Food & Water Watch Joins with Local Community Leaders and Businesses to Launch Grand Rapids Take Back the Tap Campaign
2009-10-20
Contact:
Kate Fried: (202) 683-2500
Food & Water Watch Joins with Local Community Leaders and Businesses to Launch Grand Rapids
Take Back the Tap Campaign
Grand Rapids, Mich.— Today, Food & Water Watch, the Wege Foundation, the Grand Rapids City Commission, Gilmore Collection restaurants, Grand Rapids Community College and Saint Mary’s Health Care joined together to launch Take Back the Tap Grand Rapids. The campaign highlights the social, economic, and environmental problems with the bottled water industry; the need for increased funding for public tap water; and the importance of celebrating and protecting Michigan’s watersheds.
“With a wide range of stakeholders coming together to phase out bottled water, the campaign in Grand Rapids is the most comprehensive local effort to take back the tap that we’ve seen yet,” said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. “The launch of the Grand Rapids Take Back the Tap campaign clearly demonstrates the city’s commitment to protecting natural resources and the environment, not to mention consumers’ wallets. It is a model for other cities to follow.”
The campaign kicked off when the Grand Rapids City Commission introduced and passed a resolution to ban the use of municipal funds to purchase bottled water. Joining the city of Grand Rapids in the kickoff effort were the Gilmore Collection restaurants, St. Mary’s Hospital and three health clubs owned by Saint Mary’s Health Care—Michigan Athletic Club, East Hills Athletic Club, and Orchard Hills Athletic Club. Each establishment pledged to immediately begin phasing out bottled water, with the goal of educating customers about the benefits of tap water over bottled water.
Food & Water Watch is working with business and municipalities across the country to promote the social, environmental and economic benefits of tap water through its Take Back the Tap Campaign. This new initiative in Grand Rapids follows similar efforts in San Francisco, Calif; New York, N.Y.; Los Angeles, Calif; Portland, Maine; and Boulder, Colo., among others.
Food & Water Watch is a non-profit organization working with grassroots organizations around the world to create an economically and environmentally viable future. Through research, public and policymaker education, media, and lobbying, we advocate policies that guarantee safe, wholesome food produced in a humane and sustainable manner and public, rather than private, control of water resources including oceans, rivers, and groundwater. For more information, visit www.foodandwaterwatch.org
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