Chicago philanthropists arrive for an evening out to benefit children battling pediatric cancer.

Philanthropy plays a big role in our lives here at FIJI Water, and the coming of September heralds the flagship event of one our favorite charities, Children”s Oncology Services, Inc. (COSI). Set in the magnificent Harold Washington Library Winter Garden, Toque: An Evening With Chicago”s Culinary Masters, is fast becoming a Chicago tradition and is proof that philanthropy can be not only rewarding, but delicious as well.

Toque, named after the traditional tall, pleated, white hat worn by chefs, has selected some of the finest Chicago restaurants to contribute artful dishes to its split five-course meal. Local greats such as Art Smith of Table 52 and Tony Galzin of MK Restaurant dazzled the foodie contingent with masterful creations, all adding to a perfect meal for a truly worthy cause. Additionally, Bill Kurtis, television journalist and founder of Tall Grass Beef, served as master of ceremonies and donated a fantastic dinner trip to his Mettawa estate to the live auction.

Ticket sales and donations for the evening all benefit the One Step Camp, a summer camp attended by children battling pediatric cancer. Made possible by COSI, the One Step Camp is set on Wisconsin”s Lake Geneva, and serves as a place where children with cancer can go to have fun and just be kids. A team of world-class doctors is kept on staff at the camp to ensure health problems don”t get in the way of boat rides, swim races, and campfires — something no child should live without.

FIJI Water is a proud partner of COSI, donating water and silent-auction items to each of its three annual fundraisers. To make a donation to Children”s Oncology Services, please visit www.onestepcamp.org, and be sure to check in this January to COSI”s annual Chicago poker tournament.

Successful grantees and foundation staff celebrate by blowing out the candles on the FIJI Water Foundation birthday cake.

FIJI Water Foundation celebrated its second birthday yesterday — two years of assisting in development projects in water, health, and education throughout Fiji. Supporters, friends, partners, and grantees joined to help us celebrate by officially launching our Foundation website and announcing the Foundation”s most recent group of successful grant applicants, one of who traveled all the way from remote Kioa Island in the north of the county to speak about how the FIJI Water grant will finally make it possible for the island and its villages to have direct access to clean water. We also heard from the Director of Project HEAVEN, a remarkable organization that screens kids in remote parts of Fiji for ear and eye disease, and then makes sure they get treatment if any problems are discovered.

FIJI Water already has a robust online presence on the www.fijiwater.com and FIJIGreen.com sites, which provide information about the brand and mission to customers around the world. Until now, however, online customers, grantees, and partners have had limited access to information about the foundation and our development work in Fiji. Thus, we are thrilled to share our new website with you and with the world. This new site features foundation history, project descriptions, grant application resources, Twitter and news feeds, and an interactive project map. It also links to the partners who have helped make our work here possible. We look forward to growing this list as more companies consider joining our efforts. Internet is still not widely available throughout all of Fiji, but it”s moving fast: The Kioa Island grant recipient accessed the application materials and applied via email all the way from Fiji”s rural Northern Division. We look forward to the increased visibility and accessibility this site will give to our projects and partners.

In addition to observing our birthday and launching the new website, the ceremony honored the work of the inspiring organizations and communities we work with everyday. Fourteen new projects were launched, including four library projects, three kindergarten projects, two new water and sanitation projects, support for an NGO that provides ear and eye screening for children, support of a volunteer heart surgery team, as well as the foundation”s first electrification project, which will help to illuminate an entire district, including three schools, a health center, and a nursing station.

FIJI Water Foundation has donated more than $240,000 FJD to these 14 development projects. Since its establishment in 2007, the foundation has funded over $1,400,000 in projects directly impacting more than 70,000 people in 13 of Fiji”s 14 provinces. The same passion and world-class approach we have brought to bottling water, we bring to our developmental efforts.

We look forward to working with these communities and organizations as they implement their projects, some of which are already underway. We are always looking for new partners who share our development goals and welcome applicants for projects to be funded in early 2010.

Read more about our second-anniversary celebration:

FIJI Sun: FIJI Water Foundation Comes of Age

FIJIVillage.com: FIJI Water Gives $240,000

Made me think hours later, as this blog entry sat on my TO DO list, that Fijians don”t have this problem. Fiji is one of the farthest places away from industrial pollution. I bet Fijian Mommies get to teach their rain lesson outside without thinking about pollution and acid rain. Maybe the warm tropical weather helps ward off paranoid Daddies too!

I bought my shiny red bike last November (prime cycling season, haha!) and haven’t been able to get enough of it since. I’m lucky enough to live near the beach, so I ride it along the oceanfront a lot, especially at sunrise when it’s quiet and peaceful out. And sometimes I ride to the farmers’ market and fill the basket with yummy fruits and veggies. Something about riding around on a bike with a basket full of good fresh produce makes me feel very Euro. I’ve even ridden my bike to special occasions dressed up and in high heels — fashion first!

I get around on my bike pretty easily now, but that wasn’t true in the beginning. I literally hadn’t ridden a bike in 25 years when I bought the Breeze. You do pick it back up pretty quickly — “just like riding a bike” — and fortunately my bike handles beautifully, but some nuances can get lost at first. My second time out, I was pedaling along, lost in thought, and then suddenly realized I was headed straight for a hedge. There wasn”t room to swerve, so I started pedaling backwards to brake, just like I used to when I was a little kid on my kid”s bike. The problem is that I have hand brakes now. Oops! Thankfully neither my bike nor I incurred serious injury — mainly just a bunch of twigs stuck in my hair and the wheel spokes. It did look pretty spectacular!

Of course, being a green gal, I’d considered the possibility that using my bike instead of a car or public transportation would reduce my carbon footprint. But one unforeseen consequence of riding my bike everywhere was an insatiable appetite. I could not stop eating!

And though I normally eat a healthy and lower-carbon diet high in vegetables, and usually eat meat just a couple of times a week, once I started riding my bike, I was craving meat and potatoes all the time. I’m pretty sure I had beef for several nights in a row at one point. I wondered if my beef-eating habits were negating all the carbon benefits from biking instead of driving. Now, I’ve heard from trustworthy sources that for most people, driving is a bigger source of carbon than eating beef, so normally that wouldn’t be the case. But I sure was eating a lot, so I don’t know…

After a couple of months, my metabolism adjusted, and I’m now back to my previous, healthier eating habits. But I was pretty worried for a while — I mean, who GAINS weight because she gives up her car for a bicycle? That said, there is no seasoning in the world that makes food taste as delicious as fresh air and lots of exercise. Everything tasted so good!

If you’re thinking about getting a bike, or riding your bike more, I highly recommend it! It’s so much fun and so relaxing, and it makes your food taste really good.

FIJI Water comes from an artesian aquifer rich in silica.

One of the qualities that makes FIJI Water so special is its high silica content. FIJI Water starts as rain and is filtered through volcanic rock, which is rich in silica, for over a hundred years until it reaches the aquifer. FIJI Water”s incomparable taste — the soft mouth feel and silky texture — is a result of its unique mineral profile, with high silica and low calcium and magnesium content. (While calcium and magnesium are important to our diet, high levels in water can make it taste “hard” and unpleasant.)

And a recent study indicates that silica in water may reduce Alzheimer’s risk. Here’s more info, courtesy of Reuters Health.

Aluminum, silica in water affect Alzheimer’s risk

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Higher levels of aluminum in drinking water appear to increase people’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, whereas higher levels of silica appear to decrease the risk, according to French investigators.

“Alzheimer’s disease is a multifactorial disease, and aluminum concentrations in drinking water may have an effect on cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease,” Dr. Virginie Rondeau told Reuters Health.

The results of some studies suggest that silica reduces the oral absorption of aluminum or increases the excretion of this metal.

Rondeau, at the Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale in Bordeaux, and her colleagues examined associations between exposure to aluminum or silica from drinking water and the risk of cognitive decline, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease among elderly subjects followed for 15 years.

Daily aluminum intake of at least 0.1 milligram was associated with greater cognitive decline during the course of the study, the team reports in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

Subjects with a high daily aluminum intake had a 2.26-fold increased risk of dementia, the researchers note. On the other hand, for every 10 milligram-per-day intake of silica, the odds of developing dementia dropped by 11 percent.

“Further studies are needed to settle the debate over the link between aluminum or silica in drinking water and neurologic disorders and cognitive impairment,” the investigators conclude.

SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology, February 15, 2009.

In the spirit of this FIJI Water blog entry, it makes me think of our ad campaign “Untouched.” FIJI Water is untouched by man; I”ve been to Fiji and seen the factory. No one is yelling, “Don”t touch!” No one has to…FIJI Water”s state-of-the-art bottling facility is designed to protect the purity and quality of the water. It sits on top of an aquifer (which is like a huge, slow-moving, underground river), and the water is drawn into the factory straight into the bottle without human contact!

Now if I could only get my little ones to leave Mommie’s shoes and jewelry box “Untouched!”

Admittedly I am a Mommy who talks about her kids WAY TOO MUCH! And this blog just gives me another outletÖ

Fact: I love my kids. But having responsibility for them is already scary enough, and what I feed them is at the top of my anxiety list!

It started before they were born. I would travel as far as necessary to shop for groceries, paying double for a prenatal vitamin, organic waffles (they”re all I could keep down the first 4 months), other organics, pesticide/hormone/flavor-free everything…just so I knew my growing babies were getting the best nutrition available. Now add to that the fluid intake I needed. I”ve never been one for soda or highly caloric juices, so I relied on water. With most foods, I got heartburn. I tried all the water I could, whether based on a cute bottle, flavor, or price, but even water gave me heartburn! Then I tried FIJI Water and loved the taste. And I could drink more without getting heartburn. Other mommies-to-be told me it was the purest water I could drink and provided natural minerals both the babies and I could benefit from.

Fast forward a few years later, I”m now an employee at FIJI Water. A week into my job, they sent me to the island of Fiji to see where the water comes from. I have seen where the water comes from and gets put into the iconic square bottle. I am proud to work for a product that is as natural and untouched as the product claims. And I am proud to serve the best in my home – especially to my kids!

BTW: Since working here, I”ve learned about BPA, and the product has never had it!

Glad we have your attention now…since you love FIJI Water, you might also be interested in an exclusive offer from its sister company, POM Wonderful. POM is now offering its newest product, POMx Iced Coffee, for delivery to your home or office at shopwww.fijiwater.com (you know, the same shop where you can get FIJI Water delivered for less than $1 a day!).

POMx Iced Coffee is an antioxidant rich coffee energy drink that is a blend of all-natural ingredients and the only iced coffee that will provide you with a Healthy Buzzô – a potent combination of polyphenol antioxidants and caffeine.

Click here and enter code POMX78 at checkout to receive a FREE CASE of coffee with the purchase of one case! POMx Iced Coffee comes in two delicious flavors – CafÈ au Lait and Chocolate – so this is a great chance to try each one!

You can also visit us on MySpace or Facebook.

I figure there’s no time better than the food-filled holiday season to update you on my progress. Some great ideas that readers shared with me included preparing food that tastes good as cold leftovers, going for raw foods, incorporating ingredients from the local farmers’ market, and just eating cereal sometimes (thanks to dropofkim, CatieB, and Betty!). (You know, I love eating cereal with fruit for dinner. It’s yummy and nutritious, and it reminds me of college! Can’t believe I’d forgotten that was an option, so thank you for the reminder.)

Especially during summertime, it was lovely to pull together simple but delicious salads, use the abundance of gorgeous produce to make vegetarian entrees that taste good without reheating the next day, and have more light and refreshing options in the warm weather. And of course, with my eating less meat and using less gas and electricity to heat food, my carbon footprint dropped too. One of my favorite dishes is a simple cannellini dip that takes five minutes to prepare, tastes amazing and flavorful, and is even better after a day in the refrigerator. With some pita bread for dipping and salad and fruit on the side, it makes at least a couple of easy and satisfying meals.

But with the colder weather settling in, I’m eager for warmer dinner options. Apart from substituting oatmeal for cereal, I now know how to reheat food properly on the stove, thanks to dropofkim: Add a little water and heat on low. And I’ve found doing this means the food heats up evenly and stays hot much longer than when warmed in a microwave. I’ll also visit favorite restaurants from time to time to enjoy a good meal. Especially with the economic downturn, I’m feeling keen to support neighborhood businesses where I can.

I haven’t given up entirely on getting a microwave. There’s still a lot to be said for the convenience! But I’m going to keep in mind jcwindsor’s suggestion to find an EnergyStar appliance and CatieB’s suggestion to find a kitchen cart made of recycled and/or repurposed materials. In the past, I’ve found some gorgeous furniture for great prices at consignment shops, garage sales, and the like – I love finding antiques and artisan pieces at bargain prices! Now, I suspect “antique microwave cart” is an oxymoron, but I still like the idea of finding a way to repurpose materials and keep them out of landfill. Another option could be to find a cart made of rapidly renewable resources like bamboo, which also looks beautiful.

Thanks again for all the great suggestions – I love the creativity, the variety, and most of all the delicious results!