About Us
Green Friends is a group of Atlanta Friends Meeting (Quakers) members and attenders who are deeply concerned about our natural and urban environments – locally and globally. The climate crisis is our greatest concern. The group meets every First Sunday at the meetinghouse during potluck (11:45-1:00).
Green Friends recruits volunteers from the Atlanta Friends Meeting to lobby Congress on certain climate legislation, using information from Citizens’ Climate Lobby. In addition, the group connects with other Quaker groups such as within Atlanta Friends Meeting as well as the national Quaker Earthcare Witness. The Green Friends have also worked with non-Quaker social change groups such as Sierra Club, NAACP and Georgia Interfaith Power and Light.
Green Friends also seek to raise the profile of climate issues through:
- The distribution of climate change action stickers which are available for free at the meetinghouse.
- The creation and distribution of climate change posters that illustrated the impact of climate change on the state of Georgia and southeast states.
Green Friends has studied and recommended several actions to shrink the meetinghouse’s carbon footprint. A few of the actions that have been taken:
- Motion-detector light switches in the restrooms
- LED lighting
- Electric leaf blower
- Induction range [to be installed with the kitchen renovation]
- Most importantly, Solar panels on the meetinghouse’s roof. This is our “crowning achievement” as it’s saved us about $3,000 per year in energy expenses as well as significantly reducing the meeting house’s fossil fuel usage.
Green Friends educates the Meeting membership about climate matters through:
- Occasional forums/presentations during the hour after worship and coffee
- Regular “quick” post-meeting-for-worship announcements on “What can I do?”
- Film “festivals”
Upcoming Events
February 23rd
- 11:45 a.m. – Hybrid Forum: Race, Health and Food
Quakers for Racial Equality, in coordination with Friends of Color and Green Friends, will host a hybrid forum on February 23, 2025 on “Race, Health, and Food.”
We’ll explore how systemic racism around food negatively impacts the health of African Americans. We’ll hear how Black people are countering this through education and offering healthier food that celebrates the traditions and contributions of African Americans to cuisine in the U.S.
Invited speakers include Black business owners and advocates:
– Adam Hicks, AFM participant and founder of Community Documentary Night
– Stephanie Simmons, local farmer with PolyCulture Production
– Issa Prescott, owner of the vegan restaurant, Life Bistro. Food samplers will be provided thanks to Issa Prescott.
The forum will be held in the AFM meeting room, with Zoom participation through the same link as Sunday meeting for worship. For more information, contact Susan Firestone, susanfires@gmail.com or 404-268-6480.
See resource links below:
- (YouTube)
- They’re Trying to Kill Us
- Soul Food Junkies
- Feel Rich: Health is the New Wealth
- 2 Year Anniversary Episode! Interview with Issa Prescott owner of Life Bistro in Atlanta
- Urban agriculture in a techno-culture society, TEDxEmory, K. Rashid Nuri, The Nuri Group
After his experience at the USDA, Rashid’s vision of community food sovereignty and food equity emerged with total clarity. He brought that vision to Atlanta in 2006, founding Truly Living Well Center for Natural Urban Agriculture (TLW). TLW became Atlanta’s premier urban agricultural organization, growing tons of chemical-free, nutritious food, providing jobs and educating communities about food, nutrition and self-sufficiency.
- They’re Trying to Kill Us
- (Tubi) Can You Dig This
- (Netflix) High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America
- Urban Food Forest at Browns Mill – Atlanta’s urban food forest is the first of its kind in the city, providing fresh produce in a community that has limited access to affordable, healthy food.
- Businesses in Atlanta owned by Black Entrepreneurs
- (YouTube)
- 2 p.m. – Georgia Interfaith Power & Light’s (GIPL) Green Team Summit, “Seeding Life,” at Northside United Methodist Church in Atlanta
March 2nd, 11:45 a.m. – meeting over potluck
April 6th, 11:45 a.m. – meeting over potluck
April 27th, 11:45 a.m. – Earth Day 2025 Event
May 4th, 11:45 a.m. – meeting over potluck
Recent Initiatives
Environmental Voter Project (EVP)
“Using every election as an opportunity to change voting behavior, we track our voters’ long-term voting habits to maximize the cumulative impact of our work.
With behavioral science-informed messaging, we call, canvass, mail, and send digital ads to millions of low-propensity environmental voters each year with just one goal: turning them into better voters. Since 2015, we have contacted 10.5 million non-voting and seldom-voting environmentalists and helped convert over 1.8 million of them into “super voters” who now consistently vote their values in every federal, state, and local election.”
Recent Events
![]() | October 19th – Silver Wave Tour: Georgia Noted Climate writer Bill McKibben and Senior Attorney Bill Sapp from the Southern Environmental Law Center kicked off Third Act’s Silver Wave Tour with older Americans rallying for “Get Out the Vote” events and door-to-door canvassing across Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Nevada. To learn more, visit Third Act Georgia or view the Third Act video channel on Vimeo. |
![]() | May 19th – Helen Butler forum on voting On May 26, Green Friends co-sponsored with Social Concerns and Quakers for Racial Equality, a hybrid forum with Helen Butler, longtime civil rights activist and Executive Director of the Georgia Coalition for the Peoples’ Agenda. Helen spoke about recent Georgia legislation that suppresses voter rights. View the recording at this link (Passcode: L7!I1&=3). To learn more, volunteer or donate to this worthy cause, visit Georgia Coalition for the Peoples’ Agenda. |
![]() | April 22th-28th – Earth Week Celebration On Sunday, April 28th, we had our Green Friends Climate Change Forum, entitled “Power Through Our Plates”. The event was well attended with around 40 people. It was a fun, interactive event, where we hosted a potluck featuring a variety of plant based dishes. We watched a short documentary on the impact of our dietary choices on the planet and the climate, called Eating Our Way To Extinction (36 min.). You can watch the full film (1 hr. 21 min.) at this link. Then, we had interactive small group discussions where everyone responded to 3 prompts: (1) What are some obstacles to adopting a plant-based diet? (2) What are potential benefits of adopting a plant-based diet? (3) What are things that we can do right now to get started? We shared out the responses to the prompts and then ended the event with additional information and resources for people that were interested in starting the transition to a more climate friendly diet. |
Local Resources
We’d like to highlight FoodCommune, a local food rescue initiative open to all.
![]() | FoodCommune 368 Candler Road, Atlanta, GA 30317 FoodCommune is a local food co-op that rescues food to help feed our community. You can participate in the co-op as a Shopper, Food Donor, Volunteer, Gleaner, or Farmer. Hours are typically Saturdays from 1 p.m. – 7 p.m. but often vary with weather conditions, so please check their Facebook page for the latest information. |
Contact Us
Email us at AFMGreenFriends@gmail.com.