While Civil Unrest Rocks Their Community, This Teacher is Working to Prevent Ferguson’s Kids from Going Hungry

Since police shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed, college-bound teenager in Ferguson, Mo., the violent unrest in the small town near St. Louis has yet to cease. With outrage and confusion coming from all directions, basic safety and calm are at a premium. Families are in danger, and as a result, school has been canceled for at least the remainder of this week.
In Ferguson, a week off from school means more than just missed lessons.
The poverty rate there is almost double Missouri’s average, so unfortunately, many kids don’t get proper nutrition unless they are in school, according to the Huffington Post.
Thankfully, Juliana Mendelsohn, a teacher in Raleigh, N.C., recognized the need to provide food and launched an online campaign to raise money for hungry children in Ferguson. Appealing for donations on the crowd funding site Fundly, Mendelsohn says, “when I found out school had been canceled for several days as a result of the civil unrest, I immediately became worried for the students in households with food instability.”
So far, over $78,000 has been raised by thousands of donors (as of publication), with another two days left to reach the goal of $80,000. Dennis Hu, Fundly’s CEO, was so impressed with the mission and success of the campaign that he personally called Mendelsohn to express his support for her.
All the money raised goes directly to help those in need through the St. Louis Area Foodbank, which says the funds are substantial enough to continue making a difference for the next year.
“Regardless of your opinion on the civil unrest in Ferguson,” Mendelsohn continued, “there is no need for innocent children to go hungry because of it.”
If you’re interested in donating, click here.
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This Cookbook Teaches You How to Cook on $4 a Day

Many of us have the intention of eating healthy, but have a hard time affording it. After all, nutritious food really does come at a price.
In fact, scholars at the Harvard School of Public Health found that the healthiest diets cost $1.50 more per diets than unhealthy eating. Upon first glance, that might not sound like much, but if you add it up, that’s about $550 a year, which can be difficult for the millions of Americans living paycheck-to-paycheck or relying on food stamps.
And with 47 million food stamp recipients hit by a $5 billion cut last November, eating a nutritious meal might not even be an option if the only thing that’s affordable are the nutritionally-void options from McDonalds.
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That’s why Leanne Brown, a food-studies scholar and home cook, put out a cookbook for those who can’t afford to eat healthy. As TreeHugger reports, for her capstone project for a master’s degree at New York University (NYU), Brown created her own 130-page cookbook, Good and Cheap, that’s filled with recipes for people on limited budgets — those who rely on government assistance.
“It bothered me that so many ideas for fixing the food system leave out the poor: it seemed like they didn’t have a voice in the food movement,” she says. “I wanted to create a resource that would promote the joy of cooking and show just how delicious and inspiring a cheap meal can be if you cook it yourself.”
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And it’s not just peanut butter and jelly sandwich recipes in the cookbook. For $4 a day, one can whip up elaborate meals such as spicy pulled pork sandwiches, peanut sauce noodles with broccoli and smoked tofu, asparagus pizza, and even chase it with homemade horchata.
If you’re interested in whipping up your own Good and Cheap eats, Brown’s entire book of recipes is already available to download for free (nearly 100,000 people have downloaded a draft version, she says). As she writes in her successfully funded Kickstarter campaign, the reason she put out a printed copy of her book is to allow access to people who don’t have computers.
Good food, as this socially-conscious foodie proves, doesn’t have to be expensive.
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Is Crowdfunding the New Way to Pay for Important Scientific Studies?

Even if you don’t know much about fracking (the process through which oil and gas companies pump water, sand, and chemicals into the ground to release oil or natural gas), you probably know that, politically-speaking, it’s a controversial topic.
Many people who live close to fracking operations fear that the process or its byproducts could harm them or the environment. But because of its polarizing nature, it’s difficult to land funding for non-biased scientific research on fracking.
Studies funded by industry groups have (of course) found no potential harm to humans from the practice. Citizens of several Colorado towns are skeptical, however, and have passed bans on fracking within their communities’ borders that may or may not hold up in court.
Nelson Harvey writes for High Country News that “the government’s own research on fracking is coming under fire from both sides of the political spectrum,” with the EPA recently responding to criticism by backing away from results of a 2011 study that found fracking to be the cause of the pollution of an aquifer in Wyoming. The state of Wyoming will continue the study, but it will now be funded by EnCana, the oil company responsible for fracking in the area.
Outside of industry-sponsored research, there’s little funding available to study fracking as federal grants for such studies have been slashed. So this year, at least four scientists have turned to crowdfunding to finance their research.
Dr. Susan Nagel of the University of Missouri is currently seeking to raise $25,000 through Experiment.com for her study: “Does fracking contaminate water with hormone disrupting chemicals?” She’s already gained $19,000 in backing, so apparently many people have the same question.
Harvey notes that, so far this year, University of Washington researchers successfully raised $12,000 through Experiment.com to study fracking’s effects on air pollution in Utah and scientists from Juniata College collected $10,000 through crowdfunding to research fracking’s impacts on streams in Pennsylvania. However, one fracking study proposed by a University of Colorado biologist failed to garner the necessary backers.
When a combination of budget cuts and political pressure makes it hard to study a certain topic, perhaps seeking donations from the questioning public is the best way to find answers to some of science’s most pressing questions.
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When a Former Campus Legend Became Homeless, This Amazing Community Stepped Up

For nearly 15 years, a Wendy’s cashier named Ishmael Mohammed Jr. served up smiles along with his cheeseburgers, brightening the days of students at the University of Texas at Austin as they toiled through their undergrad studies. But when circumstances left Mohammed down on his luck, it was the students who wanted to do something special for him.
As the Daily Texan reports, the man affectionately known as “The Wendy’s Guy” was a campus legend and inspired a documentary about his record-breaking fast food feat in 2005 when he made 246 sales for $1,035.43 in half an hour. In 2012, he left his job and to go back to his hometown of New York. No one had heard from him since, until he was spotted by UT alum Benjamin McPhaul. The much-loved former fast food worker was homeless and begging for money in front of a local cafe.
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Springing to action, McPhaul set up a GoFundMe fundraiser that soon went completely viral. In less than three days, 1,500 UT students and alumni pitched in more than $30,000 to get their friend off the streets. Some even offered to help get Mohammed a job. As McPhaul wrote on the website, he is currently working with case workers and lawyers to help get the donations to Mohammed and help him find an apartment.
“If this money comes through, I want to get off the street; I’m tired of being homeless,” a grateful Mohammed told the Daily Texan. “I want to give some of it to my daughters and son, and come here and thank [the community.]”

This Transgender Athlete Is Taking on Bullying, One School at a Time

Kye Allums, a former Division I guard for the George Washington Colonials women’s basketball team, struggled with bullies in high school. Students made fun of Allums, who now identifies as a man, for not being a “normal girl,” and would even knock food out of his hands at lunch. But now Allums is a full-time public speaker, traveling the country to address K-12 schools, colleges and corporations about acceptance and inclusion for transgender people. He sits down with bullies and their victims at schools to help them better understand each other. Once, he even received an email from a student thanking Allums for helping the student realize how his actions affected the classmate he was bullying. “That was one of the best days of my life,” Allums told TakePart. “Nobody deserves to be hurt just because you don’t understand them.” While traveling, Allums is also sharing others’ stories for the organization I Am Enough, which supports people through their transition to another gender. Allums funds all of the expenses for the project out of his own pocket and with a Go Fund Me fundraising page; he hopes it will increase visibility and awareness for the LGBT community. “Anyone can be an advocate: Simply stand up and speak out against injustice. Show anyone who is ignorant and unkind that it’s not OK.”

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Many Olympic Athletes Can’t Afford Their Dreams, So One Woman Stepped Up to Help

Only a few lucky Olympic athletes receive corporate sponsorships. Many elite contenders have barely enough money to feed and house themselves, let alone pay for their training and competitions.

That’s why Emily White, a musician manager for Whitesmith Entertainment, is using her talent development skills to help competitive athletes. White founded Dreamfuel, a crowd-funding platform, to select athletes and launch their fundraising campaigns. After college, athletes are often caught in a dilemma: train full time to work toward their dreams, or work full time to support themselves. White, a former Division I swimmer, realized that most determined athletes would rather struggle than give up. “I was talking to another music exec who had a friend who was an Olympic weightlifter, who was living in her coach’s basement,” White told Fast Company. “I realized this is a thing.”

But Dreamfuel doesn’t just raise money and give it to the athletes; it also helps them market themselves and build a higher profile social media presence to attract potential sponsors in the long run. This is where White’s expertise comes in. She said that musicians, unlike athletes, know they need to get their fans engaged. White said Dreamfuel wants athletes to know how to develop their brands for long-term success. “We put together all the plans, all the benefit tiers, teach them how to create and sell merch, how to market themselves online,” White said. “Basically, all the things I do for bands, I’m flipping to the sports universe.”

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