by Mary Knippel

Family tour of Tunitas Creek Ranch, an organic farm in Pescadero. The children harvested eggs and then fed the chickens. Pictured with the children, Aaron the expert gardener.

Discussions about child-rearing and simple home remedies that used to take place across a backyard fence or at the kitchen table are now held in cyberspace as today’s busy Coastside mothers seek to nourish not only their families, but also Mother Earth, in an eco-friendly manner.

“It started out as a support group for moms who wanted to green their lives,” Melinda MacNaughton told me, referring to the Green Mommies Yahoo group she organized in 2005 as special interest group within the Coastside Mothers’ Club. MacNaughton, along with co-founder Janice Solimeno, organized the GreenMoms community after the pair met at a Coastside Rainforest fundraiser. Solimeno was pregnant and looking for a way to connect with other moms after leaving her high tech job. MacNaughton was looking for someone to do a logo, and a friendship was born.

In April 2008, a new GreenMoms Web site was launched, again through the efforts of MacNaughton and Solimeno. “Melinda knows the green,” Solimeno explained about their partnership, “and I know the Web site. We’re always evolving and trying to stay in tune with members’ interests.”

MacNaughton trained as a dietician to learn how she could help her father who was suffering from diabetes. “I was familiar with very mainstream nutrition which is influenced by the agricultural and food service industry. The nutrition that they’re pushing is not necessarily good for your body. I started being green just before I had my daughter who is almost 4. I read an article about why you should eat organic and that opened up my eyes to the problems with conventional food.”

GreenMoms is both an online and an offline community, with a calendar that lists monthly meetings as well as a schedule of special events. The grass-roots meetings MacNaughton orchestrates in living rooms and parks provide support, information, resources and inspiration to those who would like to have less of an impact on the planet.

The current GreenMoms Web site offers a place to come with questions and receive answers through a member forum and a wealth of resources; there’s information on everything from the differences between organic, fair trade and Rainforest Alliance certifications to what kind of chocolate to buy, which baby bottles to use, why you shouldn’t buy plastic toys, and more. “The resources are great,” Solimeno said. “If it’s 11:00 p.m. and you realized you wanted to ask about a specific topic, you can put it out there and you know tomorrow there may be an answer.”

A green gauge, called The GreenMometer, is a unique feature of this group. “It’s something we came up with,” Solimeno said, “because people can get overwhelmed … so this way we can give them something easy to start with.” And if people are already taking that easy first step, there’s a next step to try. “So there are levels of green and we have a Web page which explains the different degrees of greenness,” Solimeno said. Individuals can decide what works for them. “We are many shades of green,” MacNaughton emphasized. “Some days I am not green at all. Other days I’m very green, or right in the middle.”

GreenMoms is poised to go global in fall 2008 with the launch of a revamped Web site. “I first became involved with the Green Mommies because I’m a mother,” said Rene Keep in a phone interview, “and I feel we in the U.S. use so many resources globally. I like to be around other mothers who share the same awareness of the global situation.”

“We are creating something new,” Allena Barbato said in a phone conversation about GreenMoms. “We are demonstrating ways that society can be different and make choices which are more responsible. I want to support other moms and enjoy hearing the stories of like-minded women.”

Visit GreenMoms on the Web at www.greenmomscoastside.com.