Other Questions about Greener Lent?

Suggestions?

Contact support@greenerlent.org

CAN I STILL JOIN?

Yes, you may join the fast at any time! If Lent is half-over, starting your fast now has great value. If you want to fast during Holy Week, join then. The impact of the community fast will be calculated correctly based on the date that you join.

Join Now!

HOW DO I BRING GREENER LENT TO MY CHURCH?

Greener Lent can be customized for use at various Christian faith communities. All Christians are called to fast, pray and give alms. Although our traditions are different, our love is the same.

Contact us

Frequently Asked Questions

How are the estimates calculated?
The estimates are calculated using a free on-line calculator, the Harvard Foodprint Calculator. The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health "The Nutrition Source" website provides diet and nutrition information including sustainabiblity information which features the calculator. Where participants are substituing plant-based foods, the formula includes a serving each of vegetables, legumes, cereals and oils, i.e. 4 servings, to replace a single serving of meat. The length of time is 40 days. There are 46 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday, but Sundays are excluded, leaving 40 days. https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/sustainability/plate-and-planet/
What is CO2e?
CO2e means carbon dioxide equivalent. There are different types of greenhouse gasses. For example, methane, produced by cows, isn't carbon dioxide, but it can be expressed as a carbon dioxide equivalent allowing comparisons between different gasses that cause warming. Therefore, CO2e is a standard measure, just like inches is a measure for length or PSI is a measure for pressure.
Will I get enough protein?
You can get enough protein on a plant-based diet. Some famous vegetarian or vegan are Justin Fields (Pittsburgh Steelers), Venus Williams (tennis pro) and Chris Paul (San Antonio Spurs). There are lists of football players, bodybuilders, boxers, ultra-marathon runners, etc. who are vegetarians or vegans. Protein needs of adults range from 46 grams (teenage girls) to 56 grams (adult men). Children need less protein and pregnant or breast-feeding women need more. There was a very large NIH (National Institutes of Health) study that answers this question. Looking at Figure 1 in the paper, the average dietary protein intake was over 70 grams of protein, regardless if the people were meat-eaters or vegetarians or semi-vegetarians. In the US, eating sufficient protein, regardless of whether you eat meat or not, doesn't appear to be a problem. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23988511
How do I change my fasting level or stop participating?
If you want to drop out during Lent, please send an email to rosemaryherhold@greenerlent.org. It is no problem at all, and thank you for helping keep the statistics accurate. If you want to change your fasting level, simply sign up again under a new fasting level. Your old level will be dropped from the calculations.
Is fasting from meat healthy?
Generally, replacing meats and cheese with fruits, beans, vegetables and whole grains helps control weight, cardiovascular diseases, high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer. Although abstaining from meat can offer incredible potential health benefits and may be a reason to incorporate more plant-based meals into your diet, our Lenten Fast is focused on fasting as a means of repentance and considering the poor in our eating decisions. Nonetheless, the research of Dr. T. Colin Campbell, a nutritional biochemist from Cornell University, and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn, a former top surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic, are featured in a documentary that does a fantastic job of explaining the health benefits of a plant-based diet.
Why is fish okay? Eggs?
Seafood has a smaller carbon footprint than other animal meat, on average, generally because it doesn't take land or other resources to feed it. However, seafood has a varied impact, with crustaceans, like lobsters, being the worst, and smaller fish being the best. This is basically due to the amount of fuel energy it takes to obtain the different types of seafood. Therefore, fish is excluded from the fast. The environmental impact of an egg is somewhat like that of a chicken, but it depends on many factors regarding how they were produced. Going down all of these "rabbit holes" makes the Lenten FAST needlessly complicated. So, fish and eggs are excluded.
Can people outside of the Raleigh diocese or non-Catholics sign-up?
Absolutely! There is a spot on the form to capture a parish or an individual without a parish affiliation.
Is Greener Lent political?
Greener Lent is not political. We (Catholic, and our dear Christian brothers and sisters ) must be the leaders on the environment. We must be the light on the hill and care deeply for the poor, and how the environmental crisis is hurting the poor. We can’t allow a political party to lead where we should be leading. A political party is not the moral authority on care for God’s creation; the Church is, and the Church has spoken clearly about this. In Greener Lent, there are no calls to policy change or any other political involvement. Greener Lent is purely about individual food choices and demonstrates how traditional practices like fasting and prayer bring individuals to holiness and are inseparable from almsgiving. Like all justice issues there must be some call to policy change, but that must come from a converted heart, and Greener Lent is about our own personal conversion to holiness that leads us to evangelize. Pope Francis in his encyclical on Care for Creation, Laudato Sí says: 48. The human environment and the natural environment deteriorate together; we cannot adequately combat environmental degradation unless we attend to causes related to human and social degradation. In fact, the deterioration of the environment and of society affects the most vulnerable people on the planet: “Both everyday experience and scientific research show that the gravest effects of all attacks on the environment are suffered by the poorest”.
How do I sign my family up?
Family sign-ups are accommodated on the form.
Will my data be kept private?
There are no logins; we are not authenticating users. To tabulate results, all of the data stays within the Google ecosystem. However, the data isn't inherently valuable, so we aren't requiring a password. Who needs another password to remember anyway? You can use fake names if you want. The data is reported by parish, not by individual, so it doesn't matter if the person is identified as "drtgbjiu765t" or "Fred" to us. We are collecting email addresses, which isn't sensitive information, so data privacy isn't considered. Although we would love persons from the EU to join, the work of understanding and assessing GDPR compliance prohibits this, so persons from the EU should not sign up.