A Pennsylvania retiree is cultivating a garden and her community. Jeri “Momma J” Brockington, of Ambler, PA started Momma J’s Country Gardening as a way to teach her friends and neighbors how to grow vegetables and plants. Her memories of her great-grandmother picking and giving away vegetables from her own garden inspired her.
Brockington said as soon as she bought her home, she visualized using every area of the space to grow food. She went door to door introducing herself and encouraging neighbors to grow their own food. Her neighbors know they are always welcome to come over for some fresh produce or to pick up a new gardening tip. Brockington said it’s the smiles and sense of community that motivates her.
She encourages people to think back to a simpler time and learn how to provide for one another. In the wake of pandemic lockdowns and the September 2021 tornado, it’s become more important to her than ever.”These are times when the only way we’re going to get through it is that we work together,” Brockington said.
She also records educational videos for her YouTube page, encouraging followers on social media to post pictures of their own crops. “You can frequently go for years without knowing any of your neighbors,” said neighbor Frank Dunsmore. “And whenever I came down to this area, she was one of the few people that was always around. I’m not the kind of person who grows plants, but she’s done an amazing job with gardening and stuff like that,” said Dunsmore. “If knowledge is power, she’s giving it away.”
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Since 2009, LA-based non-profit, Food Forward has rerouted 250 million pounds of food from landfills and delivered over a billion servings of fresh produce to food insecure communities.
The non-profit helps reroute perishable produce to communities in need of more fresh fruits and veggies all over the country. A combination of inflationary governmental fiscal policy and the centrally-planned response to COVID-19 has really damaged the ability of rural or food-desert-based communities to buy fresh produce.
Food Forward has mastered the logistical challenge of rerouting produce destined for landfills. Southern California is the largest exporter and importer of produce in the country, making the non-profit centrally located where there is a great need. From its refrigerated food distribution center in south east LA, the group works with 350 direct partners coordinating food donations, which have so far made it out to 12 California counties, six other states, and two Tribal nations. Coming out of the centrally-planned chaos of the pandemic, Food Forward feels they are getting a grip on the demand for fresh produce rather than reacting to it in difficult or emergency circumstances.
CEO Rick Nahmias said “We understood workflows well enough, we understood efficiencies, we understood the network and how food flows through the L.A. area, the contiguous county, and the region. We’re all kind of under this umbrella, feeling like the last 10 years for Food Forward were a dress rehearsal for the pandemic.” Nahmias said among the many problems in this line of work, is the fact that often the food has just days of shelf life left.
Food Forward’s Wholesale Produce Recovery program staff rescue fresh fruits and vegetables from wholesale vendors by the truckload to prevent this unnecessary waste. The Farmers Market Recovery program prevents quality produce from being wasted, and provides a solution to farmers who have unsold produce and want to help fight hunger. A single market can yield over 2,000 pounds of seasonal produce that in many cases is organic. The Backyard Harvest program connects generous homeowners with volunteers ready to harvest surplus fruit on hundreds of private properties, public parks, orchards, and farms throughout Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
Nahmias credits his team’s nimbleness and excellent reactivity to the success that saw them win 2018 CA non-profit of the year. Their operation is so tight that every $1 donated allows them to redirect 10 pounds of produce from restaurants, grocery stores, or farms before sending them to communities that rarely get to buy fresh produce. Keeping perishing produce out of landfills also reduces methane gas emissions from its decomposition, reducing America’s methane footprint after about ten years.
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A beloved math teacher in L.A. entered what he believed was a faculty appreciation ceremony but instead walked out with the keys to a car. Julio Castro, 31, lives in Santa Clarita Valley and teaches at YULA Boys High School. He had been commuting about four hours a day by scooter and bus to get to and from school because he didn’t have a car, sometimes getting home as late as 9:30 p.m. — long after his three young children went to sleep.
Joshua Gerendash, a senior at the private, all boys school said “He still makes sure to devote all this time to students,“he made sure I understood all of the material by sitting down with me during his lunch breaks and sacrificing his time after school where he could be getting to the bus stop going back home.” Gerendash said Castro even helps students who aren’t in his class and that he’s “really dedicated to our futures.”
Gerendash was determined to get Castro a car after he happened to see him looking at cars online. After a months-long fundraising campaign, Castro’s students secretly raised more than $30,000 to buy him a 2019 Mazda CX-3. They also bought him a year’s worth of gasoline and car insurance.
Castro said “I feel surprised. I feel special. So thank you to my students. They are like my kids as well. Now that I have a car, I get to drop off my kids every morning. And then coming here with time to spare, I can use it on my lesson plans. Then on my way back, traffic is still bad, but I’ll be able to make it for dinner.”
Another senior at the school, Charlie Leeds said “No matter what happens with him, he is gonna find some way to pay it forward. We’ve been taught certain values like empathy” and to “treat your fellow person as you’d want to be treated. Mr. Castro is the embodiment of that. With this car, with this new opportunity, he’s only going to find more and more ways to help other people around him.”
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A group of high school football players in Georgia are being recognized for helping get a woman out of her wrecked car. The six students ran to the aid of a woman trapped in her car minutes after an accident near the school. As the vehicle began to smoke, they worked together to pry her bad mangled door open to get her out.
The Rome High School football players were identified as Cesar Parker, Treyvon Adams, Antwiion Carey, Messiah Daniels, Tyson Brown and Alto Moore. As soon as they saw the wrecked car they leapt into action. “We just ran as fast as we could to the lady and check on her to see if she was alright. We saw she was in pain, she was screaming and asking us to help her. We used all our muscles,we’re pretty big people, we’re strong. We play football, so we lift weights a lot, but the door was just extremely bent and broke.” Adams said.
It all happened in about a minute, once the woman was freed the teens checked on the other driver involved in the accident and carried on their way back to class. The 50 year old woman was transported to a local hospital with minor injuries. Their heroic actions were witnessed by staff at the school and they have been recognized by both the Rome City Schools and the Rome Police Department.
Ninth grade teacher Luis Goya witnessed the incident and praised them in a social media post that included a picture of them while they pulled the door open. “This morning I witnessed something amazing that our Rome High Football players did. While I was in front of the school during my morning duty, I heard a loud noise at the intersection that appeared to be a wreck. While I was running to the intersection, I noticed that two cars were involved. There was a 50 year old lady trapped in her car and couldn’t get out. Smoke started to come out of the car, and fluid started to spill everywhere in the intersection. The door was jammed and in terrible shape. While I was on the phone with the 911 dispatcher, the football players who witnessed the wreck, ran to the car and started helping the lady. They literally started using their strength to pry the door open, so the lady could be released. After a few seconds of pulling and pushing the door, the boys ended up opening it and helped her get out of the car. She was shaking and still in panic, but our RHS boys gave her comfort and were able to help her. The Rome High School football players really showed up today. They went above and beyond to help this lady without hesitation” Goya said.
Adams admitted that the team has been getting a lot of love and recognition for their act, which teachers said they deserved, and the school has helped drive. In true hero fashion, the teens say while the recognition was nice, it was something anyone would do.
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A British mother is channeling her grief in an effort to save other families from the devastating loss she’s experienced. Jamie Rees, 18, was at a friend’s house when he collapsed in the early hours of New Year’s Day. Though his friends performed CPR, he did not get enough oxygen before paramedics arrived and he died in hospital on January 5.
Through numerous fundraising efforts, his mom Naomi Rees-Issitt is getting 20 defibrillators installed across her son’s hometown of Rugby. The 43 year old mother of two said there are defibs out there but unfortunately for her son, the nearest kit was locked away in a school.
“You can’t pre-plan your cardiac arrest. Defibrillators that are locked in buildings are pretty pointless. The ambulance pulled up to Jamie’s side in 19.5 minutes,” Naomi explained. “If you reach a person in cardiac arrest in seven minutes the chances of getting his heart beating again is 70%.”
Within weeks of losing her son, she enlisted friends and family to raise enough money to equip Jamie’s hometown of Rugby with defibrillators. Through Jamie’s JustGiving campaign, they initially intended to raise enough money to have one defibrillator installed outside her son’s school but thanks to the overwhelming local support, that plan quickly turned into 20 kits at various locations in town.
They will be installing the 20 defibrillators by January 5, 2023—the one year anniversary of her son’s passing. Naomi said they can’t thank the community enough and the support has been amazing. “We know Jamie is out there. He’s meant to be saving lives” she said.
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A New York City Uber driver is being hailed as a hero after he stopped mid-ride to rush into a burning brownstone to help rescue people before firefighters arrived. Fritz Sam, 54, was taking a passenger to LaGuardia Airport when he noticed a commotion on the street in Brooklyn’s Bed-Stuy neighborhood. He saw flames and dark smoke coming out of a second floor window of a brownstone.
Sam said he asked his passenger “Can I pull over? Maybe we can help.” They got out and joined a group of bystanders who were yelling for people to get out of the residence. When he asked if everyone was out of the building, someone said they thought at least one person remained inside. “At that moment, I was like, ‘You have to decide, you know, what are you going to do?'” Sam said. “I just knew that something had to be done at that moment. So I just took my phone, ran inside and around the staircase.”
Sam said that inside the building, he first found a man who said he had to retrieve something from another floor. Elsewhere, he found a woman who was hesitant about leaving the building. Sam was able to convince the woman to leave and walked out by her side. Once she was safely on the sidewalk, he went back into the building to find the man who he had encountered earlier. As he was leaving with the man, Sam said he ran into a police officer and a firefighter with a hose, who both ran into the building.
Sam’s passenger, Jemimah Wei, said that after firefighters arrived on the scene, they agreed the people would be safe and they could continue on their ride to the airport. “We got back into the Uber, and Sam was like, ‘Do I smell like smoke?'” Wei said. “I was like, ‘Dude, seriously? It’s fine, you just saved a life.'” Wei tweeted about the heroic experience and said she still caught her flight despite the unexpected detour.
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California has become the first state to implement a statewide Universal Meals Program for all public school children. The Universal Meals program will be used to reach more students with the federal National School Lunch Program and School Breakfast Program. The Meal Mandate is expanded to include both a nutritious breakfast and lunch for, not just needy children, but all children each school day.
The Universal Meals program is designed to build on the foundations of the federal National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and School Breakfast Program (SBP). The program is powered by both state and federal funds. The California State Legislature allocates funds to provide additional state meal reimbursement to cover the cost of the Universal Meals Program. High poverty schools will be required to participate in a federal provision.
Prior to this program, students qualified for free meals under particular criteria which included aspects like their parents’ income taxes, the level of poverty in the school’s surrounding area and the zip code where the family lives. With over 327,000 students in California public schools, 60% of students qualified for free school meals.
The state recently implemented the Universal Program to address rising food insecurity. While California produces nearly half of the nation’s fruits and vegetables, on average one in five residents — about 8 million people — struggle with food insecurity, according to the California Association of Food Banks.
Now, with the state launching the mandatory Universal Meals Program, parents will be sure that their children can get at least two free, full meals at schools daily and not have to incur the expense for preparing breakfast and lunch for them. All students will be automatically enrolled in the program, although students will not be required to participate. Instead, meals will be served to the students who ask for them.
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An 18 year old lifeguard is being hailed a hero after delivering a baby on a pool deck. Natalie Lucas, who’s been a lifeguard for 3 years, was working her morning shift at the YMCA of Northern Colorado when a woman’s water broke. Tessa Rider was nine months pregnant with her third child and a few days past her due date. Rider and her husband, Matthew Jones, were visiting their local Y — about five minutes from their home in Longmont, Colo. — for a swim on July 24.
The couple said they knew the baby was coming but didn’t know if it was going to be a week, two weeks, or today. Rider slipped into the pool at around 10:45 a.m. and said she felt a sense of complete relaxation but the 30 seconds of calm swiftly shifted to chaos. She said she suddenly felt the need to push. She instructed her husband who was scrolling casually on his phone on the pool deck to grab their things and meet at the car. That plan quickly went awry when she took two steps out of the pool and collapsed onto all fours with her water breaking as she hit the ground.
Within seconds, she felt a sensation that the baby was coming out. Lucas — who was the sole lifeguard on duty at the time — sprinted over and saw Jones rubbing his wife’s back while on the phone with a 911 dispatcher. Jones told the teen “We’re having a baby,” and before he could give the 911 operator any details, he saw the baby crowning. Lucas said her adrenaline kicked in and she immediately grabbed towels and an emergency first-aid kit. She used a walkie talkie to alert other staff of the situation and asked a man who was swimming laps to call an ambulance. Rider, still on all fours, screamed and pushed as bystanders watched in disbelief. Lucas supported her head as Jones guided the baby out.
Lucas then sat back to back with Jones as she held her seconds-old son, Tobin “Toby” Thomas Rider. An ambulance arrived shortly after and paramedics gave baby Toby a clean bill of health.
The couple said Lucas was quick-thinking and calm, intuiting what they needed in real time.
“I would not have traded Natalie for anybody in that situation,” Jones said. “I’m just so thankful that she was a part of that, and that she supported us the way that she did. She really played her part perfectly, and was so sweet to us. I really, really appreciated her being there, and I’m glad she had that experience with us.”
Lucas said the experience was profoundly fulfilling and pointed out the irony is as a lifeguard, “you’re trained for death rather than life, so it was a very eye-opening experience.” In this case, rather than preventing death, she was helping to welcome new life. During her training and certification, Lucas learned how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation, first aid and water rescues. Helping someone give birth was certainly not a part of the curriculum.
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A Mississippi man credits his pet cat with preventing a robbery at his home and possibly saving his life. While cats have a reputation for being aloof, this cat did everything she could to alert her owner of danger. Fred Everitt, 68, adopted the 20 pound calico from theTupelo-Lee Humane Society four years ago with the intention of saving her life; he never thought she’d return the favor. But Bandit, who is now referred to as Everitt’s guard cat, did just that.
On July 25th, sometime between 2:30 and 3 a.m. Everitt said he was first awoken by Bandit’s loud meows in the kitchen. Then, she raced into the bedroom, jumped onto the bed and began pulling the comforter off of him and clawing at his arms. Everitt said she had never done that before so he knew something was wrong. “I went, ‘What in the world is wrong with you?” Everitt said.
When he got up to investigate, he turned on the lights and saw two young men outside his back door. One had a gun, and the other was using a crowbar to try and pry the door open. Everitt said by the time he retrieved his handgun and returned to the kitchen, the would-be intruders had already fled. He said the situation could have been very different without Bandit. “It did not turn into a confrontational situation, thank goodness,” Everitt said. “But I think it’s only because of the cat. You hear of guard dogs. This is a guard cat.”
Everitt said he’s been a longtime supporter of the Tupelo-Lee Humane Society and was dropping off a donation check four years ago when he asked to see what kittens were available for adoption. Bandit came home with him that day. “I want to let people know that you not only save a life when you adopt a pet or rescue one. The tides could be turned. You never know when you save an animal if they’re going to save you” he said
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A group of cave explorers in Missouri accidentally found an elderly dog that had been missing for months. Rick Haley said he found the dog along with fellow cave explorer Gerry Keene while exploring a cave system in Perry County, Missouri. The group of spelunkers were taking part in a research project for the Cave Research Foundation. They were remapping a cave just north of Perryville, Missouri.
While they were working, Haley said another spelunker came up to him saying they had to do a dog rescue after a group of parents and children discovered the dog. Haley, 66, said the other explorers left the cave and knocked on the doors in the nearby neighborhood and actually found the owner of the lost dog. They then went back to the cave and navigated through twists and turns to reach the dog, who was about 500 feet deep into the cave.
Haley said the dog was in bad shape,having been there a long time, she was very near death, suffering from starvation and had no energy to even walk toward him and the other rescuers. They put the dog in a duffel bag with her head sticking out. This was to protect her and the rescuers as she would likely struggle. They moved her 500 feet to a very tight, awkward, vertical climb, handing her hand to hand upward to the surface. The pictures kinda tell the story.
She was happy to be out and reunited with her owner who said she had been missing since June 9th. Abby the dog was found between Brewer and Perryville in the Moore Cave system — the second longest cave system in the state at more than 22 miles long. While no one knows how the dog ended up in the cave, Haley said had it not been for the research project, the dog would have remained in the cave.
“I’m just happy to be able to get her out of the cave because when we got her out of the cave…her spirits lifted a little,” Haley said. “And I can actually say my day was very positive. When I put my head down on the pillow that night, I had a smile on my face.”
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