skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Monday, December 9, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

President Joe Biden considers 'pre-emptive' pardons for staff; SD libraries face stricter policies; GA trans activists face post-election struggles; AL taskforce tackles obesity crisis; MD fossil-fuel lobbyists fail to disclose activities; Midwest prime for wetlands loss; and ID joins lawsuit that could threaten access to public lands, critics say.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

President-elect Trump promises to pardon Jan. 6 rioters on day one. President Biden touts the fall of Syria's Assad regime as an "act of justice," and a North Carolina Supreme Court recount brings charges of attempted vote suppression.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Limited access to community resources negatively impacts rural Americans' health, a successful solar company is the result of a Georgia woman's determination to stay close to her ailing grandfather, and Connecticut looks for more ways to cut methane emissions.

Harvest Celebration Marks Decades-Long Quest to Address Food Insecurity

play audio
Play

Monday, September 18, 2023   

This year's Food to Power Harvest Festival marks 10 years since Colorado Springs residents launched a food rescue project to get fruits and vegetables to areas of the city without accessible grocery stores.

Patience Kabwasa, executive director of Food to Power, said the fun and fundraising event set for Sept. 23 will help fuel a new decade of capacity building for services still very much in demand. She noted prior to the pandemic, one in six Coloradans did not know where their next meal would come from. The numbers are worse now.

"Today in Colorado it's about one in three," Kabwasa reported. "The need for fresh food, particularly, is at an all-time high, and that just continues to grow."

This year's Harvest Festival will take place at the Hillside Community Food Hub, which opened last year. The hub is the culmination of six years' work with community residents to imagine and create a facility which now features gardening education, a producing farm, a demonstration kitchen, events venue, and a no-cost grocery store.

The grocery program has seen a surge in demand after pandemic-related supply chain disruptions, along with claims of price gouging, led to spikes in food prices. Kabwasa explained volunteers collect food from a variety of community partners "just in time," and families receive fresh produce, dairy and meat within 72 hours.

"We partner with different grocery stores and farm stands, and take the excess that is not able to be sold by the expiration date," Kabwasa outlined. "We're able to redistribute that to the community."

With food insecurity impacting families across Colorado, Food to Power's grassroots organizing model could offer a blueprint for other communities. Kabwasa emphasized it all starts by identifying what people actually need, and then building relationships with food producers, grocery stores, and other stakeholders to remove barriers separating healthy food from families.

"You cannot do it without the buy-in from that community," Kabwasa stressed. "Being able to hear what the needs are, specifically, from those community members, and mobilizing resources based upon what you heard."


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Save Ohio Parks group photo taken July 1st 2024. (Photo Credit Paul Becker Photo)

Environment

play sound

Protesters are gathering at the statehouse today to voice opposition to plans that could expand fracking activities near the state's parks. …


play sound

A Wisconsin Circuit Court's ruling involving public sector bargaining rights has intensified the stakes for the state's Supreme Court election in 2025…

Health and Wellness

play sound

Alabama leaders are zeroing in on the state's obesity crisis, which now ranks seventh-highest in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease …


Transgender activist Monica Helms created a transgender pride flag in 2000 that now hangs in the Smithsonian Institution's collection of LGBTQ historical items and, in 2003, founded the Transgender American Veterans Association. (Flickr)

Social Issues

play sound

The issue of transgender rights is back in the news after a recent Supreme Court hearing and Donald Trump's reelection as president returns legal and …

play sound

Students at eight Arkansas community colleges can benefit from new micro-courses to prepare for the workforce. The schools are collaborating with …

Environment

play sound

Mainers are encouraged to take advantage of clean energy rebates and tax credits before they are gone. The Inflation Reduction Act offers incentives …

Environment

play sound

People are probably happy to hear two orphaned mountain lion kittens have been rescued and will find new homes at the Oregon Zoo but sharing space wit…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021