FAQ

Q. What is the Eat Well Guide?

A. The Eat Well Guide® is a free online database for finding fresh, locally grown and sustainably produced food in the United States and Canada. Listings range from stores, to farms, to restaurants, to local bakers and butchers, and visitors can search by location, keyword or category to find good food, download customized guides, or plan a trip with the innovative mapping tool Eat Well Everywhere. To learn more about the features of the Eat Well Guide, visit our About the Guide page. To learn more about the Eat Well program, visit our About Us page. Click here to meet the Eat Well Team.

Q. What is Eat Well Everywhere?

A. Eat Well Everywhere is our interactive mapping feature for Eat Well’s thousands of listings of farms, markets, restaurants and other outlets of locally grown, sustainably produced food. You can use it to plan a trip, or map outlets in your area that sell local sustainably produced food. Eat Well Everywhere also allows you to create customized, printable travel guides, complete with driving directions and seasonal food charts.

Q. What are your criteria for inclusion in the Eat Well Guide? How do you determine whether or not an outlet should be listed?

A. See our Eat Well Guide Standards page for details about the criteria for including listings in the Guide.

Q. Why don't I see a certain outlet listed?

A: Chances are we haven't heard of it – we need your help! If you know of an outlet that should be listed in the Eat Well Guide, please fill out this online form, providing as much information as possible. We'll review your suggestion and add it to the Guide if it meets our criteria.

Q. I entered my zip/postal code and clicked search, but didn't receive any results. Why?

A. We may not yet have been alerted to any outlets in your area that offer sustainable food. If you know of an outlet in your area that should be listed in the Eat Well Guide, please fill out this online form, providing as much information as possible. We'll review your suggestion and add it to the Guide if it meets our criteria.

Q. How do I suggest a listing for the Eat Well Guide?

A. If you know of a source in your area that should be listed in the Eat Well Guide, please fill out our online Suggest a Listing form, providing as much information as possible. We'll review your suggestion and add it to the Guide if it meets our criteria.

Q. Does it cost anything to use the Eat Well Guide?

A. No. We believe that access to local, sustainable food should be freely available to everyone – just like our Guide is.

Q. Does it cost anything to be listed?

A. No. There is no fee to be listed, or to submit information for listings. Our goal is simply to help create connections between producers and consumers.

Q. How do you find listings to be included in the Eat Well Guide?

A. There are several ways:

Research: Our field team of interns and externs conduct extensive research to locate sources of sustainable food.

User Suggestions: Eat Well Guide users keep our database up-to-date by suggesting new listings.

Partnerships: The Eat Well Guide teams up with organizations across the United States and Canada to share listings. These organizations are our Partners.

Q. While searching the guide, I noticed some retail outlets that offer industrially-produced food. Why are such establishments included?

A. The Eat Well Guide is an inclusive resource, meant to affect change in our food system by promoting even small steps toward sustainability. Our hope is that by directing consumers to sustainable products sold in otherwise conventional outlets, these vendors will be encouraged to sell more sustainable food as demand increases.

Q. I tried to contact a vendor and the number was out of service/the website for a listing is no longer working/an entry in the Guide lists incorrect information. Who should I tell about this?

A. If you find that information in a listing is incorrect, we want to know! Please follow the link at the bottom of the vendor’s listing page that reads “Report an error or a change” and use the contact form to alert us to the problem. Alternately, you can use the general contact form, or let us know via email at info@eatwellguide.org.

Q. What is an Eat Well search widget, and how do I embed one in my blog/website?

A. Our Eat Well search widget is a small search box that you can embed on your homepage or in the sidebar of you blog by copying and pasting a block of html code from our Widgets page. The widget can perform keyword, city, state, and postal code searches of our entire database. It’s a great way to connect people to the Eat Well Guide and show your support for local, sustainable food. To choose from our different designs and get the code for the one you like, visit our Widgets page. If you’re having trouble embedding your widget, please Contact Us for technical assistance.

Q. Why should I become a member of the Eat Well Guide?

A. Membership gives you access to members-only Eat Well Guide tools. Members can:

Save listings, recipes and notes in My Notebook.

Use Create-a-Guide to save your customized search results as downloadable PDF files, complete with driving directions and seasonal food charts.

Subscribe to our online newsletter and other updates (optional).

Q. What is My Notebook?

A. My Notebook is a personal space for members to save listings, recipes, articles, and notes.

Q. Does membership cost anything?

A. No. Membership is free for everyone.

Q. Will Eat Well share my information with third parties?

A. No. We will not trade or disclose any information you send to any third parties, nor will we ever sell or give email lists to any other organization or group. For more information, read our Privacy Policy.

Q. How do I get started?

A. Visit our Sign Up page. Welcome aboard!

Q. I can’t remember my password, what should I do?

A. Enter your email address here and we’ll resend your password.

cultivating the web questions

Q. What is Cultivating the Web: High Tech Tools for the Sustainable Food Movement?

A. Bridging the gap between grassroots and netroots activism, Cultivating the Web: High Tech Tools for the Sustainable Food Movement is a free educational booklet designed to help people use the internet to effect social change and map out a route to a more sustainable food system. Cultivating the Web highlights the best web resources for foodies, farmers and activists, and details some of the most innovative and effective ways that new media is being leveraged to create social change. To learn more about Cultivating the Web, click here.

Q. How can I get free copies of the booklet Cultivating the Web?

A. Want to hand out Cultivating the Web at your next event? Request free books at info@eatwellguide.org or call 212-991-1858. Visit our Cultivating the Web page to download a printable PDF version of the booklet.

the green fork questions

Q. What is The Green Fork?

A. The Green Fork is the official blog of the Eat Well Guide (we call it our “good food feed”). The Green Fork showcases the voices and values of the sustainable food movement, and seeks to be a social hub in the online food community.

Q. Who writes the blog posts on The Green Fork?

A. While journalist/new media expert/Eat Well Guide consultant Leslie Hatfield is the central voice of our blog, The Green Fork includes a spectrum of contributors, including prolific food writer Kerry Trueman, and other members of the Eat Well Team. In addition to these regular contributors, The Green Fork frequently features guest authors from the larger sustainable food community, ranging from community organizers to family farmers.

Q. What kinds of topics does The Green Fork cover?

A. Our contributors report on a wide range of topics, from food politics to farm and restaurant spotlights to book reviews and delicious seasonal recipes. We also incorporate useful online resources and videos developed by the Eat Well team.

Q. Can I contribute to The Green Fork?

A. We welcome written contributions and suggested topics from readers and users of the Eat Well Guide! If you have a triumph, tribulation or tasty recipe to share, or if you would like to see a certain Eat Well Guide vendor featured on our blog, email The Green Fork at blog@eatwellguide.org.

eat well questions

Q. How can I support Eat Well?

A. Thank you for your interest in supporting us! Please help us by spreading the word about the Eat Well Guide to friends and family. Click here to learn about ways to get involved – from requesting materials to share with your community, to partnering with us to expand the Guide, to hosting our search widget on your blog or home page.

Q. How is Eat Well funded?

A. Eat Well and its sister programs are privately funded.

Q. What does it mean to be a Partner of Eat Well?

A. We have teamed up with a dynamic array of nonprofit organizations to bring consumers the most up-to-date and comprehensive resources for sustainable farms, stores and other outlets for local, sustainable food in the U.S. and Canada. Our Partners share their listings and are promoted by the Eat Well Guide. It is our aim to support the efforts of other groups through collaborative partnerships, and to create a vibrant community of food sustainability advocates. Click here to learn more about our Partnerships.

Q. Who are Eat Well’s Partner organizations?

A. Visit our Community page to see a complete list of our partners.

Q. How can my organization become an Eat Well Partner?

A. If you are interested in partnering with the Eat Well Guide, email us at partner@eatwellguide.org with the subject line “Partnership.” We look forward to collaborating with you!

Q. Can I work for Eat Well?

A. Eat Well is always seeking interns, externs and volunteers throughout the United States and Canada who are interested in food issues and would like to increase their research, writing, and communications skills. Click here to view the full internship/externship and volunteer descriptions.

Q. How do I receive updates about Eat Well’s projects?

A. Become a Member to subscribe to our newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time. You can also connect with Eat Well on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and Flickr – we’ll keep you up to date on our latest projects!

Q. How can I contact Eat Well?

A. You can submit questions, comments, ideas or suggestions online through our Contact Form. You can also contact us by email at info@eatwellguide.org.

Tel: 212-991-1858
Fax: 212-726-9160

Destin Joy Layne
Program Director, Eat Well Guide

Erin McCarthy
Program Associate, Eat Well Guide

Mailing Address:

Eat Well Guide
215 Lexington Avenue, Suite 1001
New York, NY 10016

support

Q. Where can I learn more about the sustainable food movement?

A. Check out Sustainable Table’s Issues page to learn more about the consequences of industrial food systems on the environment, economy, local communities, and human health. For vegetarian recipes and information about the environmental and health benefits of reduced meat diets, explore Meatless Monday. For information about water scarcity and water conservation, check out Food & Water Watch and H20 Conserve.

Q. I didn’t find my answer here. Where else can I get help?

A. If we didn’t cover your question here, Contact Us and we’ll get in touch with you as soon as possible.