Hello! We hope you, and your family, friends, and colleagues are doing well. For the 17th consecutive week, the Ball State University Center for Peace & Conflict Studies (www.bsu.edu/peacecenter) has compiled a list of acts of kindness and peace, as a response to COVID-19 and the racism pandemic. Please share these stories. If you have stories of positive acts people/organizations are taking in the midst of our pandemics and you would like to share them, please email them to Aashna Banerjee at peacecenter@bsu.edu. All the stories starting from week 1 are available online. Additionally, you can follow the Peace Center on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) at bsu4peace.
Hanes is equipping America’s homeless with 1 million masks to ensure they can access essential businesses
Hanes basic apparel is not only encouraging Americans to wear masks with their #MaskAround campaign, they are donating 1,000,000 coverings to homeless communities across the country to help protect them—and others—from the spread of COVID-19. Using non-profit organizations that they partner with for their annual Sock Drive, Hanes is giving special emphasis to COVID-19/homelessness hotspots like Los Angeles, Miami, and Houston. They will leave distribution to groups like Invisible People, a homelessness advocacy group in America. “Equipping homeless people with masks allows them to enter essential businesses with mask requirements, like grocery stores, which they would otherwise not be able to access, explains Mark Horvath, founder of Invisible People. “It’s very hard to contextualize homelessness for those who are lucky enough not to worry about access to bathrooms or basic needs like food and water. The impact is substantial.” “We want to do our part to support the country’s effort to slow the spread of COVID-19,” said Sidney Falken, Chief Branding Officer at Hanes. “Our goal is to raise awareness around the importance of wearing them to help keep each other safe and healthy.”
Source: https://www.inspiremore.com/stories/hanes-is-equipping-americas-homeless-with-1-million-masks-to-ensure-they-can-access-essential-businesses/
Artist donates 1,800 of his flower paintings to a Brooklyn hospital–One for Every Cook, Nurse, and Janitor
Although this artist is based in Los Angeles, he wanted to send hundreds of his paintings 3,000 miles away to New York City to remind hospital staffers that he—and the whole country—is grateful for their hard work in the fight against COVID-19. As a means of commemorating their heroics, Michael Gittes gifted a unique floral painting to every doctor, receptionist, janitor, inventory manager, cook, administrator, and nurse at the Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn. At the height of the pandemic, the nonprofit healthcare facility was chock-a-block full of patients, sometimes treating over 100 people per day. Gittes wanted to say a special ‘thank you’, and used syringes to create the expressionist paintings. “When they actually got to touch and see the paintings, it was like Christmas,” Interfaith chief financial officer Tracy Green told CNN. “They just felt like … they’ve been working tirelessly the last couple of months and for someone to see that, and just give them a gift, they were just so happy.” “We love you, everybody loves you. You’re loved by millions of people you’ll never meet. You’re not a stranger to anyone. These flowers are from everyone,” Gittes relayed to the Interfaith staff. Gittes’ work has been exhibited at The National Portrait Gallery in London, the Park Avenue Armory in New York, and even in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. The framing and shipping of the paintings was facilitated by money amassed by Gittes from private collectors purchasing his paintings.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/19/us/los-angeles-artist-donates-paintings-hospital-brooklyn-trnd/index.html
Hero teacher spent every day in lockdown preparing food for his pupils and delivered 7,500 packed lunches
An award-winning “hero” teacher in England who spent each day preparing food for his students has made his final delivery—after delivering 7,500 packed lunches. Zane Powles diligently prepared 85 lunches each morning after fearing his students would struggle to access food when school’s were shut during the pandemic. The determined teacher walked 7.5 miles every day making his rounds for 17 weeks—and totaled over 600 miles over the course of his runs in North East Lincolnshire. The 48-year-old estimates that he carried roughly four tons of food during that time, but said it was all “well worth it” after seeing the smiles on the kids’ faces. “When I started these walks I was concerned about the kids and their wellbeing and I wanted to make sure I could see them all, said Zane, who works at Western primary school in the large coastal seaport of Grimsby. “I needed to know if they were safe, if they were healthy, and if they had access to food.”
Source: https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/must-reads/hero-teachers-final-delivery-after-giving-7500-lunches-during-lockdown/23/07/
Washington man rescues 2.4 million pounds of farmers’ crops going to waste, gets them to food banks across state
When George Ahearn heard that farmers in Washington state were giving away onions and potatoes they suddenly couldn’t sell, his instinct for goodwill led him on a journey that would lead to the rescue of 200 tons of vegetables arriving in food banks to support people in need. The breakdown of farm supply chains and customers due to COVID-19 shutdowns means crops are destroyed or left to rot—and in rural Washington, farmers knew that if they could get their crops to the food banks in Seattle, it would certainly be preferable. Inspired by the farmers’ plight, Ahearn asked on Facebook to borrow someone’s truck or trailer for the day, to haul around 2,000 pounds of restaurant-grade onions and potatoes. The response to his altruistic post was dramatic, and soon 4 trucks and 2 trailers had hauled 9.3 tons of crops grown in the east to feed hungry people in the west. This voluntary act of kindness grew into a nonprofit organization called EastWest Food Rescue. It has saved over 2.4 million pounds of food from fields, while also amassing enough donations to help compensate farmers for their loss. “The whole thing started because of COVID,” Nancy Balin, one of the people who responded to Ahearn’s initial request, told Seattle Times. She now helps direct the program.
Source: https://eastwestfoodrescue.org/