Change-Makers

A study published in 2018 examines the impacts of structural racism on food insecurity. In it, they define structural racism as “the totality of ways, in which societies foster racial discrimination, via mutually reinforcing inequitable systems.” These systems include housing, employment, earnings, media, health care, criminal justice, and more. The social and economic advantages white people have because of those long-standing systems drive higher rates of food insecurity among racial and ethnic groups, the study explains. Food insecurity has been followed by…

Previous studies have taken on the massive questions of sustainability in the food supply system, but this study ambitiously set out to establish a clear and comprehensive set of indicators from which to base their map’s ratings.Beginning with a literature review, they isolated four primary “dimensions” of sustainability: environmental, economic, social, and food & nutrition. From here they created sub-dimensions, and then categories, each of which had an assigned indicator. Some of the indicators used were greenhouse gas emissions, crop…

There were 63,498 homeless people in New York City alone reported last December. The numbers showed that the amount of New Yorkers sleeping each night in municipal shelters is 76 percent higher than it was 10 years ago—and this doesn’t even account for people who are sleeping unsheltered. This means shelters are more crowded and resources are limited. One of the most limited resources: menstrual products for women. In fact, menstrual products are some of the least donated items in shelters,…

In 2016, the Super Bowl kicked off in a stadium equipped with 1,150 solar panels and a massive rooftop garden. Last year, the big night was a nearly zero-waste event, complete with compost bins and biodegradable food containers. Super Bowl LIII is also poised to be a surprisingly green affair. This Sunday, the New England Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles will face off in the newly completed Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, which is certified LEED Platinum for its energy-saving initiatives. The…