Thinking Locally Financially

With all of our focus on thinking locally, we recently came across a way to act locally with our finances. The Website Move Your Money (http://moveyourmoneyproject.org/) is a national movement to take our money our of the big banks, where it does little to help our economy, local communities, or individuals, and put it into credit unions or community banks, where it can directly help local communities and individuals. We can across it after our bank informed us that would be imposing fees in February.

The good news is that we found that many credit unions are now offering business accounts. In addition to our personal accounts, we have moved our business accounts over to the credit union.

Credit Unions are non-profit. When you open an account you become a member. When they make a profit, they return it to their members in terms of higher interest on savings and lower interest on loans. They are run by volunteer boards of directors who are elected by their members. Your accounts are guaranteed and protected, just like a bank. Since they did not participate in the Wall Street games, there are more stable financially than the big banks. And just just about every service you can get a bank, you can get at a Credit Union.

Think about taking your money and putting where it can do the most good for your community and you, a local community bank or credit union. In other words, we can complain about Wall Street and the big banks, or we can do something about it. Stop feeding the beast and feed ourselves and our communities.

Why We Do What Do

Ever so often, we get reminded about why we do what we do. The other day we were out on our tours and we saw another group going into a stop that we had just gone into. They took over the shop and contributed nothing to the shop's viability. The guests got an incredibly small amount of food and the artisan lost income as result of their visit, as other customers were prevented from coming into the artisans shop to purchase food.

It was obvious that they were trying to copy one of our stops. What made their visit so lacking to their guests was their lack of commitment to the neighborhood. To them, it was just a way to make money for themselves.

While our tours include everything, whenever we go into a stop, we are committed that what we do is a benefit to the neighborhood and the community. That means we treat our stops with a commitment to their viability. We pay enough money to the artisans that our guests not only get to try a wide variety of food, but the artisan has benefited economically from our visit.

In areas of our cities across the country and around the world, we have seen local artisans forced out of business by companies who take over their shops and do not contribute to the artisans viability.

This may be why we are welcomed by everyplace we visit. It may be why our guests feel like they are really visiting a neighborhood and experiencing the neighborhood from a local's point of view.

When we travel, it is important that we all share this commitment. Whether it is by supporting local artisans, ensuring the products we purchase support our communities and our planet, our everyday choices will determine the future of our communities and our planet. The tourism industry should be leaders in this. We are committed to this. It is a shame that far too few others in the tourism industry are.

New Foods on our San Francisco Tours

We're always looking for new food to add to our San Francisco Tours. Every season bring new food on our San Francisco Food Tours.

Springtime on our San Francisco Tours

On our San Francisco Tours, we're getting into springtime. Springtime is a time of renewal on our San Francisco Food Tours. With renewal comes new ideas. As a community, we're starting to see new ideas and new ways to support the neighborhoods on our San Francisco Culinary Tours.

From Chinatown to North Beach\Little Italy, our commitment on our San Francisco Tours is to our local community. Everything on our San Francisco Food Tours is strictly local. Local commitment, such as we have our San Francisco Culinary tours, should be everyone's resolution.

Today, I saw an advertisement on touting low prices. If that low price comes from goods that do not support local communities, such as Chinatown or North Beach\Little Italy, they are nothing more than a way that hurts everyone. Local manufacturing, local sales, and local reinvestment are all lost when products are not local.

Supporting local communities, like we do on our San Francisco Tours, should not be a new idea, however for many it is. It means that we know where the food we enjoy on our San Francisco Food tours comes from. Even the clothing I wear on our San Francisco Culinary Tours is from is sweatshop free. In other words, no child labor and the people producing made enough money to take care our their families.

In your local community, you can do the same. Just like on our San Francisco Tours, their are local merchants close to you. There are local foods, like we try on San Francisco Food Tours. Your clothing can be sweatshop free, just like I wear on our San Francisco Culinary Tours. It is a choice we can all made.

Resources for Own San Francisco Tours

On our San Francisco Food Tours, we only taste food made locally. Eating locally and seasonally is a great way to support your local community. We've now added resources to eat locally and seasonally on our Facebook page. It's definitely a way to enjoy some of the highlights of our San Francisco Tours at home.

The Power of Individuals

On our San Francisco Tours, we know the power of people. Right now, we have a unique opportunity to demonstrate that. Whether it is the American Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, donating money and time to Haiti disaster relief is way to show that individuals can make a huge difference our community and our planet.

Finds on our San Francisco Tours

We found some great pastries today on our San Francisco Tours.