Food Waste Is A Problem In Prince George’s County
Today, the Intersection published an article on food waste in Prince George’s County. The Prince George’s County Food Equity Council is on a mission to help residents and organizations to redirect their food waste. I talk to Heaven Jordan, the program associate at The Prince George’s County Equity Council, about the organization’s food rescue initiative.
An excerpt:
The Prince George’s Food Equity Council hasn’t always done the job that it is doing now (connecting communities to organizations that provide them with food). Heaven Jordan, the program associate at The Prince George’s County Equity Council, said initially the organization was focused on policy. But when the Covid-19 pandemic storm slowly infected people — causing death, businesses to shut down in the county, and increasing poverty– they jumped in, helping other communities provide healthy food options to residents living in food-insecure neighborhoods.
(Prince George’s County had pre-existing food-insecure neighborhoods and ones that lacked healthy food options before the pandemic).
Prince George’s County Food Equity Council members worked with local religious institutions as well as other nonprofits to streamline food distribution. For residents, the organization provides a digital map showing food distribution centers in the county. (See here).
You can read the full article here.
Last week, I also published a story about poverty and education. The article looks at Washington State School, which helps its impoverished students graduate.
Here is an excerpt:
The longer a person remains homeless, the more difficult obtaining stable housing becomes. If a homeless student becomes a chronically homeless adult, they more often require not only housing but also services for mental health, physical health, and substance abuse treatment.
But at North Thurston Public Schools, the 661 students like Dizon, who are sleeping on friends’ couches, in vehicles, in shelters or in tents — with or without their families — are graduating at nearly the same rates as their peers. The district has shown that this feat just requires dedicated and consistent support.
The Seattle Times’ Project Homeless is collaborating with the Center for Public Integrity to examine how homeless students are faring in Washington and across the U.S. This series will also include a look at school discipline rates for Washington’s 40,000 homeless students, as well as federal funding disparities among states.
You can read the story here.
