Can One Farm Change How an Entire Community Eats?

Urban farm movements seem to be everywhere nowadays. But two farmers have a bigger vision in mind: they want to create a whole local food district.
Meet the Mullens, the husband-and-wife team of Derek and Kamise, who are the masterminds behind Everitt Farms in Lakewood, Colo. (a suburb of Denver). Just over a year ago, they began farming on the 7.5 acres that they own and an additional 18 acres that they lease. The fruits of their labor? A wide variety of produce, Christmas trees, horses, chickens and hay.
The Mullens use traditional intensive growing practices, which involve burying root vegetables within a single trench at different levels, surrounded by leafy greens and vine crops. The process is based on an old 1800s method, which is space saving.
Each weekend, Everitt Farms welcomes more than 100 families that purchase locally-grown vegetables and other products.
“We both have really wanted to do something like this for honestly, a good portion of our lives,” Kamise tells Sustainable Cities Collective. “It really wasn’t until we got married about four years ago that we actually started really growing food and trying to farm at all.”
To expand their urban farm even further, the Mullens held a Kickstarter campaign this past January, raising enough funds to add a greenhouse, irrigation system and the starting preparations for an open-air market with a farm stand constructed from the materials of an old barn.
Ultimately, the couple has a larger goal than just feeding their neighbors; they hope that their few acres of farmland will spark a lifestyle change and that others will see the benefits of a community food district complete with a bakery, restaurant, butcher and local products store.
“The people around us still all have at least a quarter acre lot and up to two or three acres,” Kamise tells Sustainable Cities Collective. “There’s a lot of people that grow their own food, there’s a lot of people that process, have jams and jellies, have products they make themselves. We’d really like to incorporate the fact that this was agricultural land and draw the community back into this area and back into farming through trading goods with them.”
She continues, “We’re still in the planning stages for the businesses we’d like to build, but the community is starting to realize when they have extra zucchinis they can come bring it to us and trade it out for tomatoes, jalapenos and things that they couldn’t grow.”
And with the success that the Mullens have had with their own farm, there’s no telling what this power couple can accomplish.
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When Death or Disability Threatens the Possibility of Attending College, This Organization Steps In

With the start of the new school year, many high school seniors are taking those first steps towards college. Between attending SAT prep classes, taking the actual SAT, making college visits and doing general schoolwork, many are also thinking about the looming stress of financial aid.
And while college is hard enough to afford for most families, affordability is an even bigger problem for the children of deceased or wounded veterans. As of January 2014, 85 percent of the more than 1.4 million children of deceased or wounded veterans weren’t eligible for federal financial assistance.
That’s where Folds of Honor steps in. Since 2007, this nonprofit has been offering scholarships to children of disabled or deceased service members. All children in such families are guaranteed a scholarship — no matter the number or cost.
This all started back when Major Dan Rooney attended the funeral of one of his fellow servicemen, Corporal Brock Burkin. As the family received the body of Burkin, Rooney saw their grief and suffering, along with a void that needed to be filled. So, in between his second and third tours in Iraq, he started Folds of Honor, with Burkin’s son, Jacob, as the first recipient.
The organization has only grown from there. In its seven years of existence, Folds of Honor has granted 7,500 scholarships. In 2014 alone, 2,050 awards totaling $10 million were given.
In addition to being a former F-16 pilot with the Oklahoma Air National Guard, Rooney is also a PGA professional and USGA member. Due to these connections, Folds of Honor tees off across the country to fundraise. Thanks to a partnership with the PGA and USGA, an annual Patriots Golf Day tournament is held every year.
Throughout Labor Day weekend, golfers can add an extra dollar to their green fees that will be donated straight to the nonprofit. With 5,200 golf courses registered across the country, there are ample opportunities to participate.
And what a lucrative endeavor it is. In 2013, $5 million was raised for the organization during the weekend.
While Folds of Honor can’t replace the loss of these families, it can at least provide the children with an opportunity for a better life.
For Kylie Nemecek whose dreams of attending USC were threatened, Folds of Honor is making them a reality.
“Without it I probably wouldn’t be where I am today fulfilling my dream and forever I’ll be grateful for that,” Nemecek tells WLTX 19.
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What Do Toddlers and Senior Citizens Have in Common?

When most of us picture a public park, we see a vision of squealing kids climbing around on playground equipment and adults jogging and walking their dogs.
But UCLA professor Madeline Brozen, who directs the school’s Complete Streets Initiative, and her colleagues are challenging communities in the U.S. to form a new idea of how parks can contribute toward keeping a rapidly aging population healthy.
Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, a professor of urban planning at UCLA, collaborated with Brozen on an award-winning toolkit that advises communities how they can create mini “parklets” in urban areas without a lot of green space. During that time, she realized that seniors weren’t using public parks as much as other age groups. The team wondered if this is because, unlike some in Asia and Europe, U.S. parks are almost never designed with the needs of elders in mind — instead emphasizing playground equipment and ways for younger adults to recreate.
So Loukaitou-Sideris, Bronzen, and other colleagues are now working on a project that will investigate what seniors need from public parks and how to design parks in order to attract those in their golden years. They plan to pay particular attention to the needs of low-income, urban seniors who don’t have a lot of recreational options.
“What we are trying to do with this project,” Loukaitou-Sideris tells Sharon Hong of UCLA Newsroom, “is, first of all, find knowledge from different fields about what an open space or public park for seniors should look like, how it should be different for different groups of seniors, incorporate some of the voices of senior citizens, create guidelines for future such spaces, and hopefully even apply this knowledge towards the creation of a park.”
With the population of Americans aged 65 or older expected to double between 2000 and 2030 to 72.1 million, this kind of thinking about people who are often forgotten by city planners is a must.
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How Birthday Cake Is Improving the Lives of Needy Children

Whether it’s chocolate, angel food, or rainbow sprinkled, a birthday cake is pretty much a necessity when celebrating someone’s special day.
But as Lisa Ray and Patty McTighe of Bowling Green, Ky. realized, not every kid enjoys the privilege of receiving this annual confection. So they started Celebration Cakes Ministry, using the kitchen of First Baptist Church to provide low-income children with personalized cakes for their birthdays.
Ray and McTighe aren’t professional bakers; everything they needed to know about decorating cakes, they learned from Internet videos and trial-and-error. In less than a year, they’ve already baked and delivered 140 cakes, all the while leading a group of 20 dedicated volunteers who meet several times a week.
Each cake is customized for its recipient, incorporating the child’s favorite characters, colors, or activities. (Check out the group’s Facebook page for photos of some of their whimsical creations, featuring such kid favorites as Elsa from “Frozen,” Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Elmo.)
Celebration Cakes learns about deserving local youngsters from social workers, schools and other organizations that work with needy children. “These kids, some of them are going through a hard time, and just one little thing like a cake can brighten their day, and that’s what makes it worth it,” Ray tells Laurel Wilson of the Lexington Herald-Leader.
These volunteers’ unique efforts are already gaining notice. Volunteers in Action gave Celebration Cakes the Rookie Volunteer award and Western Kentucky University named it the 2014 Emerging Nonprofit Organization of the Year.
As much as the cakes brighten the children’s birthdays, they make the volunteers happy, too. Cynthia Jones started baking after watching the Celebration Cakes crew enjoy themselves as they worked. “Once I started,” she tells Wilson, “I was hooked. It brings back childhood memories of playing with Play-Doh. I love it, because when I was a child…I can’t remember having a birthday party. I just think even if kids cannot afford a cake, they deserve to have a cake they like.”
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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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After a Family Tragedy, This Woman Sold Everything and Hit the Road to Volunteer

Once the kids are raised, some moms plan to enjoy a bit of well-deserved free time. But Carol Harr didn’t view her empty nest as a chance to relax. Instead, after raising her daughters in Centennial, Colorado and retiring from the state’s labor department, she decided to sell her home and become a full-time roving volunteer.
The 64-year-old Harr sold or donated almost all of her possessions, keeping just a few things in a storage unit. The remainder fit in her car, which she has driven to Florida, Georgia, and back to Colorado on volunteering missions for The Catholic Worker Movement, a social justice charity serving the poor, and World Wide Opportunities On Organic Farms (WWOOF), an organization that connects volunteers with organic farmers.
The radical change in lifestyle from settled mom to nomadic volunteer was prompted by a personal tragedy. Five years ago, one of Harr’s daughters gave birth to a baby girl who died after living for less than a day. “It was a real awakening for me,” Harr told Claire Martin of the Denver Post. “I’d been living my life for the future, spending my time cleaning up from last week and getting ready for next week. I took an ecumenical class called ‘Just Faith,’ about social justice, and began learning about living in community.”
Harr lives off her state pension while staying in housing provided by the various charities she volunteers with or with friends. Now that she’s back in Colorado on a WWOOF post, she’s staying with couple in Denver who agreed to host a volunteer.
Harr’s current post lasts through October, and for her next project, she’s invested in a plan to band together with others to create a co-housing community on the site of a former Denver convent — a good base for her plan of living light and volunteering.
Harr’s daughter Kati Harr told the Post, “I loved my childhood home so much, (but) even more important than my nostalgia is actively supporting my mom’s innate and deeply rooted desire to help her community and fellow beings. I really feel the route to happiness is walking within your values, living in a way that upholds the things you hold to be the most dear. My mom is a shining example of this. I am so lucky and blessed to be her daughter.”
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How Second Chances Are Helping States Reduce Their Crime Rates

Being convicted of a crime can certainly have lifelong ramifications that don’t necessarily involve life behind bars without parole. It can mean a lifetime of unemployment.
Minneapolis-raised Kissy Mason witnessed this firsthand in her own family. “People in my family were being locked up, and then they were locked out of a right to live, a right to employment,” she told Nur Lalji of Yes! Magazine.
Seventy percent of people released from prison commit another crime within three years, and part of this recidivism rate is due in part to how difficult it is for them to find a job.
Mason was determined to make better choices for herself than those being made by her family members. But in 2006, she was involved in a domestic argument that escalated, leading to a felony conviction. Although she never went to jail — she served probation instead — whenever she filled out an application for employment, she had to check the ubiquitous box indicating that she was a convicted felon. This status also disqualified her for low-income Section 8 housing.
Instead of lamenting the situation, Mason worked to change it. She joined the campaign to “ban the box,” which was started by All of Us or None (a group founded by formerly incarcerated people that had difficulty finding work) in 2003. Since then, 12 states have removed this question from job applications. Employers can still conduct criminal background checks, but by the time they get that far in the hiring process, they’ve usually had a chance to study the applicant’s other qualifications.
Mason’s home state, Minnesota, enacted legislation banning the box in January 2014. Because of the initiative, one of the state’s major corporations, Target, has stopped using the check-off box on job applications not just in its Minnesota stores— but throughout the country.
“Sometimes people bar you from jobs forever because of one incident, and I don’t think that’s fair,” Mason told Lalji. “People should be given another chance. It shouldn’t be one time and you’re out.”
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Military Spouses Didn’t Feel Represented by Congress. This Initiative Helps Them Find Their Voice

After managing sales at a clothing boutique and earning a master’s degree in social responsibility and sustainable communities, Katie Lopez thought her experience spoke for itself. So when she couldn’t find a job after relocating last summer to live with her husband, an Army service member stationed in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, the challenge was unexpected. “I was surprised that at interviews, one of the first questions I was asked is when I was leaving,” she says, even though she didn’t know when or where her husband would be stationed next. “There was never any follow-up after the interviews, so I was getting more and more discouraged. And I knew I wasn’t the only one experiencing it.”
She certainly wasn’t. Studies show that labor markets near big military bases are often “saturated with overqualified military spouses eager to work,” according to the Huffington Post. Military spouses face additional challenges, like the fact that they don’t qualify for unemployment insurance when they lose jobs in more than 14 states, since changes of station are seen as “voluntary” moves.
Even when she did attend events geared at hiring veterans and their family members, Lopez found that most job recruiters were targeting veterans themselves — and the positions available were often entry level, virtual jobs that didn’t fit her level of experience. “There was nothing for those of us who were college educated and on a professional track,” Lopez says. “It’s disheartening to think we spent this time and put in the work to advance ourselves and our careers only to get entry level jobs at a call center.”
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In Gear Career is a nonprofit that helps military family members with all career-related challenges — from finding jobs and networking to education and professional training. Haley Uthlaut, a military spouse and veteran, conceived the idea in 2009 and then took it to Donna Huneycutt and Lauren Weiner, owners of a consulting firm focused on hiring veterans and their spouses. They helped her make the vision a reality. Although headquartered in Tampa, Florida, In Gear Career has more than 2,000 members in 22 chapters across the country, from Texas to Tennessee.
“The biggest issue we saw facing military spouses was the lack of a professional network — you don’t get that when you move every two or three years,” says Weiner. “We want to help military spouses stay employed, because big gaps on a resume are a red flag. And ultimately, if we get the spouses engaged, we’re going to keep our best and brightest in the military. It’s a military readiness issue at heart.”
Last October, during the government shutdown, Huneycutt and Weiner were in Washington, D.C. for a conference, watching C-Span during a break between sessions. Sitting with a member from Military Spouse JD Network, a group that helps military spouses maintain their legal careers amid relocations, Huneycutt and Weiner became increasingly frustrated listening to politicians on the screen blame their opposing party for the shutdown.
“Enough already!” one of them screamed.
“Fix it!” another one yelled.
“Forget about these politicians,” one finally said. “I’m sick of everyone telling me to call my congressman. I want to be my congressman.”
Looking back, it was a light bulb moment.
[ph]
Just one fifth of those who serve in Congress have any military experience, according to a September 2013 Pew Research Center survey.  And the voices of military spouses have even less representation. “The number of veterans in Congress is only dropping,” says Amanda Patterson Crowe, executive director of In Gear Career. “And for spouses, that’s hard because we’re living the life that Congress makes decisions on, from child care to military pay. We had to figure out how to make our voices heard too, how to get into politics.”
So after the conference, In Gear Career teamed up with Military Spouse JD Network to create Homefront Rising, a nonpartisan initiative aimed at getting military spouses more involved in the political process, from volunteering for campaigns to running for office. “Many people don’t realize that military spouses are uniquely qualified to represent us,” says Weiner. “They’ve lived in small town America and cities, rural areas and overseas. They understand a slice of America that most people who stay in one place don’t.”
Homefront Rising launched this February with an event in D.C. and recently held its second gathering this June in Tampa. The daylong events are packed with seminars and sessions from elected officials, former service members and other leaders on topics like “Building a Public Image” and “How Extraordinary People Lead.”
Homefront Rising’s two events have already inspired several members, including Katie Lopez, to volunteer with local campaigns such as state-level House and Senate races. “I’ve found that when I approach campaigns, their leadership tells me it’s exactly what they want to hear — military spouses having an opinion and getting involved,” Lopez says. Even though she couldn’t attend, learning about the D.C. event motivated military spouse Susan Reynolds to begin writing a column in her local newspaper, the Fayetteville Observer, on military families. And Angelina Bradley was so inspired by the inaugural Homefront Rising event that she successfully lobbied the D.C. Public Schools’ Chancellor’s Parent Cabinet to add an additional seat for the nearby Bolling Air Force Base, where she is currently stationed, giving military families a voice in education that they previously didn’t have.

When Families are Separated Because of Criminal Acts, This Technology Keeps Everyone Connected

Sure, there’s the adage, “distance makes the heart grow fonder.” But anyone who’s been in a long-distance relationship can attest that maintaining the connection is difficult — and a lot of work.
That’s particularly true of incarcerated parents who are separated from their children.
But a pilot program in Philadelphia is working to change that. For almost a year now, Riverside Correctional Facility (which houses about 800 women) has been allowing supervised video chats between inmates and their children.
This increased ability to communicate not only has the potential to enhance prisoner morale and family cohesion, but it also allows the parent to have more say in decisions regarding her kids. All of this is very much needed, which is obvious from this staggering statistic: Since 1991, the number of children with imprisoned mothers has doubled, according to Next City.
More families could soon benefit from this program, says Jessica Shapiro, DHS chief of staff in Philadelphia, and the technology could even spread nationwide this summer. 
With the huge increase in incarcerated mothers, video chatting has the potential to revolutionize and greatly improve the childhood of those affected. Although parents in prison cannot be physically present with their children, and in many situations, social workers have to get involved, this technology does allow for more involved parenting and better outcomes for the family as a whole.
One family recently used a video chat to hold a “family team conference,” notes Shapiro. “A mother and grandmother who were both incarcerated, [and] the children and grandchildren were able to attend the conference at DHS,” she said. “The conference was so emotionally powerful for all parties that the facilitator had to actually stop the conference several times.”
While videoconferencing should not replace vital, in-person visits between inmates and their children, it does have the ability to increase communication, something that the general prison population needs— cutting down on wait times and keeping families better connected.
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How 3D Printing Can Teach Blind Kids to Read

It goes without saying that reading to kids is vitally important. So much so, in fact, that a couple of weeks ago, the American Society of Pediatrics issued a policy statement urging parents to read to their children every single day — starting in infancy and continuing through kindergarten at least. The organization also advised pediatricians to stress the importance of this during appointments and to hand out books to their patients, especially those from low-income households.
But what about visually-impaired children who face special challenges when it comes to reading? Not only do they have a hard time seeing the words, but they also miss out on all the colorful drawings in picture books, which go a long way towards helping young kids connect with a story.
For those youngsters, researchers at the University of Colorado have come up with a solution: They’re using 3-D printers to create tactile picture books.
Tom Yeh, an assistant professor of computer science, has been leading the team on this project for two years. They’ve created three-dimensional versions of classic picture books, such as “Harold and the Purple Crayon,” “Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?” and “Goodnight Moon.”
One happy user, Michelle Bateson, who reads the books with her three-year-old visually impaired daughter Elodie, told Sarah Kuta of the Boulder Daily Camera, “Elodie loves exploring the tiniest details. Her tiny fingers are so sensitive, she finds marks and lines I can’t see.”
According to Kuta, individual artists and the American Printing House for the Blind have been producing tactile picture books for years, but the process is labor-intensive and expensive. The University of Colorado team’s efforts to produce them with 3-D printers could give all blind kids access to these books. As the price of 3-D printers decrease, the researchers hope that families can use the online library they are creating to print books for themselves.
If you’re curious about what tactile books look like and you’re in Colorado, you can see several examples of “Harold and the Purple Crayon” created by students in Yeh’s upper-level computer sciences classes. The pages are on display at the University of Colorado’s Gemmill Library of Engineering, Mathematics and Physics.
“There’s not too many projects where you can see a very clear combination of engineering, societal impact and art,” Yeh told Kuta. “It gives all students an option to communicate through design and 3-D models.”
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