Heart and Soul

By: Kate
Service Nation

Valentine's Day is around the corner (and I'm a big fan of planning a week in advance!). Whatever your feelings on the holiday – awesome, commercialized, unconcerned – here's a few ideas to maximize your Valentine's impact.

I posted on this last week, but Do1Thing wants your help on the 14th:

Do 1 Thing is a nationwide effort between photographers and journalists that raises awareness of homeless teenagers and encourages individuals to do one thing to assist them on Valentine's Day 2009.

If you're giving your significant other / partner / parents / children / best friends / dog a gift, consider a Just Give card. You can donate in someone's name, give the person in question a charity gift card so they can choose where to give, or buy something that benefits a charity.

Need cards? Save the Children is offering a bunch of awesome, original cards – and all proceeds benefit kids in need.

Chocolate is a pretty traditional gift, but it's also a pretty delicious gift. That said, socially responsible chocolate is the best. Kallari chocolate is organic, not harmful to the rainforest (part of the Rainforest Alliance), and is grown by a small collective of Ecuadoran cacao farmers who are working as a coop to benefit their community. Vintage Plantation is organic, sustainable, and also part of the Rainforest Alliance. Equal Exchange is organic and fair trade, as is Theo.

Flowers – just as traditional, but very pretty and potentially creative. Go organic by buying from Organic Bouquet or Johnny Greenseed.

If you don't have plans, or are looking for something interesting to do, contact local organizations about volunteering – they might be having special events.

More ideas? Need help making your Valentine's Day plan give back? Leave us a note in the comments!

Sustainable Flowers Make The Perfect Gift For All Occasions

Organic Bouquet is the largest online provider of eco-friendly and organic floral gifts. All of our flowers are grown in a manner that is not only environmentally friendly but also provides outstanding resources for farm workers and artisans. Organic Bouquet partners with select flower farms in California, Ecuador and Colombia. All of our flower farms follow stringent growing practices which are monitored by multiple certification agencies and associations. When you purchase flowers from Organic Bouquet, you are helping to improve the life of a flower farm worker, their family and the local floral community.

Our eco-friendly flower arrangements include roses, calla lilies, tulips, gerbera daisies, hyacinths, sunflowers, alstromeria lilies and blue iris. In addition to a complete line of flower arrangements, we offer gift baskets, fruit baskets, nut baskets, gourmet chocolates, gourmet cookies, plants and wreaths. All of these products are certified eco-friendly and/or provide for environmental benefits through our participation in Carbon Offset programs.

Whatever the occasion, our flowers make the perfect gift- birthday celebration flowers, anniversary flowers, holiday flowers, or floral arrangements simply to say thank you. Sending flowers from Organic Bouquet says that you care not only about the person receiving the flowers, but also about the environment. All of our gift items are shipped nationwide to all 50 states. So whether you need to send flowers to Florida, New York, California, or Colorado, we can guarantee overnight delivery to ensure they arrive fresh and ready to put a smile on someone’s face.

Whether you are purchasing online, or through one of our customer service specialists, you can be assured you are ordering the freshest quality of flowers and environmentally friendly gifts.