Green Your Diet

Learn more about how you can reduce your environmental footprint by eating sustainably and maybe even growing some of your own food. 

Compost Giveaway

The City hands out thousands of bags of organic compost every year. Check back for upcoming giveaway events or Signup for our E-Newsletter to be notified of events. Signup by checking "Environment News".

Compost Giveaway

Greenhouse gas emissions and your food

Check out Eat Low Carbon’s interactive database of foods and their associated carbon emissions. It is estimated that the food system accounts for a third of all greenhouse gas emissions. Taking small steps in understanding your diet and making conscious, healthy, and environmentally-friendly decisions can lower your carbon footprint and may result in a healthier diet.

Water consumption and your food

Did you know that it takes 1,056 gallons of water to make one gallon of brewed coffee? Or that is takes 51 gallons of water to make one egg? The Water Footprint Network has created an interactive gallery of foods to browse to better understand the water footprint of your daily lifestyle.

Buying local and in season

Check out the Hayward Farmers Market every Saturday from 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. in front of City Hall.

Seed Lending Event

Local resources for growing your own food

  • Project EAT: With the mission of closing the achievement gap and improving healthy eating in school communities, there's a lot on Project EAT’s plate. Learn more about how Project EAT is using gardening and cooking-center food education to improve local communities, and how you can help.
  • Hayward Seed Lending Library: The Seed Lending Library operates as a community seed exchange allowing borrowers to “check out” a wide variety of vegetable and flower seeds to plant in their gardens for home use. The Seed Lending Library also hosts free classes and tips on smart gardening.
  • City of Hayward Landscape Classes: The City of Hayward offers free water-efficient landscape classes to residents in the spring and fall, covering topics including water-efficient vegetable gardening, rain barrels, and more.
  • Stopwaste.org: Learn how to build healthy soil, choose the right plants, grow an edible garden, and reduce wasteful gardening practices on StopWaste’s Gardening site.
  • Integrated Pest Management: What exactly is integrated pest management? It’s a way to manage pests in your yard with the lowest environmental and health impacts. UC Davis has many resources to help you with this topic.

Water Efficient Landscaping Class