You’ve got this in the bag, friend—so create a party playlist and get your cutting board ready.

Starting with appetizers, Roasted Tomato Salsa is a crowd favorite. It’s versatile and easy to customize and can be served with eggs for a festive brunch or with tortilla chips as a cure for the munchies while everyone waits for the main course. There is some prep work involved, so we recommend making the salsa ahead of time and storing it in the fridge. While the recipe doesn’t specifically call for organic tomatoes, organic Roma tomatoes can be swapped in or out, depending on your mood.

Another option is to pick up a few bags of O Organics® baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, celery and cucumbers to make a crudite tray. For a main course that is sure to please a crowd, Killer Beef Chili costs less than $3/serving to make, and can easily be morphed into taco salad if desired.

Main Ingredients

  • 1 lb. lean (93/7) O Organics® ground beef
  • 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt (divided into 1/2 tsp. and 1/4 teaspoon)
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 3 garlic cloves (minced)
  • 2 tablespoons chili powder
  • 1 (6 ounce) can O Organics® Tomato Paste
  • 2 (15 ounce) cans O Organics® Pinto Beans
  • 2 cups fresh pico de gallo (from produce section)
  • 2 cups water

Cooking Instructions

Step 1

Spray a 5-quart pot with nonstick cooking spray. Over medium high heat, brown ground beef, seasoning with 1/2 teaspoon salt and black pepper, about 4-5 minutes.

Step 2

Add garlic into beef and cook for about 30 seconds. Push all ingredients to one side of the pan and add chili powder to the cleared side. Stir to toast the seasoning, about 30 seconds. Add tomato paste to chili powder and toast, stirring constantly, about 2 minutes.

Step 3

Add remaining ingredients, stirring thoroughly to combine. Reduce heat to medium low, cover and let simmer for 10-12 minutes.

Step 4

Remove from heat and add remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt. Serve.

Don’t like beef or beans? No problem! Try our Spinach & Artichoke Quinoa Stuffed Peppers. These stuffed peppers make a great vegetarian main dish (to make it vegan, remove the cheese), and add cheery pops of color to any table. Pair with a simple salad and crusty bread, and it’s a whole meal.

Main Ingredients

  • 3 bell peppers (any color)
  • 1/2 cup O Organics® cooked quinoa
  • 1 cup O Organics® baby spinach (chopped)
  • 1/2 cup O Organics® cannellini beans (drained and rinsed)
  • 1/2 avocado (diced)
  • 1 clove garlic (grated)
  • 1/2 cup quartered artichoke hearts (roughly chopped)
  • 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (plus more for topping)

Cooking Instructions

Step 1

Preheat oven to 450º. Cut bell peppers in half and remove seeds. Spray both sides lightly with olive oil spray. Place cut-side-down in a 9x13 baking dish. Bake for 10 minutes.

Step 2

In a medium bowl, combine all other ingredients with 1/2 cup of the cheese. Remove peppers from oven and scoop quinoa mixture into bell peppers. Top each with a tablespoon of shredded cheese.

Step 3

Turn oven down to 350º. Cover dish with foil and place back into oven for 15 minutes, until cheese is melted and quinoa mixture is hot.

If you’re looking for a few easy (or complicated!) side dishes, or maybe you’re thinking about hosting a lunch rather than a dinner, all you have to do is use the search bar in the Albertsons recipe database where you’ll find not only shopping lists, preparation instructions, and more, but you can also create a profile to order groceries for a fast and easy pickup.

From desserts to breakfast to lunchbox, O Organics® products are more than organic, it’s flavorful food that you can’t get enough of. Always grown without synthetic pesticides, O Organics produce is farmed to conserve biodiversity, USDA certified organic, and always non-GMO. Get to your nearest Albertsons today and load up! No Albertsons in your area? You can also find O Organics® products exclusively at Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, ACME, Shaw’s, Star Market, Tom Thumb, Randalls, and Pavilions.

Tony Hillery was living the high life, running a limousine company and wearing Prada suits, when the financial crisis of 2008 hit. He lost his business and lines of credit and felt like he was too old to start over.

He kept reading about underfunded schools with no art, gym, or music—a sharp contrast to the private schools his kids had attended. So one day, he decided to take the subway to Harlem to see what he could do.

"I couldn't have been more arrogant," Hillery told Humans of New York. "I walked through the doors of the first elementary school I could find, asked for the principal, and said: 'I'm here to try to break the cycle of poverty.' She assigned me to the lunchroom, and that's where I started volunteering five days a week."

Hillery talked to the kids at lunch and they gravitated toward him. They called him "Mr. Tony" and treated him like Santa Claus. Their goofiness reminded him of his own kids.

"So when I learned that almost half of them were living in homeless shelters, that shit drove me crazy," he said. "It tore me up. I was looking for some way to help—anything."


He spotted an abandoned community garden across the street—the kids called it the 'haunted garden'—and decided to clean it up. He got the paperwork processed through the Parks Department and spent six weeks hauling out all the junk. He had no idea what he was going to do with the space other than clean it up.

"Then one morning a little girl tugged on my shoulder. A tiny little thing with glasses so big," he said. "Her name was Nevaeh. 'Heaven' spelled backwards. And she said: 'Mr. Tony, why don't we plant something?'"


Hillery didn't know anything about gardening, but a Google search showed him that it was hard to mess up growing herbs. So he got a dump truck of organic soil, some clearance herbs at Home Depot, and invited Nevaeh's kindergarten class to come and plant the first seedlings.

"There wasn't much structure in the beginning," he said. "A lot of times I'd just sit around with the kids and look at clouds. But over time the garden became a sort of outdoor science classroom. All of us were learning together. If something died, we'd just try a new spot. We learned about worms, and ladybugs, and praying mantises. Then we learned about food systems. I couldn't help but notice the diets of these kids: all sugar and processed food. Some of them couldn't name a single vegetable. But how could you blame them? There are 55 fast food restaurants in this community, but not a single supermarket."

Hillery and the kids started growing vegetables, and a handful of kids got really involved and invested in the garden, including Nevaeh. She came to everything Hillery planned—camps, nature walks—and though she was quiet and reserved at first, she started taking ownership of the garden.

"Those became her plants, not mine," he said. "Whenever volunteers came to help with composting-- Nevaeh would take the lead. And if you were doing it wrong, she'd grab that rake right out of your hands." That was 10 years ago. Since then, Hillery has expanded from one garden to 12 urban farms throughout Harlem and created an entire youth-oriented growing organization called Harlem Grown. Kids throughout the community help plant and tend the crops, learning science and agricultural lessons with hands-on experience. Since it started, Harlem Grown has given 6,000 pounds of organic produce to the community for free. Even Nevaeh's mom has gotten involved, serving as the Agricultural Director of the farms.

But Hillery explained to Humans of New York that the point of Harlem Grown is not just to grow food, but to grow healthy children.

"When you sit in this garden on a summer day—you hear things. There are fourteen homeless shelters within a four-block radius. So when it's hot outside, and the windows are open, you can hear the stress of poverty. Sometimes mothers will yell at these kids like they're grown men. They'll call them names. They'll tell them: 'you can't,' and 'you won't.' And after awhile the kids start to believe it.

When they first come into this garden— they're so freakin' happy. Especially the really young ones. But at the end of the day, they'll say: 'I'm going home.' And home means shelter. It's an epidemic, man. 115,000 kids in this city are living in shelters. It's a freakin' epidemic. But it's invisible. You'd never know these kids are homeless, because they're so happy.

But something happens around 9, 10, 11. I see it all the time. Those eyes dim, man. It's just life. There's too much stress around here. And they grow up fast. They lose that light. I just want to slow it down, that's all. I want them to have a safe place where they can just be them. That's all any of us want, right? To slow it all down so we can find out who we are?"

Hillery said he arrogantly went to Harlem thinking he had the answers, that he was going to fix kids. But in the past ten years, he's learned that they didn't need to be fixed or to become like him—they needed to stay like their young and happy selves. He was 52 pounds heavier and depressed before Harlem Grown, living a life that was all about things and money. The kids have taught him he was doing it all wrong.

And Neveah? She's sixteen now and an honor roll student.

"Recently she had a C in math," Hillery told Humans of New York, "so I said: 'Let's find you a private tutor, I'll pay for it.' But she wouldn't let me. She grabbed the rake out of my hand. She said: 'No Mr. Tony, I got this myself.' And she got a 93 on that final.

She was the tiniest little thing when I met her. With glasses so big. But even back then she had everything she needed. It just required a little protection. And a little time. She just needed some space to grow."

Well done, Mr. Tony, tending to the hearts and minds of the children of Harlem and helping them bloom.

Hear more from Hillery about Harlem Grown here:

Harlem Grownwww.youtube.com