This 14-Year-Old’s Homework Assignment Sparked A Mission to Feed America’s Hungry

When she was in the third grade, Katie Stagliano received a homework assignment that changed her life: To grow a cabbage from a single seedling. Hers grew to about 40 pounds. She took the cabbage to the local soup kitchen, where it was served with ham and rice to around 275 people.
“When I looked at the people in line I thought ‘wow, they’re just like my family,'” Katie says of her experience handing out food that day. “For all I know, they could have been my family who had fallen on hard times.” Six years later, Katie’s Krops supports 75 youth-run gardens in 27 states and has raised over $200,000.
Watch Katie’s remarkable story here, and check out the feature film The Starfish Throwers where she is featured alongside two others whose individual efforts to feed the poor are igniting a movement in the fight against hunger.
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A High School That’s Open Late — But Not for the Kids

These days, Hackensack High School in New Jersey stays open long after the kids have gone home. The classrooms are filled by students’ parents, seeking their own education.
“To take ESL classes in the U.S. is very expensive, so when I heard they are giving English class in the high school, I said I want to go,” says Albina Cruz, who came to the U.S. as a teenager, but didn’t feel pressure to learn English until she had children of her own. “I know that it’s very hard when [they] do homework and don’t have anyone to check if it’s right or wrong,” Cruz says.
The mother of two is one of 350 parents who have participated in the new program — launched in 2012 by the Hackensack school district where 60 percent of students are Hispanic — designed to help immigrant parents become more involved in their children’s education. Diana Bermudez, parent outreach facilitator for the school district, spearheaded the program and says parent attendance at school meetings has more than quadrupled since the program began. 
recent study published in the New York Times confirms there is no clear consensus on whether parental involvement does improve a child’s academic performance, but Bermudez says thats not just about academics, its also about building a stronger community. “We try to work as a team where everyone can give back, everyone can do a little something to help us all move on and that’s the culture we’re creating.”

SXSW: How Benevolent Gives a Voice to People Who Aren’t Usually Heard

While others talked about cloud robotics, tried on wearable technology, or watched a 3-D printer spit out custom-made Oreos, Megan Kashner focused her SXSW Interactive session on video interviews with low-income Americans and the lessons that we can learn from listening to people in need.
Kashner, a clinical social worker, is the founder of Benevolent.net, a website that helps low-income people raise funds for things they need. “We at Benevolent are not the only people talking about listening, and not just listening, but following the lead of low-income Americans,” she said of the motivation behind her panel “Listening to People in Need: Lessons for America.”
On Benevolent, people tell their stories and describe what stands in the way of their success. The platform also aims to provide a simple way for those who want to help “to step into the stories of those who are trying to reach their goals” by donating to individuals whose videos and needs are featured.
Here is what we learned from the video interviews with John, Tasha, Kris, Melissa, and Danielle:
Lesson #1: “Getting and keeping a job is expensive.” The costs of uniforms and tools needed for certain jobs are costly and can be a barrier for low income Americans needing work to improve their situation.
Lesson #2: “Transportation is a huge issue.” Sometimes public transportation is the only option — given the cost of buying and maintaining a car. But it can prevent someone with good intentions and a great work ethic from making it to work or class on time.
Lesson #3: “Being employed is not enough.” Finding work is only half the battle, as low wages and high costs of living mean that many people who are working long hours still need food stamps, subsidized energy and childcare, and housing assistance to provide for their families.
Lesson #4: “Kids need more than a roof over their heads.” Housing instability can hold kids back from getting the most out of their education. And beyond a safe place to life, kids also need a parent who can pick them up if they stay after school for activities, who can help them with homework, and who can pack them a school lunch.
Lesson #5: “We need to change the rules.” By listening to the stories of low-income Americans and learning from them, we can fix the systemic problems that lead to poverty.
As Kashner wrote in a Huffington Post piece, where she previewed the five lessons she discussed at SXSW, “How would we re-structure supports and employment practices to make it possible for low-income Americans to set their goals, get help overcoming hurdles, and know that people believed in them? Let’s start that conversation and stop the vitriol that has marked recent conversations about poverty and progress.”
Through these stories — both in the session and on the site — Benevolent is able to simplify an issue as complex as how to pull an individual out of poverty. How does the site do it? By breaking it down in human terms. The story of John, who needed steel-toed boots and precision instruments for his job as a machinist, brought a human face to the American issue of, as Kashner put it, “people needing to spend money they don’t have to take a job they desperately need.” The video featuring Tasha, who was able to escape domestic violence only by moving to a shelter two hours away from where her kids went to school, brought life to this statistic: Low- to moderate-income households spend 42 percent of their total annual income on transportation.
The last lesson built off of a video of Danielle, who looked to Benevolent donors when she needed money for a security deposit in order to live in a safer place with her son. Danielle, who cuts railroad tracks for a living, quoted Robert Reich on how being poor is the hardest job in America. “And I gotta tell you as a poor person, as a working poor person, it definitely is,” she said.
When NationSwell asked what is working when it comes to changing the rules, and who beyond Benevolent is listening to the stories low-income Americans, Kashner mentioned the Family Independence Initiative, which weaves together these experiences with hard data to challenge the stereotypes holding low-income families back, and LIFT, an organization that connects trained advocates and community members to help low-income Americans get ahead.
“They are pioneering some really interesting ways to listen to and shape their policy positions and their programmatic approach based on what their clients are telling them,” Kashner said of the LIFT team.
“The people who are doing the real work everyday to help and walk alongside low-income families as they try and reach their goals are small, local organizations,” she added — saying the solutions lie not with one organization but with the numerous school counselors, social workers, pastors, and others who listen to these stories and use them to change the rules.
Watch one of the videos from the session above then let us know what you think about some of the questions Kashner posed: What would our nation be like if we listened to what low-income Americans had to say? How might that change our approach as a country, as policymakers, as employers, as voters, and as community members?

These New York Seniors Are on the Cutting Edge of Telemedicine

What happens when you take 21st century technology and adapt it to a 20th century environment? A New York City pilot program is finding out, by bringing telehealth to four senior centers around the city. Pace University and VitalCare Services partnered with the city to try telehealth with about 100 residents over the course of six months, and the response from residents and staff has been amazing. VitalCare technicians used mobile technology to modernize methods of measuring blood oxygen, blood pressure, and weight at the senior centers. Everything syncs wirelessly, improving access and records at the same time. Residents have embraced it as a weekly way to stay aware of their health status and keep in touch with their physician teams, and saving the trip from 191st Street to the Village adds convenience, helps adherence and continuity, and cuts costs. Health professionals point to benefits like the ability to log in remotely and check all of the available information, and the shared space makes it easier for teams of physicians to communicate office-to-office. And the technicians love the speed and efficiency as well as the opportunities to connect with so many patients. The pilot is proving instrumental in helping residents maintain healthy, positive lives, and it’s breaking down barriers, from budgets to languages, and building confidence for a better-connected health service system.
 

Someone’s Offering $10 Million to Make This Star Trek Tech a Reality

Why would anyone want to re-create technology from ’70s sci-fi TV?  Well, here are a few million reasons: Qualcomm is offering a $10 million prize for the techies who can invent a modern version of a medical tool from the original Star Trek. 33 teams are competing to remake The Tricorder, Dr. McCoy’s handheld diagnostic device that could scan a patient, record data and analyze disease. Scientists from University of California San Diego scientists are among those rising to the challenge. Their OASIS project is building a device that can read blood and saliva and diagnose diseases from influenza and whooping cough to diabetes, HIV, and hepatitis. The prototype also takes vital signs, and its creators hope it will eventually be capable of connecting the information it collects with the surrounding environment. At least one thing hasn’t changed since the ’70s: the future is as exciting as ever.

Feeding the Needy in Paradise: Hawaii Brings Farmers’ Markets Right to Their Door

Hawaii may be paradise for vacationers, but not all locals are living the resort life. As in the other 49 states, Hawaii has its share of residents suffering from food insecurity and relying on food stamps to survive. So, in Honolulu, the GreenWheel Food Hub is working with farmers’ markets, like the Kuhio Park Terrace market in Kalihi, to make healthy, local foods available to residents enrolled in SNAP. Like similar programs, GreenWheel allows people to use EBT cards to purchase “Green Bucks,” which can then be used at almost any vendor at the farmers’ market. It’s a great way to increase families’ access to locally grown produce, fueling bodies and communities alike, but GreenWheel doesn’t stop there. It’s also building “micro markets” to bring healthy options directly to people who can’t get to the farmers’ market themselves, like those living in low-income housing in more remote areas or people with mobility challenges residing in senior living facilities.

Laughter Goes a Long Way in Fighting for Fresher Water

Remember the water fountains at your school growing up? Sure, the pressure was unpredictable. Maybe there was a piece (or five pieces) of gum near the drain. But the water was always there. Today, 25% of California schools don’t meet the state and federal regulations for providing enough free, fresh water, leading kids to less healthy drinking decisions throughout the school day. The comedic activists behind It’s Not Rocket Science want to draw a few laughs on their way to motivating people to action to improve the fresh water options for kids in California schools. This video is hilarious, but the humor also makes an important point about getting active through the PTA, school wellness committees, and student groups to help schools get up to code and install water filtration stations to provide healthy, sustainable water sources for students.

Source: GOOD and Health Happens Here

This Video May Change the Way You Think About the Disabled

For this powerful campaign by Pro Infirmis, an advocacy organization for people with physical disabilities, artists re-created the standard mannequin in order to challenge society’s perception of body “perfection.” It might be the shock on the faces of the passers-by who saw the results or the amazement on the faces of the subjects of this art-meets-commerce-meets-social-action effort, but this video will change the way you think about people with disabilities.

Why You Should Care About a Crop You’ve Never Heard Of

When it comes to food, variety is as important on farms as it is on dinner tables. Growing different types of food together preserves soil health and helps crops grow. But with biodiversity declining and about a third of the world’s plant diversity on pace to disappear by 2050, groups like FoodTank are working to make sure that a wider variety of plants go into the ground. Enset, a lesser-known crop related to bananas, is one such candidate for biodiversity, packing a nutritional punch while also proving valuable for clothing, shelter and medicine in Ethiopia and Eritrea. Harvests in the U.S. and elsewhere could help reduce global hunger and improve farming.