Bottom Line: From COBRA, to private insurance, MediCal and even local clinics, you have healthcare options if you have been laid off.

There are currently 46 million people without health insurance in the United States. That number is continuing to trend upward as people are losing their jobs and their coverage. So, what do you do when you lose your health insurance?

There are several paths you can take. The most commonly known program is COBRA, which mandates that people must be able to retain their insurance coverage for up to 18 months after the end of employment. Under COBRA, the former employee is responsible for paying the entire insurance premium. Most people choose COBRA because it's easy and well-known. You simply complete the form provided by your former employer and pay the cost.

Bottom line: Sonrisas Dental brightened the smiles of over 4,500 patients that might not have otherwise received any dental care which resulted in a 23% decrease in kids coming in with urgent or visible tooth decay.

Julia McKeon created Sonrisas Dental Center out of the need for oral healthcare in southern San Mateo County. From Montera to Pescadero, there are upwards of 7,000 people without access to dental care. Julie knew most of the community consists of nursery, field, or hotel workers whose only option for oral healthcare was a day's worth of travel and missing work, so she created an affordable clinic for oral healthcare and education. In response to her success, the County of San Mateo is providing office space.

Bottom Line: Through the Great Communities Collaborative, nonprofits and foundations team up to fund Transit Oriented Developments (TOD) that promote diversity in residents, incomes, and businesses.

The Great Communities Collaborative is a unique cooperative relationship between four Bay Area nonprofit organizations - Greenbelt Alliance, the Nonprofit Housing Association of Northern California, TransForm, and Urban Habitat - and the national nonprofit Reconnecting America. The East Bay Community Foundation, The San Francisco Foundation, and The Silicon Valley Community Foundation are also part of the collaborative.

Bottom Line: Transit Oriented Development is a smart approach to accommodate future growth in San Mateo County, and reduce our communities' environmental impact.

Transit Oriented Development (TOD), sometimes called "Smart Growth" or the "New Urbanism" is an approach to planning communities which concentrates more dense, mixed-use development along transit corridors and near transit hubs. Mixed-use is usually interpreted as developing housing above commercial/retail space, but can also include residential/office use or offices combined with retail shops. On the peninsula, TOD is most appropriate when built near CalTrain stations, but TOD can also be included along major bus routes such as El Camino Real.

Bottom Line: By promoting "green burials" Colorful Coffins has diverted 827,090 gallons of embalming fluid, 180,544,000 pounds of steel, 5,400,000 pounds of copper, 30,000,000 feet of hard woods, and 3,272,000,000 from the earth and saved clients $400-$2,500 in casket costs per funeral.

Jane Hillhouse's dream of starting a green coffin and burial business in San Mateo County has hit a few snags along the way. A native of the UK, Jane was exposed early on to the concept of green burials and the toxic effects of traditional burial on the Earth's ecosystem. There are over 250 green burial sites in England, and less than 24 in the United States.

Bottom Line: Through SOS, Hillsdale High School installed solar panels and the students received a hands-on education about conservation and alternative energy.

Owens Electric & Solar is leading the way in renewable energy education in San Mateo County through its Solar Our Schools Program. After completing its first official program at Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, Director Brian Quock has valuable insights to share.

The SOS program links Owens and BP Solar grants (for classroom materials, staff time, and solar panels) with a 5-week course for students to learn the basics of solar and other renewable energy sources, conservation and future technologies. During lunch and afterschool sessions, Brian educates the students on designing solar systems and involves them in the installation and monitoring process at their school. The results have been very positive, as the students have been a part of the process from education and participation to fundraising.

Bottom Line: You can make a difference! Before buying seafood, consult the seafood watch guide to be certain your meal comes from a healthy marine population.

Seafood is the only food source that is still actively hunted by humans on a large scale. Once it seemed the ocean would supply an endless bounty of seafood, but today, we are discovering its limits. Off New England, cod were once so plentiful that boats had trouble pushing through them. Now the cod are nearly gone, and a centuries-old fishing tradition is ending. Other overfished species include sharks, bluefin tuna and many kinds of West Coast rockfish. When one kind of fish is no longer plentiful, fishermen must move on to new species.

Bottom Line: Growing food on rooftops reduces your carbon footprint, saves money, builds local economies, and adds diversity to the environment.

Keith Agoada started Sky Vegetables in April 2008. At the time, his sustainable-urban-farming business plan had just won a competition at the University of Wisconsin School of Business. The concept takes advantage of the ‘fields' of flat rooftops found atop supermarkets by using that space to grow crops. Prototype ‘fields' would not look like conventional farming. Vegetables would be grown in greenhouses in a high density arrangement. Water needs would be supplemented by rain stored in tanks. Wind turbines and solar panels would supplement energy demands. Composting bins would provide rich soil. Right now, Mr. Agoada and his partners are looking to build a prototype on a Bay Area supermarket.

Bottom Line: The HEAL Project offers an award-winning program that instills healthy lifestyle habits in elementary school children while inspiring environmental and agricultural awareness through a comprehensive, interactive curriculum.

The HEAL Project began in 2005 at Hatch Elementary School with a grant from Kaiser Permanente. The program has been very successful and well received by students, teachers, parents, school & district administrators and community members alike.

HEAL stands for:Health - Empowering children with the knowledge and experience to make healthy choices about food & fitness.Environment - Understanding cycles, ecosystems and how people effect and are effected by those systems, encouraging personal responsibility and stewardship.

Bottom Line: Victory Gardens, which lost popularity after the end of World War II, are making a comeback in San Francisco. Campaigns like Slow Food are energizing the resurgence.

1943 was the first time San Franciscan's planted a Victory Garden in the Civic Center Plaza. It was part of a nation-wide movement to grow food stateside because most food supplies were shipped to the soldiers overseas. Backyard vegetable gardens provided forty one percent of all vegetables consumed in the nation. Fifty-five years later, with help from the arts community, the Civic Center Plaza became the epicenter of a new Victory Garden campaign. Started in 2008, the focus of this new campaign is local food and slow food. Local and slow are really interchangeable terms when it comes to food; the idea is grow nutritious, organic food as close as possible to the consumer.

Bottom Line: Almost any diesel engine car can go biodiesel with little or no modifications.

Almost any diesel car can run on biodiesel without major modifications. Biodiesel is a clean burning alternative fuel produced from domestic, renewable resources. Biodiesel contains no petroleum, but it can be blended at any level with petroleum diesel to create a biodiesel blend. These blends are sold using a system called the "B factor," which denotes the percentage of biodiesel contained within a petrol/bio mix. Biodiesel is simple to use, biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics.

Only diesel engines can run on biodiesel. All engines that run on #2 diesel can also be run on biodiesel. This means, home furnaces, generators, half-trucks, homestead tools, fishing boats, etc.

Bottom Line: Pesticides are rarely, if ever, needed in home gardens. Most of the bugs in our garden help it grow! The pests we need to keep in check can be controlled using targeted and alternative methods.

Lawn Pesticides are rarely, if ever, needed for home lawns. Chemicals in them are linked to adverse long-term health effects. In particular weed and feed type products, which mix fertilizers with pesticides, result in unnecessary pesticide use.

Less than 2% of the insects you encounter in the garden will be pests. The vast majority of insects in your yard are not harmful - they're either beneficial or neutral. In the interest in keeping them alive, take a targeted, selective approach to dealing with the insects that are pests. Spiders, bees, ladybugs, and dragonflies are good examples of bugs that we want in our garden, along with many others, they help your garden grow!

Bottom Line: There are safe, low-toxin, alternative pest control methods and products available. Look for Our Water Our World retail partners throughout San Mateo County.

As part of a program called "Our Water Our World", the San Mateo County Wide Water Pollution Prevention Program has partnered with retail stores to make less toxic pest control and gardening products more available to consumers, with the goal of reducing the amount of pesticides entering creeks and the Bay through sewers and storm drain systems. Participating stores (listed below) provide fact sheets and "shelf talkers" to make it easy for you to choose a less or non-toxic product.

Bottom Line: The Samaritan House provides a wide array of valuable free services and resources to low-income residents of San Mateo County with a focus on preserving dignity and increasing self-sufficiency.

Established in 1974, Samaritan House is a non-profit health and human services organization with over 30 years of experience in providing a broad range of free services and resources to low-income residents in San Mateo County. Each year they provide 9,000 visits in their two free medical clinics, supply more than 400 people with a warm bed, make over 120,000 meals, collect over 400,000 pounds of food from food drives and distribute 40,000 new toys to children.

Bottom Line: Become part of the global warming solution by going on a Low Carbon Diet!

This "30 Day Program to Lose 5000 Pounds" is a fun, accessible, easy to use guide written by David Gerbson that will show you, step-by-step, how to dramatically reduce your CO2 output in just a month's time!

Supported with over two decades of environmental behavior change research; this illustrated workbook offers much more than a list of eco-friendly actions. It walks you through every step of the process, from calculating your current CO2 "footprint" to tracking your progress.

By making simple changes to actions you take every day, you'll learn how to reduce your annual household CO2 output by at least 15%! And, for those who are more ambitious, you'll discover how you can help your workplace, local schools, and community do the same. Join the growing number of citizens who have decided to take global warming into their own hands. "Low Carbon Diet" is the winner of the 2007 Independent Publisher "Most Likely to Save the Planet" Book Award.

Bottom Line: You can help prevent local creek, Bay and ocean pollution by following simple guidelines when working in your garden.

Rainwater and water from our lawns and gardens scour pollutants off streets, sidewalks, parking lots, and other impervious surfaces, carrying them into the storm drain system. Because the storm drain system is separate from our household sewer system, this pollution flows directly into our creeks and ultimately to the San Francisco Bay or the Pacific Ocean - without treatment of any kind!

 

Bottom Line: San Mateo County Environmental Health Department sponsors a FREE countywide program to collect, recycle and properly dispose of household hazardous waste (HHW).

Anyone can take advantage of this helpful program to dispose of your dangerous household chemicals properly. There are currently eleven (11) HHW collection events per month at locations around the county.

HHW is considered to be any leftover or unused portions of chemical products you use in your kitchen, bathroom, garage, automobile, or yard.

Bottom Line: Both indoor and outdoor pests can be controlled using Integrated Pest Management strategies, which emphasize less-toxic solutions that cause the least environmental damage.

Chemicals in pesticides designed for home use have been linked to adverse long-term health effects. Less than 2% of the insects you encounter in the garden will be pests! A great majority of insects in your yard are either beneficial or neutral. In the interest in keeping them alive, take a targeted, selective approach to dealing with the insects that are pests. When managing pests in your home, use as little pesticide as possible, buy less toxic products, and when possible manage them without chemicals.