For the 57th consecutive week, the Center for Peace & Conflict Studies has compiled a list of acts of kindness and peace. The initiative began as a response to COVID-19 and the racism pandemic but has broadened to include any act of compassion or service to others. Please share these stories. If you have stories of positive acts people/organizations are taking and you would like to share them, please email them to Brandon Miller 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.
Community Refrigerators Provide Free Food to People In Need
Community refrigerators have been around for more than a decade, but their popularity has spiked during the coronavirus pandemic. These fridges are stationed in public areas and are stocked with groceries and restaurant meals by volunteers in the community. People who are experiencing food insecurity can “shop” these fridges for free (in fact, a community refrigerator is sometimes called a “freedge”). Before the pandemic began, there were 15 community fridges in the U.S. Now the number has jumped to around 200. Terry Hare, 25, of Philadelphia occasionally picks items from a community fridge that appeared a few houses down from his home. “The fridge often has Whole Foods meats and fresh stuff,” Hare said. “It’s a great resource for people of all different situations.” More than 20 millionf American adults go without enough food to eat, while over 40 million more say they are unable to afford the type of food they want – including fresh vegetables and meat. Although food insecurity has declined since the height of the pandemic, it remains rampant and progress has stalled. By stocking community fridges, citizens are trying to close some of the gaps between the sustenance people need and what they can afford. Even some large companies, such as Whole Foods, have begun to supply food to these fridges. Michelle Nelson, founder of Mama-Tee.com – which runs 18 fridges in Philadelphia – said “What we’re leaning is when you do something like this, people will support it. People do have goodness and kindness, and they will bring food.”
Source: The Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/06/28/hunger-philadelphia-free-fridges/?utm_campaign=wp_the_optimist&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_optimist&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F340a1ce%2F60dc6aeb9d2fda8060ef82b2%2F5e4d74439bbc0f462514be64%2F31%2F47%2F60dc6aeb9d2fda8060ef82b2
Owner of Soul Fire Farm Combines Economic Justice, Food Justice, and Climate Activism with Her Regenerative Farming Practices
Leah Penniman, 41, owns and operates Soul Fire Farm, a farm in the Taconic Mountain Range near Albany, NY. The farm, which Penniman bought with her husband to escape their food desert community in Albany, is the home base for Penniman’s work to increase the number of BIPOC farmers. In America, BIPOC farmers are severely underrepresented among farmers, a phenomenon that Penniman called “food apartheid” in her 2018 book “Farming While Black” – a work that won Penniman a James Beard Leadership award. At Soul Fire Farm, Penniman’s work encompasses both economic justice and climate activism: she teaches classes on regenerative farming, a practice that reduces carbon emissions and mitigates climate change to BIPOC participants, climate activists, and young people. The director of food and environmental service at the Union of Concerned Scientists, Ricardo Salvador, said “[Penniman’s efforts with Soul Fire Farm are an argument that you don’t have to exploit people, you don’t have to exploit nature and still produce abundant, nourishing food for communities.” The methods that Penniman uses and teaches to produce food capture carbon in the soil. Currently, in addition to the programs they offer on food and climate justice, Soul Fire Farm produces over 20,000 pounds of vegetables, fruit, and plant medicine per year.
Source: The Washington Post - washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/climate-solutions/interactive/2021/harvest-world-black-family-farm-is-fighting-racism-agriculture-climate-change/
Groups and Individuals Perform Acts of Kindness for those Affected by the Collapse of Champlain Towers South in Miami
Although the collapse of the Champlain Towers South residential building in the Surfside community of Miami has been a tragedy to the friends and family of everyone affected, the response from community members has been overwhelming and uplifting. Various organizations are coordinating fund raising efforts. Among those, Shul of Bal Harbour synagogue is administering the Chesed Fund, which has raised more than $1 million dollars for victims of the collapse and their families. The Miami Heat and other local organizations have partnered to create Support Surfside, another hardship fund that has raised $1.2 million. But these impressive numbers do not tell the whole story: numerous people and groups from around the world have been contributing in other ways. The United Hatzalah of Israel sent a team of six volunteers from its Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit to administer psychological services to the families of those still missing. Some individuals have been handing out candy to first responders; others have booked private hotel rooms and other lodging for displaced individuals. Este Shifman, resident of Surfside, has been volunteering at the community center to help organize their food distribution efforts. Rescuers have collected personal belongings scattered in the collapse and used them to create a memorial where family members of those gone or missing search for their loved ones’ mementos. Still other acts of kindness are likely going unreported. It is clear, though, that the acts of service are as widely varied as the individuals carrying them out, and they demonstrate that there are countless ways to help those in need.
Source: The Washington Post - https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/06/28/surfside-disaster-acts-of-kindness/?utm_campaign=wp_the_optimist&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_optimist&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F340a1c8%2F60dc6aeb9d2fda8060ef82b2%2F5e4d74439bbc0f462514be64%2F10%2F47%2F60dc6aeb9d2fda8060ef82b2