Daily Archives: July 23, 2022

Cape May County is home to some of the most popular beach destinations in New Jersey: Ocean City, Sea Isle City, Avalon, Stone Harbor, Wildwood and, of course, Cape May. Those driving there often pass through or see signs for Upper Township, Middle Township and Lower Township, the names of contiguous townships in Cape May County. More than one person has probably remarked to themselves or to their driving companions about those names going to or leaving the beaches. Those in the know will tell you they are not just places to drive past, or names to joke about, but are livable communities with some great places to eat and drink.

The beach communities are, today, not a part of Lower, Middle and Upper, but at one time, the entire area was known as Cape May. In 1723, it was split into the three precincts, or townships, earning them their geographically accurate names. We will start with Lower and work our way up.

Lower is the birthplace of Southern Jersey, settled well before Cape May was a beach scene. In fact, it was not the beach that led to its creation but the waters off of it, first settled in 1635 by whalers. Today, the Port of Cape May remains one of the best and biggest fishing ports on the East Coast, and Lower stretches across the peninsula from the Atlantic to the Delaware Bay. So, its fitting, based on the regions origins and the present day, to mention Budds Bait and Tackle, in the community of Villas. Known for its top-quality blue claw crabs (live or steamed) and shrimp, theres also other fresh hauls, like clams and scallops. If you would rather catch your own than peel or crack your own, a full line of bait, and fishing tips await there.

If life is short, eat dessert first is really a thing, you might want to stop at Flecks Ice Cream in Villas before heading off to dinner. Cooking or eating at home? Gaiss Market is a local institution. An almost 100-year-old business, it is a butcher shop, sandwich shop and grocery store. If you prefer to eat out, Greek-inspired Olive Branch in Villas and Yozu Sushi and Hibachi in North Cape May do some great things with that locally sourced seafood coming into the port.

On to Middle Township. Nummytown is a section of Rio Grande in Middle that sounds like it belongs in a food article. It derives its name from Chief Nummy, the last leader of the Kechemeche tribe who lived in the area. Close to Nummytown, though, now is Menz Restaurant and Bar, another local establishment nearing its centennial, with an old-school menu in an old-school setting that is still keeping it fresh.

Cape May Court House is the county seat, and there are plenty of options to find a seat or to walk away with some fine food. Caf 101 and Carvery is one top option for breakfast and lunch. Try the turkey cheesesteak. Cherrys Natural Foods, also open for breakfast and lunch, is an organic caf and market that bills itself as New Jerseys Favorite Organic Cottage. Sit for a bit there, and you are likely to make it your favorite.

The Two Black Dogs Caf and Take Out inside the Green Creek Country Store (in Green Creek, of course) is another rewarding quick stop for taking out or grabbing one of the handful of tables to eat in. Instead of driving or flying by, park or land at the Flight Deck Diner in Rio Grande for breakfast and lunch with some Southern flair. If you are looking for something more upscale and slower, classic and modern French cooking meet at Provence, a beautifully designed restaurant inside the beautifully restored Peninsula B&B in Cape May Court House.

Now up to Upper. Village Kitchen in Marmora, a 40-year family operation serving breakfast and lunch, bills itself as Upper Townships Meeting and Eating Place. Sushi Ocean View (in Ocean View) is another Japanese restaurant that does well with the nearby oceans bounty. Looking for good baked goods? Blue Dolfin Sweets in Marmora and Frog Hollow Bakery in Greenfield probably have lines because it takes people too long to decide what to have.

It seems there are a lot of breakfast, lunch and takeout places mentioned, and it is intentional. A lot of folks are driving past these communities and sometimes are more focused on their ultimate destination, but Cape May County offers so much more than its beach communities, and its not all that far from those communities. Parks, farms, trails and other outdoor settings are one reason to get out and explore, but these townships also have a rich concentration of some of the best craft wineries, breweries and distilleries in the Garden State. Look for Slack Tide Brewing, 7 Mile Brewing, and Ludlum Island Brewery, among others, for beer; Cape May Distillery and Nauti Spirits for small-batch spirits; and wineries, like Hawk Haven, Turdo and Natali.

Most of these producers allow guests to bring in their own food, and there are many excellent options in addition to those listed here from which to choose from before visiting these great spots to enjoy a drink most times of the year. Some also host some fantastic local food trucks, like Mermaid Mutineer and Bayside Seafood. As always, look up websites or call ahead with any of these businesses to check hours of operation or any seasonal and special event schedule changes.

Remember, the beach is seasonal, but checking out the rest of Cape May County, starting with Lower, Middle and Upper Townships, is year round.

Hank Zonawrites regularly about wine, spirits and a range ofothertopics such as food and culture. Healso hasbeen running wine andspiritsevents of all sorts for over a decade.

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A bite-sized guide to the undiscovered foodie communities of Cape May County - Jersey's Best

Ms. Muse is a discovery place for riotous, righteous and resonant feminist poetry that nourishes and gives voice to a rising tide of female resistancebrought to you by Ms.digitalcolumnistChivasSandage.

We turn to poetry to travel, to fathom the other as one another, to bear witness, to provoke. We turn to poetry to feel less alone, more like ourselves, to remember home and to come home. Now, as we continue to rise up and resist, were turning to poetry. An antidote to the news, Ms. Muse has arrived to fortifyand defy.

Ms. Muse is backand youve clicked right into it! Stay tuned for monthly interviews with feminist poets featuring new and rarely seen work, as well as essays about the intersection of poetry, politics and our lives.

Im also excited and honored to announce that one of the first installments will be about the lost poetry of the late Cherokee Chief Wilma Mankiller, whose poems were found in her old barn.

My vision is to amplify the voices of a diverse spectrum of women making waves with poetry. Ms. Muse 2.0 will feature several former Ms. Muse poets returning as guest columnists. In this way, I can support a wider range of poets, leverage the privilege of writing for Ms., and readers can discover new communities of writers.

Since 2006, Ive taught womens writing workshops and year after year, I witness firsthand how poetry as sustenanceespecially poems by writers who identify as womencan make a difference for women, can reset ones day, the way a good meal can ground and fortify.

When I began writing Ms. Muse in the spring of 2018, I did so knowing that American feminists of every gender needed an antidote to the news. A labor of great love, the column was my literary activism while enduring life under Trump.

However, in October 2019, a painful, protracted crisis began to unfold in my personal life and I needed to take a break from writing Ms. Muse. My wife and I had spent years working with close friends in their nonprofit to found an intentional community that ultimately failed spectacularly. Our community became divided under dysfunctional leadership, documented facts no longer mattered and our so-called values became ironic and laughable. We seemed to be a microcosm of what was happening in our country. During that time, COVID cost me my dream day job, then a family crisis erupted.

Now on the other side of those devastating years, Im writing about the folly of our idealism and the distance between who we think we are, who we are and who we long to be.

Meanwhile, the deepening divisions in our country have proved to be a fatal threat to equal rights for all Americans and to democracy. There has never been a greater distance between who we think we are, who we are and who we long to be. Shortly after June 24, 2022, when the Supreme Court struck down womens constitutional right to privacy and reproductive choice, I started writing Only Freeish in America, the first installment of Ms. Muse 2.0, which went live on Thursday, July 21.

Poetry gives voice to the voiceless on behalf of women silenced for centuries. Poetry can be potent medicine, essential and redemptiveeven lifesaving.

As Ive begun to share news of the relaunch, one woman emailed, Im so happy to hear Ms. Muse is being rebooted. We need it now more than ever!

Soon, Ill announce a call for poems of witness, protest and resistance. Please spread the word to feminist poets who identify as women: If youre writing about what youre witnessing, what haunts you and what youre living, youll be invited to send your work to Ms. Muse for consideration. Selections are made entirely based on work submittedno letter or bio needed.

We are not necessarily seeking women-centric poems, but rather, hoping to find powerful work that reflects womens lived experiences, observations, perspectives and concerns. And we are open and eager to read the work of poets who write from intersectional perspectives.

Welcome back to Ms. Muse, a discovery place for riotous, righteous and resonant feminist poetry that nourishes and gives voice to a rising tide of female resistance!

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The Return of Ms. MuseBecause We Need Righteous, Riotous Feminist Poetry Now More Than Ever - Ms. Magazine

Lawmakers are scrambling to pass affordable housing legislation after Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) threw a wrench into yet another social spending package last week.

Manchin also rejected the Biden administrations Build Back Better Act last year, which would have allotted more than $150 billion for housing geared toward the middle class and lower-income Americans.

To get those housing units built, lawmakers from both parties want to boost tax credits that incentivize builders to construct cheaper homes for low-income people in order to offset the often drastically higher profit margins that builders can make putting up homes for the wealthy.

But even with those credits in place, builders are coming up against resistance on the local and state level because low-income housing can depress property values and drag down municipal tax revenues that determine things like the quality of local school districts.

This phenomenon is known as NIMBY-ism, or not in my backyard. It means that even though voters and taxpayers may support government efforts to build more low- and middle-income housing, theyd prefer to have it done somewhere that doesnt affect them personally.

During a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday scheduled to explore the role that tax incentives should play to make more cheap homes, Georgia builder Jerry Konter said that NIMBY-ism often appears in the form of local building regulations.

Many people on the panel have already talked about the regulatory burden in producing housing. And you know, NIMBY-ism is a large part of that also. I know that in my community, I experience people [who] want school teachers and police officers and fire people to serve their community, but they put in restrictions that affect housing prices that force them not to live within that community, Konter, who is also the chairman of the National Association of Home Builders, said.

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) remarked during the hearing that teachers in his constituency are being priced out of their own school districts.

I had the Colorado Teacher of the Year come visit me a month or so ago, he said. Shes from Glenwood Springs, which is a rural community on the western slope of Colorado and in passing she wasnt complaining but she just made the observation that 70 to 80 percent of her colleagues in the middle school and in the high school where she teaches have to have two or three jobs just to live in Glenwood Springs. So, you know, this is a real failure on the part of our society, I think, to be able to create workforce housing in our states.

One extreme example of NIMBY-ism occurred in 2019 in Californias San Fernando Valley, where homelessness has been a major issue for many years. Efforts to build permanent housing for the homeless in the area have been met with fierce resistance from residents of the town of Chatsworth.

Residents argued that a proposal to build 63 studio apartments for the chronically homeless as part of a billion-dollar Los Angeles City bond program would harm their community and present a danger to local school children.

Another barrier to building affordable housing is zoning laws.

We hear from people around the country what zoning regulations have done, impeding the ability to build new homes across the country, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) said during the hearing. If we were to provide funding to support communities that update zoning regulations, would that help increase the supply of housing?

Konter said that zoning regulations can masquerade in various ways to prevent the construction of cheaper housing.

There tend to be zoning regulations that are put in place, and whether theyre intentional or disparate, the result is that they raise the cost of housing, and therefore we cant build affordable housing through those zoning requirements, he said.

Its a great problem, he went on. Our members face it constantly. Things such as design standards being added to zoning which has really nothing to do with zoning, but increases the cost of the housing. Zoning is a tremendous problem.

There are a number of tax incentives that lawmakers are pushing to build more middle-class houses and surmount the market-driven tendency of NIMBY-ism.

Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) proposed legislation creating a tax credit that covers the difference between the cost of building a home and selling a home in areas with bad commercial markets.

Private development lacks in some urban and rural areas because the cost of purchasing and renovating homes is greater than the value of the sale price of homes. The Neighborhood Homes Investment Act (NHIA) creates a federal tax credit that covers the cost between building or renovating a home in these areas and the price at which they can be sold, a 2021 write-up on the bill from Cardin reads.

The low income housing tax credit is widely regarded as the most powerful credit for creating low-income housing. Started in 1986, the program has shelled out around $8 billion a year to issue tax credits for the acquisition, rehabilitation, or new construction of rental housing targeted to lower-income households, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Sens. Todd Young (R-Ind.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) have a proposal to expand the tax credit in a variety of ways, including boosting its funding, repealing population caps associated with the credit and prohibiting local approvals.

The initiatives come as prices in the housing market continue to climb skyward. New data released Thursday put the median-priced single-family home at nearly $350,000.

With mortgage rates above 5 percent and the Federal Reserve raising interest rates, houses are less affordable in nearly every county in the country, according to a new report from real estate data company ATTOM.

Median-priced single-family homes and condos are less affordable in the second quarter of 2022 compared to historical averages in 97 percent of counties across the nation with enough data to analyze. That was up from 69 percent of counties that were historically less affordable in 2021, the company said in a Thursday statement.

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Lawmakers want to expand affordable housing. Communities say, Not in my back yard - The Hill

Trent Hargrove| Your Turn

Working in several different roles directly responsible for or impacting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at the community and organizational levels as the Chief Counsel at the Department of General Services, a Pennsylvania Chief Deputy Attorney, the first Chief Diversity Officer of the commonwealth, and now the Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer for the Pennsylvania Bar Association I have seen DEI practices in development and in application. Regardless of each role, the one apparent commonality that ties my experiences together is that time and time again I witness how DEI programs and initiatives have the power to drive communities forward or when ignored, how it will pull them down.

In 2017, Erie was named the worst place to live for Black Americans, and while it has made progress, still today that defining distinction remains in its Google search. The pandemic laid bare the disparities facing BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) living in Erie and the Erie County Council made the right move and formed the Erie County Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Commission.

The commission, now called Diverse Erie, is actively developing initiatives and programs that apply equity and inclusion measures to attract a more diverse population. Erie has something to be proud of. Pennsylvania's oft overlooked rural, urban, suburban community on the Lake Erie took an issue that plagued the county and invested in a solution and that should be applauded. But now is not the time to cower away. Diverse Erie must continue to be a top priority for the sake of the residents, businesses, and health of the whole county.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are often discussed as social issues or as buzzwords you hear in the workplace, but the power of these practices goes far beyond the workplace. Cities, counties, and businesses that apply equity across every aspect of their communities lead to inclusive environments a welcome and common thread that can hold up a county when businesses are looking for a place to grow or locate their employees. From a social and community tool to business growth and economic development, DEI plays a big role, and when properly nourished, it will help a community flourish. Just as enriching as this approach can become, an anti-DEI approach can put a community in a decidedly negative light, discouraging site selectors and thriving entrepreneurs from investing in the community.

DEI creates an environment that is engaging and welcoming for all working to lift people up, foster inclusivity, and make a vibrant, lively culture that helps to retain and attract residents and draw in new businesses. When I hear today that places continue to struggle to bring in people and business, I wonder what the community's climate is like. Are there any DEI investments happening? What story does the city or county tell from the outside looking in? The broader the business and community culture is, the more residents can thrive, and business can be facilitated. DEI initiatives cannot be marginalized it's a community and business imperative that everyone engages in the process. If leaders are trying to establish Erie as the place business gets done on the up-and-coming list then these are the key practices that will continue moving the county in a positive direction, and they cannot be neglected.

Diverse Erie has the key to open the door for Erie to be the hub for economic development. DEI is as important to the local economy as it is to the broader corporate and business world, as evidenced by the DEI initiatives being touted by Erie's largest employers, including Erie Insurance.

Erie Insurance along with most of its Fortune 500 peers touts its commitment through the CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion pledge and appointment of an employee to the CEO Action for Racial Equity Fellowship Program, which works to address systemic racism and social injustice through public policy. When the richest companies in the world invest in DEI, it is usually a sign this is a mandatory investment.

Forming the commission Diverse Erie was a bold step that moved the needle forward. But realistically, Erie isn't as far ahead as many might think. Having a DEI commission puts Erie in line with similar initiatives in other cities like Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia, which have been doing this work for years. Erie is now catching up and to keep up and not fall behind again, Diverse Erie cannot be lost. Erie cannot abandon this critical effort.

The first year of the commission being formed is as important as ever to use these funds wisely and leverage them. Having an intentional approach will work to make sure the greatest number of people will benefit ultimately, helping the whole community. For Erie to continue to progress and build a strong future, DEI is essential, required, and should be embraced as a key economic development tool to help continue to lift one of Pennsylvania's communities on the rise.

Trent Hargrove, Esq., is the chief diversity, equity, and inclusion officer for the Pennsylvania Bar Association.

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Diversity, equity, inclusion initiatives no longer optional - eyes are on Erie - GoErie.com

Amanda LeClaire, Sophia Jozwiak

Detroit has long been a destination for immigrant communities, dating to before Henry Ford began the first automotive assembly line factory. But life within these diverse communities can be isolating, and in response to that, the Concert of Colors came into being.

This event began because of a need for communication between different communities in Detroit in the wake of the 1967 uprisings, and it has evolved into so much more. The festival now includes multiple events across multiple venues with dozens of artists performing every year, and its all happening now through July 24.

Journalist Martina Guzmn recently wrote a feature for Detroit Metro Times about the deep roots of the Concert of Colors as it celebrates its 30th anniversary.

I was blown away, surprised at the conscious effort by community leaders to take communities of color and bring them together, Guzmn shares about her research process.

She says the first inspiration for the festival began in the 1960s with the founding of a racial justice organization called New Detroit, which is still active today. The groups organizers invited community leaders from different ethnic groups in the city to meet monthly, discuss social and economic issues and break bread together.

They would share and build relationships and get to know one another in a way that didnt exist before.

She says that while these practices may not seem out of the ordinary now, that kind of intentional inclusion was radical for the 60s and 70s. These community efforts eventually lead to the development of Concert of Colors as we know it today.

WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.

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Amanda LeClaire is Host of CultureShift and is a founding producer of both of WDET's locally-produced daily shows. She's been involved in radio and the arts in Detroit for over a decade.

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Sophia Jozwiak is the Digital Content and Communities Assistant for 101.9 WDET.

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Reflecting on the inclusive beginnings of the Concert of Colors - WDET

Live United by Erin Haag

As I walked by a booth at Wind Down Wednesday, I waved hello to an acquaintance. She immediately started to get up from her chair and called something out to me. With the hustle and bustle of the street, I couldnt hear, so I stopped and stepped to the side of the tent. She came up to me, took my hands and paused, looking at me intently with her blue eyes, making sure she had my full attention. She said, Im proud of you. Im proud of the articles you write and the work youre doing. She told me that I was made for this job. Well. That got me right in the feels. We talked for a few minutes about our personal beliefs, my kids and their friends, and then I had to hustle to go pick up said kids.

Erin Haag

What she doesnt know is that I had a rough day the day before the kind of day thats hard to shake off and tends to follow you until things get resolved. I was overwhelmed with a variety of things all happening at once. Alongside the frustrations of no copier/printer at work, learning new software and needing the world to freeze so we can organize our work environment, Im also hip-deep in the murky waters of parenting and working through new challenges. Because I know my readers will call and ask: Both kids are absolutely OK. Last year, my little family built a chicken coop and raised four chickens. We lost two of our much loved chickens to a predator last weekend, another is injured and recovering in our makeshift hospital. That has evolved into the biggest life questions about life and death and reconciling that. Its hard when our babies have to grow up and find their place in the world, and its hard as parents to walk that fine line between supporting and knowing its something that everyone goes through for themselves.

Throughout the day, I kept thinking of how that sweet lady made me feel. Her words grounded me. It was a moment of true authenticity, and I know itll stay with me. Everyone deserves to feel that grounding and pride in their work. Im going to challenge myself and others to bring that grounding and pride to others that might not hear it. Its more than a random text or comment. Even a handwritten note can seem like a note of obligation if youre not careful with the intention behind it. What can we do to be intentional about the praise we give? What recognition provides value to the person receiving the praise?

This isnt the first time that someone has shared something complimentary. What made this different? The timing of it, coming on the heels of a rotten day? I thought about other times weve received praise or been made to feel good. I know for me I have a board member who will send me cards. Christmas cards, get well cards. Shell also send me a text on Mothers Day and celebrate all the days in between. Another board member sent our office a Christmas card, and goodness, we got excited about that! We admired the Christmas photo of his dogs, and hung it right up in the front reception room. In our little office, we have a tendency to give each other presents. A sticker, grabbing lunch for each other, a graphic T-shirt. We pick up little things along our journeys to leave for the others. Last week, we walked into the conference room for a team meeting. The conference room is shared by other groups. Written on the whiteboard was, The ladies of United Way are an asset to our community. Heidi, Nikolle and I were so touched by that note left for us to find.

Heres my Live United challenge of the week. You know a nonprofit worker who might not be seen. We are tired. We are burned out. We are stretched to capacity and struggling to take a deep breath. It might be an executive director, a board member, a program worker. It might be a pastor, leading our faith-based communities while dealing with their own emotional whirlwinds. Think about who that is, and intentionally share something to lift them up. Think about what might work best. Often for our executive directors or program managers it might be a note that gets written to their board of directors, letting them know that youre seeing the good work theyre doing, a letter to the editor at the Albert Lea Tribune or drop off some sweet treats.

Heres my one little caveat though. This column is written to the general public. If youre in a position to do something about what makes their life challenging, make sure youre not choosing a token thing to compensate real change, otherwise your gesture will backfire. If youre reading this as a member of a board, or an employer or any other position of authority, take the time to ask what would make a difference in the day-to-day lives. For example, if my boss told me I would have to make do without a copier because of budget cuts, and then tried to celebrate staff with a pizza lunch, there would be some raised eyebrows. Initiate real change and that takes consideration of what would make a difference. It might still be that recognition. Or it might be buying a new office chair because your program manager has one that is breaking down. Now go forth and make a difference and tell the community youre proud of them, and help them do the work, so they feel renewed and inspired. As always, Im happy to brainstorm and give specific ideas. If you have someone in mind, and need my help to make it happen, such as an address or helping pass it on and make sure it gets to the right place give me a call, and I will make it happen. 507-373-8670.

Erin Haag is the executive director of the United Way of Freeborn County.

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Live United: Go forth and tell community members you're proud of them - Albert Lea Tribune - Albert Lea Tribune

Representatives from the Atlanta Hawks celebrate as the organization, in collaboration with State Farm, hit the 1,000,000 mark on Saturday (photo courtesy of Kat Goduco/Atlanta Hawks).

The Atlanta Hawks, in partnership with State Farm, took on an ambitious goal of packing one million meals in an effort to fight food insecurity throughout the Greater Atlanta area.

The organizations not only reached that lofty goal; they surpassed it.

On Saturday, more than 5,000 volunteers gathered at State Farm Arena in support of the Atlanta Hawks and State Farms Million Meal Pack initiative. Divided into six 90-minute shifts, this group of volunteers packed 1,019,232 meals in nine hours.

We are very grateful for all of todays volunteers and extremely proud of the results from todays Million Meal Pack in partnership with State Farm, said Steve Koonin, CEO of the Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena. We understand that it is a huge undertaking to tackle food insecurity throughout Atlanta, and we believe that this one-day community service initiative will make an incredible impact and also inspire our communities throughout metro Atlanta.

Supporting this effort were State Farm Senior Vice President Dan Krause, City of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, NBA Hall of Famer and Hawks Legend Dikembe Mutombo and Congresswoman Nikema Williams, who all welcomed and thanked the volunteers for donating their time in support of the Hawks largest single-day community service initiative. Individuals, families, community groups, schools, churches and businesses gathered alongside volunteers from U.S. Hunger and executives from the Hawks and State Farm to meet the goal of packing over one million meals.

Andrea Carter, the Hawks Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility, said that planning for this event was a collaborative event, and she is excited about the opportunity to have an immediate positive impact on Atlantas food insecure communities.

The one million meals are going to help fight food insecurity right here in the city of Atlanta, said Carter. While the event is going on, the meals are actually being deployed, so the non-profits are picking them up, and then [the meals] will go out to the community. Next steps are about getting the food into the hands of the people who need it most.

The more-than-one million meals packed will be distributed throughout the metro Atlanta area with the operational support of U.S. Hunger, a hunger relief organization with innovative programs designed to help feed people struggling with food insecurity. Additionally, other local organizations will help distribute the meals: Atlanta Community Food Bank, CHRIS 180, City of Refuge, Fountain of Hope, Georgia State University Panthers Pantry, Goodr, Meals On Wheels Atlanta, Mimis Pantry and Second Helpings Atlanta.

The Million Meal Pack event makes a real difference in the lives of Atlanta residents facing food insecurity, said Dan Krause, Southeastern Market Area Senior Vice President at State Farm. Our local State Farm agents and employees were proud to be part of this effort, as State Farm is dedicated to giving back and strengthening communities. Were grateful to all the volunteers and thank State Farm Arena and the Atlanta Hawks for our partnership.

Statistics provided by the Atlanta Community Food Bank show that nearly one in eight Georgians are living with food insecurity, including one in six children.

There is nothing like the energy from 5,000 Atlantans coming together to take care of their community, taking a bold stand in the fight against hunger. After three years of being apart, were honored to be invited back by the Hawks and State Farm to help pack one million meals for families in need! said Rick Whitted, CEO of U.S. Hunger.

The atmosphere in State Farm Arena on Saturday was energetic and celebratory. DJ Chika Takai blasted hip hop music throughout the 21,000-seat arena, while volunteers and Hawks staff simultaneously danced and packed meals. Harry the Hawk also bought his unique energy to the event, as he danced and interacted with the younger volunteers.

Casey Baker, a local realtor, joined the initiative with her fellow workout partners from Kennesaws tRUCKFIT, because she is an advocate for community service. But she did not expect an event like this one.

Its been so much fun. Its lit in here, Baker said. Weve been dancing up and down the aisles. Ive done a lot of community service before, but this is really fun. Its one thing to know youre giving back to people; its another to be in an environment where you got a DJ, you got [Dikembe] Mutombo in the room. Its awesome. This is great.

Continuing to operate as the worlds first TRUE Platinum certified sports and entertainment venue, this event is also marked as the first zero waste Million Meal Pack. As part of this event, State Farm Arena diverted more than 90 percent from landfills that includes all materials generated from load-in to load-out. In an intentional effort, the packaging also uses messaging to encourage recycling within the recipients communities.

The Hawks and State Farm hosted their first Million Meal Pack in 2019, where more than 5,000 volunteers filled State Farm Arena and prepared more than one million meals. The meals were then distributed to local Atlantans through seven community food bank organizations. Additionally, both organizations have led efforts in multiple community-focused initiatives to better serve metro Atlanta. In addition to Million Meal Pack, the two organizations have collaborated on high-impact endeavors such as providing free pop-up grocery stores in partnership with Goodr Inc., for elderly and underserved citizens in metro Atlanta and enhancing the Snack Pack Program, which gave over 24,000 snack packs to youth throughout the school year and during summer break. As part of the 2021-22 regular season, the Hawks Foundation and State Farm presented a check of $122,000 to the Atlanta Community Food Bank as an effort to help combat childhood hunger and fight against food insecurity throughout metro Atlanta. The Good Neighbor Giveback campaign raised $100 for every point the Hawks scored over 100 in each game during the 2021-22 regular season (originally up to $100,000) and was generously extended from State Farm.

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The Hawks and State Farm combat hunger by packing one million meals in nine hours - The Atlanta Voice

Snow days, once full of sledding and punctuated with abundant hot chocolate, are melting away. Trees bloom before last frost and flowers freeze on their branches. Heavy rains overwhelm city sewers and flood until you can smell climate change, says Lucy Corlett.

These stories live on the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities Storybank, where the changing climate in Philadelphia and around the world is painted in a multitude of brief vignettes. Each post shares a climate storya personal account of how climate change has altered the lives of everyday people.

On a globally changing planet, everyone has a climate story, says Bethany Wiggin, professor of German and founder of the My Climate Story project, which collects climate stories and teaches people how to share their own.

Now Wiggin has banded together with 10 high school teachers from across Philadelphia to bring the program directly to students in their classrooms. Together, the teachers will work with the projects curriculum and continue its development to help their students research, document, and share the climate stories of Philadelphians, collecting stories from across the city and creating a model for how climate education can be incorporated into classrooms around the world.

The project was born of the Penn Program in Environmental Humanities, which Wiggin founded in 2014 seeking to work towards a more sustainable world by building bridges between people of different disciplines. In 2020, she realized that part of achieving that goal meant building climate literacy across education levels, so she began the My Climate Story project. Along with students from the environmental humanities program, the Netter Center for Community Partnerships, and the Graduate School of Education, Wiggin began developing a series of workshops to help people tell the story of how climate change had affected their communities and wrote a freely available, illustrated climate storytelling workbook that forms the basis of the projects curriculum. Full of recipes for aspiring climate storytellers, the team calls it their cookbook.

The workshops were built on the understanding that climate literacy is a matter not only of big data and knowing how much global average temperatures have already risen, says Wiggin. Climate literacy may be more effectively taught as we recognize emotionally and personally how climate change is impacting our own lives and our communities.

Wiggin says this local understanding of climate changes effects is central to sparking the work required to avoid climate disaster. Without climate literacy, you have no climate action.

The My Climate Story team presented the workshops first online and then in person around the city and Philadelphia region, collecting dozens of climate stories from school groups and climate advocacy organizations, such as Interfaith Power and Light, and building partnerships with members of the City Council and the citys Office of Sustainability in the process.

The success of the program heartened Wiggin, and she believed that through these partnerships, Philadelphia could become a hub for climate literacy. But she knew that to do that, she had to seek out those who were already experts at educating: teachers.

Wiggin received support to create 10 climate classrooms through a Making a Difference grant, a School of Arts & Sciences program that encourages faculty to explore innovative ways of applying their expertise and working with students to address societal challenges at the local, national, and international level.

A call to area schools was answered by a crush of applications. The team chose teachers representing magnet, neighborhood, and special-admit public schools from across the city, teaching everything from algebra and biology to history and English. The diversity is intentional: Wiggin sought to capture the experiences of as broad a set of Philadelphians as possible, reflecting the different climate impacts faced by members of each community.

Together, the teacher cohort will develop a climate curriculum and begin incorporating it into their regular instruction over the course of the 2022-23 academic year. As part of this instruction, their students will collect climate stories from around their communities and attend storytelling workshops held by Cosmic Writers, a group founded at Penn that offers free creative writing education to school-aged children. In October, the roughly 300 students involved in the project will meet each other for the first time, at Listen Up! Philadelphia Youths Climate Stories, a two-day program on Penns campus, Oct.12 and 13.

The year-long program will culminate in a storytelling festival during Earth Week in April 2023, where students will present their communities stories through writing, photography, and video to the other participating classrooms, community members, and local leaders.

For some of the teachers, this public platform is not just a capstone, but an essential part of the project. School District of Philadelphia students often dont feel listened to, says Rebecca Yacker, who teaches 10th and 11th grade English at Walter B. Saul High School, located in the citys Roxborough neighborhood. That fact that the project puts so much focus on publishing students stories and giving them this broad audience, thats what really excited me, because it feels like real change.

Late in June, the project kicked off with its first workshop for teachers, and the teachers came face-to-face with each other and the small team Wiggin has recruited to facilitate the project.

Over the course of the day, the group began to get to know the program and each other, forming connections over their shared concern for the planet. As educators, we often feel really isolated, says Yacker. Having a program where you are working together and have leadership to guide those visions was really exciting.

A small group of Penn undergraduate and graduate student fellows also took part in the meeting and will aid the educators throughout the program as well as conduct their own research: collecting photographic stories of climate-related events throughout Philadelphia and exploring the connection between climate storytelling and empathy. The individual research projects are designed to dovetail with the project as a whole, and the teachers and Penn students have already begun shaping collaborations that will last throughout the program.

As the teachers began to decide on goals for their curriculum, their commitment to helping their students became clear: Teaching their students civic engagement and climate literacy were top priority when Wiggin polled the group. And while she initially envisioned each teacher adopting the climate curriculum for a single classroom, many of the teachers sought to expand the program to every class that they taught, multiplying their workload in order to reach more students. We are seeing that there is a hunger for climate curriculum across the high schools, says Wiggin.

This dedication reflects the urgency felt by the teachers, as well as the anxiety of their students. The kids are coming into my class already really upset about the climate. Once youre in that mindset of extreme anxiety mixed with powerlessness, theres no movement, says Frankie Anderson, who teaches history at the Academy at Palumbo. My job is trying to move that needle to feeling like there is hope in action.

Even as the nascent program builds out its curriculum, Wiggin is already planning for growth beyond Philadelphia. We are hoping that this incredibly talented group of 10 high school teachers will create a curriculum that will become a model that other cities and schools can use, she says. We have been in early-stage conversation with potential collaborators in other cities around the world to think about expanding the project in future years.

These conversations have included workshops with teachers and students in Portugal and Iceland, as well as talks with UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural arm, which will help distribute the climate curricula and stories created by the project.

For now, the teachers will focus on building their climate curriculum for the coming fall, and the program will support the 10 educators as they teach climate literacy in their history, English, environmental science, and biology classroomsand harness the power of storytelling.

Paul Robeson High School history teacher Mariaeloisa Carambo is highly attuned to the power of stories. In the early stages of the program, she was invited by the citys Sustainability Office to present her climate story to Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney and others gathered for the Cherry Street Pier Earth Day Festival, and introduce the My Climate Story project to a milling crowd of spectators near the banks of the Delaware River.

Carambo told of how she, the daughter of immigrants, found solace in the U.S.s shrinking forests and grew up to become a teacher and an activist, one who would eventually band together with a small group of fellow educators to inspire students to fight for an ailing planet. Towards the end of her speech, she lingered on the importance of using story to build movements: Storytelling was here before there was civilization, before there was a printing press, before the internet, before TikTok, said Carambo. Story sharing and story circles deepen our understanding of experiences, but more importantly, unleash power, unleash community.

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Partnering with Philadelphia teachers to inspire climate action | Penn Today - Penn Today

What the hell is ordered liberty? Most people in the United States are not familiar with this archaic legal term, but it reveals the direction that the current attacks on our freedoms and civil rights are headed.

Right-wing members of the Supreme Court used the term ordered liberty defined as freedom limited by the need for order in society 16 times throughout their recent Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

The same legal term was also at the core of U.S. efforts to defend the state repression legalized through the creation of the USA PATRIOT Act. For example, former President George W. Bushs attorney general, John Ashcroft, discussed ordered liberty in depth at the Eighth Circuit Judges Conference in Duluth, Minnesota, in 2002 to justify the overreaching powers of the PATRIOT Act. The act exploited Islamophobia to develop new law enforcement agencies, new legal departments and increased surveillance. Those laws and policies were then leveraged to increase police powers against Black people protesting violence and immigrants going about their daily lives.

Both Bush administrations relied heavily on the legal playbooks, reports and staffing recommendations generated by the Federalist Society, a right-wing organization established in 1982. Made up of tens of thousands of conservative law students, faculty and scholars, including Ashcroft, the Federalist Society has strategically advanced the legal concept of ordered liberty. Leonard Leo, a former president and current board chair of the Federalist Society, has been identified as a major force behind this Supreme Courts judicial nominations.

The idea that freedoms could be limited by the need for order in society is dangerous because it enables right-wing forces that are in power to determine what order means and what freedoms should be limited.

In the authoritarian world of ordered liberty, a pregnant person can have a miscarriage and be charged with murder. In their world, religious freedom applies only to Christians and allows Muslims to be registered and surveilled. In their world, the police act on behalf of the powerful and carry impunity when they kill and harm Black people and others. In their world, supporting transgender kids is considered child abuse. In their world, educating people about sexual health and U.S. history is dangerous. They are building a world where our lives and decisions can be cut short and predetermined by extremism and fundamentalism. Their world is theocratic and authoritarian, and they are seeking to use the law and those emboldened by these legal decisions to control and contain movement opposition.

In their ruling on Dobbs, the right-wing Supreme Court majority wrote: Ordered liberty sets limits and defines the boundary between competing interests. They contrasted the right to bear arms as a more legitimate and fundamental right than access to abortion or health care within their version of ordered liberty.

The Supreme Courts affirmation of ordered liberty as a ruling framework signals that the definitions of freedom that social movements have won are being intentionally eroded and reimagined to usher in a bleak future.

The decision to overturn Roe signaled to lawmakers, corporations and hostile organized forces that the definition of liberty is about control, criminalization and dismantling hard-won protections rather than rights, self-determination and dignity.

As thinking, caring people concerned about the direction of this country and this world, we must recognize the significance of this decision to roll back a fundamental right to health care and reproductive choice. We must support people who need and want abortions. Let us coordinate across state lines and political views to support health practitioners taking necessary risks and challenge the criminalization of people seeking, providing and supporting abortions. Let us honor and support the decades of reproductive justice work largely led by Black women and women of color who have been preparing for this moment with great care and intention.

We also cannot afford to miss the bigger picture that this decision catalyzes, a dangerous precedent for legislation, bans and criminalization of many basic freedoms on multiple front lines. This decision is one part of a larger playbook to build a world that protects the powerful and controls and contains the rest of us.Movement and community-based strategies have to go beyond reacting to these decisions one by one, issue by issue. We have to envision and build our own world: to subvert control, to exercise community power, to protect and defend our lives.

Part of our responsibility is to imagine what our world looks like. Who is protected? How do we provide authentic options and cultivate a sense of collective well-being, not individuals surviving at the expense of others? In our world, we must create and build. We must make places and spaces to celebrate, mourn and learn. Lets open doors, not lock them. We must sustain our world, not strain it to the point of collapse. At the same time, we have to understand exactly how the right-wing and authoritarian forces are moving.

Whose freedoms are protected and whose freedoms are limited? Whose lives are protected or criminalized? Who gets to make decisions about their bodies and futures? And who controls these definitions of freedom, dignity and even life itself? That question was in part answered not just by the sloppy definitions of embryos quickening and other nonsense in the Dobbs decision, but also in a bill that Congress passed into law the same day to increase funds to provide protection for the justices at the same time that police were tear-gassing people exercising their right to protest in the streets after hearing about these decisions.

We are in a battle for our lives, and we have to understand the full terrain on which we are fighting. The opposition has exposed itself, and we cannot just see the one gun pointed at any one group at any one time. We must recognize that this shot fired by the Supreme Court is a call to arms, a call to coordinate across legal frameworks to control, contain and criminalize many more groups on the field. This decision will also have ripple effects beyond reproductive rights. This shot fired opens up the field for multiple guns to train themselves on any person or group that threatens the status quo.

Using the gun metaphor is intentional, given that the Supreme Court made a decision just 24 hours preceding the Dobbs decision that expanded gun rights. Creating almost unlimited gun rights prepares the ground to privately enforce ordered liberty in the form of armed militias and individuals who feel authorized to act on behalf of white supremacist groups. It is important to remember here that the contradictions between who is allowed to carry guns and who is not originated to protect slavery, white supremacy and social control.

As Carol Anderson and other historians point out, the Second Amendment is rooted in racism and was created for Southern white plantation owners to crush rebellions of enslaved people. Its not hard to imagine that white supremacist groups are preparing for uprisings and rebellions to come in the next few years. The acquittal and celebration of Kyle Rittenhouse after he killed two people at a racial justice uprising in Wisconsin signals just that.

During the 2022 legislative sessions across the states of the U.S. South, we witnessed the attempts to protect murderers like Rittenhouse as acting in self-defense, including Tennessee and Oklahoma. Of course, as we know, protecting the right to self-defense goes only one way these legislative attempts do not protect a Black woman firing a warning shot to defend against an abuser, like in the case of Marissa Alexander, but somehow find a way to justify murders that white people commit.

The Supreme Court decision to regulate gun carry laws demonstrates an overall strategy to extend certain freedoms and prohibit others, consistently skewing towards states rights arguments like the Dobbs decision. Using states rights, like using the term ordered liberty is part of this broader signaling to eliminate federal protections and strengthen states rights when convenient. Again, calling on states rights is rooted in the Confederate slaveholding South to protect white supremacy, deny rights, limit freedoms and dismantle infrastructure for social movement.

The maps that show where abortion can and will be banned and where trans lives and rights are being rolled back is a Southern map. It is not a coincidence that many of these Supreme Court cases are originating in the South: Mississippi (restricting abortion rights); West Virginia (stripping the Environmental Protection Agency); North Carolina (redistricting and gerrymandering, to be heard in the fall). The Dobbs decision, and many of the decisions made in the last session, strengthens and advances a Southern strategy to eliminate federal protections and allows for states across the whole country to design and control voter suppression tactics, criminalization of freedoms and militarization of our public places.

When they invoke ordered liberty the right-wing Supreme Court justices also signal to a newer term: rights of conscience. This term emerged during the Donald Trump era to protect discrimination and support individuals who refuse to provide services or aid, particularly allowing doctors and nurses to refuse to provide abortions, if the decision offends their conscience. Trump appointee Roger Severino institutionalized this framework to dismantle basic civil rights in the Department of Health and Human Services with the Division of Conscience and Religious Freedom. Legislation that mirrors this framework has passed in Arkansas with a conscience rights measure in 2020; Texas protecting Chick-fil-A from LGBTQ boycotts; as well as similar measures in Illinois and Indiana.

The Supreme Court Dobbs decision states, Abortion presents a profound moral question. But the justices are not debating moralities; they use morality as a way to wedge and blur their intentions. They have institutionalized legal and structural mechanisms to assert that freedoms to determine your own gender, reproductive journey and health care should be limited or eliminated to satisfy religious extremists.

They use historical precedent as a justification, but they refer to an outdated Constitution; all white male, pre-14th Amendment courts; and court decisions enforced by the state and aligned with privatized violence. Public intellectual Kimberl Crenshaw of the African American Policy Forum connects a more relevant historical precedent to this decision in their incredible statement:

The consequence of our societys failure to see coerced pregnancy as a legacy of enslavement has descended once again upon Black women and all pregnant people with lethal force. Had the project of liberation from enslavement been rooted in this recognition, then coerced childbirth would have been prohibited as a foundational principle of freedom. Our response must not be siloed to a problem that is historically and continuously interconnected.

Crenshaws statement encourages following the vision of the second founders: the people who fought for freedom and who loosened the grip of enslavement and tyranny, and we know that many of those movements have been rooted in the South.

The dangers related to these maneuvers affect every marginalized group in this country, but also create multiple opportunities for us to unite across different frontlines and communities to fight for a different world with self-determined protections and authentic definitions of freedom. The U.S. South, a region that has faced decades of repression as a direct response to the strength of our social movements, offers powerful examples from history and today.

My organization, Project South, is an education and organizing institute that works with hundreds of other organizations fighting on these frontlines and building a Southern Freedom Movement for the 21st century. As organizers, movement builders, and people living and working on these frontlines, we have a responsibility to understand the depth of these recent Supreme Court decisions and make meaning of them so we can share the meaning and implications with our families, communities and organizations. We work to protect our folks and find ways to work around unjust laws. And, at the same time, we have to start crafting our own world.

The U.S. South has experience building worlds to replace slavery, segregation and Jim Crow. During the Black Reconstruction era more than 100 years ago, communities built thousands of schools and grew political power until violent white supremacist repression countered their efforts. In the 21st century, Southern communities come together to protect each other and rebuild before, during and after climate disasters. Abolitionist organizers work to craft worlds we have only imagined. A world without prisons, police and state control of our bodies includes a world with freedoms to make decisions about our health, gender and reproduction. Young people and organizers have been training up on self-managed abortions, how to research and obtain abortions without being tracked and monitored by our own phones, and organizers are building networks of medical and health practitioners that will continue to offer much needed care despite these attacks.

Our world needs to define exactly what we mean by public safety and public health. We need to imagine and create public infrastructure that is accessible and useful.

Just like the mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, are not really just about guns, the Dobbs ruling to overturn Roe is about more than just abortion. The recent mass shootings and subsequent police responses are rooted in white racist violence. The Buffalo shooter cut and pasted whole sections of the Islamophobic manifesto written by the 2019 shooter in New Zealand. The coordinated multi-state attack on a Pride parade in Idaho by self-proclaimed white supremacists is not just about LGBTQ people. Coeur dAlene, Idaho, was where the Aryan Nations headquarters were based in the 1980s. The Patriot Front members did not have guns with them but they did have detailed battle plans tucked into their khaki pockets about how to use sharpened poles and smoke grenades on a public community gathering. Through all of these examples from the judicial to the legislative to the social arenas we are witnessing a rising, organized and resourced call to racist, Islamophobic and homophobic violence.

The opposition will use our language, our tone and our strategies. They will appeal to a notion of caring for mothers and children and protecting peoples safety. They will reference movement gains like overturning Plessy v. Ferguson to end discrimination, challenge racism and expand democratic practices while advancing laws that function more like the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 that protected slavers outside of slaveholding states and criminalized free Black people escaping slavery.

The opposition is not going backwards, it is going forwards to a white supremacist, fascist form of state power with all the tools of the 21st century. We can be angry and hurt, but we also have to be smart.

Southern organizations are coordinated and prepared. We know these battle lines, and we have been resisting attacks and building peoples defense for decades through mutual aid liberation centers, peoples movement assemblies and cross-frontline organizing. Project South is part of the Southern Movement Assembly, a growing constellation of frontline organizations that practice peoples democracy at the grassroots level with movement assemblies, grow mutual aid centers and build infrastructure that can protect and defend our communities. The Southern Movement Assembly supports people this summer to gather, analyze the situation and create community-based solutions on every front line.

Kenny Bailey, principal at the Design Studio of Social Intervention invites us in Doing Dishes in a Collapsing Society to take time to pay attention to all that is happening, to be creative, and to use a full season to step away from superfluous distractions and step into shared study, community, and society building. We could model what it looks like to do society work, and what it looks like to stand up for the kind of society we want to be a part of.

Whatever part of the country we live in, we must analyze the details and broad signals of the current right-wing attacks, and we can learn from peoples movements and the Black radical traditions of the U.S. South to build our visions of freedom and self-determination.

Join the Southern Movement Assemblys Summer of Assemblies, a season of organizing community gatherings, discussing what were up against, and building our own forms of movement and community governance.

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The Supreme Court Cited Ordered Liberty to Overturn Roe. Whats Next? - Truthout