Category: Food

bookmark_borderOccupy Philadelphia Events for the Week

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PHILADELPHIA, PA — The Occupy Philly movement posts their calender for November 2 – 9, 2012:

Sunday December 2nd, 3pm – Strike Debt Philly! Meeting – Wooden Shoe Books – 704 South St – Strike Debt Philly is a local chapter of a growing movement to confront and resist all forms of debt. For more information on Strike Debt and to download a copy of the Debt Resistors’ Operations Manual, visit: StrikeDebt.org You can join our email list at https://lists.riseup.net/www/info/strikedebtphilly-announce and our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/StrikeDebtPhilly. Please join us at one of our weekly meetings, and be on the lookout for upcoming teach-ins, debtors assemblies and other street actions!

Please join us for our second, monthly Interfaith Working Group support group and potluck supper in West Philly (191434) from 6-8 PM. Contact Amy at aokietzman@aol.com for full details. Please bring some good, simple vegetarian food to share. We will be meeting regularly on the first Sunday of the month to share a simple meal, to share whats on our hearts, as well as any projects we are doing. Prayers, songs and short scripture readings may also be shared as the spirit moves. We remain open to the possibility that projects may arise in the future that we may all want to collaborate on.

Monday December 3rd, 6:30pm – Friends Center – 1501 Cherry St – Movie Mondays hosted by the Envision Peace Museum. Movies will the first Monday of Each month from October – December. The last film in the series will the short film “The Story of Stuff”, followed by the feature film “Affluenza”. This feature length documentary explores the high social costs of materialism and overconsumption

It’s on! The DEBATE is on! Mon., 12/3, 6 pm Temple University Gladfelter Hall (11th & Berks), Room 107. Free Admission to a debate between Dr. Anthony Monteiro and Attorney Michael Coard on the topics of “President Obama: Sell-Out, Savior, Neither, or Both?” and “Real Social Change: Through Revolution or Reform?” Check out the Radio Courtroom show on Wednesday AND Sunday at noon on WURD 900-AM for details. www.900amwurd.com. (Sponsored by ATAC 215-552-8751)

Tuesday, December 4th: Tools and Analytics for Understanding Usage of Your Website – As 2012 comes to a close, why not take stock of who’s visiting your website, and learn to track — and respond to — your website usage in 2013? Our next Philly Net Tuesday will focus on helping you do just that. We’ll gather at the Friends Center, 1501 Cherry Street, on Net Tuesday, December 4. Join us for light refreshments and networking at 6:00P, and the program will begin at 6:20. Can’t make it to downtown Philly? Watch the live Internet stream at http://phillynetsquared.org/live, and share your comments and questions via Twitter with the hashtag #phlnet2. Your website and Google are the first stop your stakeholders make to find out about, contribute to, or get involved with your organization or cause. Learn how to understand what drives visitors to your website, what keeps them there, how much you’re drawing from social media, and what inspires them to transform their involvement from “passive bystander” to volunteer, donor, or outspoken advocate.
Nathan Gasser and Andrew Sather will lead a discussion and hands-on demonstration of Google Analytics and Google Webmaster Tools — two free, complimentary services that help organizations learn more about their visitors, boost their online visibility, and gain insights about how they can improve the user experience. We’ll dig into what both tools have to offer your nonprofit, how you can start using them right away, and what to do with the data once you’ve collected it. (We’ll also touch upon some tools from non-Google sources.) This session will respond to the needs of the group. Whether you’re coming from a marketing/outreach angle or a technical perspective, and whether you’ve never heard of these tools before or have been using them for years. Important: We’re looking for websites for special attention. If you have a website with Google Analytics installed for more than a year, we want your help (and to help you!). We’re seeking a volunteer willing to open up their Google Analytics account to the crowd and to our presenters during Net Tuesday. We’ll analyze how visitors use your site and suggest ideas to improve usability, accomplish your online goals, and get to know your users a little better. If interested, please fill in this form. RSVP’s via Meetup or Facebook are appreciated for planning purposes, but not required. Thanks to the American Friends Service Committee for sponsorship.

Thursday December 6th, 7pm – Wooden Shoe Books – 704 South St – At its core, Spit and Passion is about the transformative moment when music crashes into a stifling adolescent bedroom and saves you. Suddenly, you belong. At twelve years old, Cristy C. Road is struggling to balance tradition in a Cuban Catholic family with her newfound queer identity, and begins a chronic obsession with the punk band Green Day. In this stunning graphic biography, Road renders the clash between her rich inner world of fantasy and the numbing suburban conformity she is surrounded by. She finds solace in the closet—where she lets her deep excitement about punk rock foment, and finds in that angst and euphoria a path to self-acceptance. -Cristy C. Road is a young Cuban American artist and writer from Miami; she currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. She has reached cult status for work that captures the beauty of the imperfect.

Friday December 7th, 7pm – Wooden Shoe Books – 704 South St – How do we develop and evaluate effective tactics and sound strategies? Effective tactics are essential to any organizing effort. As part of sound strategies, they make goals attainable. During this presentation, we’ll explore how effectics tactics and sound strategies are formed systematically. We’ll also explore the importance of context in forming theories and plans. The presentation will conclude with the introduction of a project that is likely to change the way organizing is done in Philly and perhaps beyond. Presented by local autonomist organizer Lucid Strike.

Events listed here include Occupy Philly related events as well as other social justice events. For more updates be sure to check the Occupy Philadelphia Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/OccupyPhiladelphia. Your support is greatly appreciated!

bookmark_borderOccupy Sandy Serves Thanksgiving

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This year, Aiman Youssef is thankful to be alive.

The 42-year-old Staten Island man said he used to have a $300,000 house he could be thankful for, and a car, and two vans full of things he was going to sell on EBay. Then Superstorm Sandy ruined all that and the rest of his neighborhood too, so just being alive is the best he can ask for right now.

“It’s survival — that’s what it is now,” said Youssef, who sleeps in a tent, where it gets cold early in the morning, around 3 or 4 a.m. especially.

But that tent is no ordinary tent; it’s a full-blown Sandy relief hub, bustling with supplies and volunteers “like 24-hours-seven here,” as Youssef put it in a phone interview. And on Thursday, Youssef’s temporary home was just one of the many locations around the Northeast that stayed busy over Thanksgiving nourishing the thousands of Sandy survivors and volunteers whose lingering struggles know no holiday.

“If you come on Staten Island, you come to South Beach, you’ll see some things that will twist your stomach a bit,” said Farid Kader, 29, a volunteer with Sandy Yellow Team, a relief group that works with Youssef’s distribution site and, like many others, spent its Thanksgiving holiday distributing meals around storm-affected areas. “It’s starting to take a toll on people. Honestly, until the authorities rebuild things, I don’t see myself hanging out with other people.”

Kader mentioned the post-storm mold in ruined homes: “A lot of us are getting sick.”

On the phone, Matthew Hillyer, a volunteer delivering meals, sounded breathless. “I’m pushing a shopping cart door-to-door,” he explained. “After I get done pushing the cart, I’m going to try to hit every house in a 10-block radius.”

Hillyer is associated with Occupy Wall Street, which has won plaudits for its storm relief effort, Occupy Sandy. Organizers estimated it served more than 10,000 meals on Thanksgiving.

Another Occupier, Robert Pluma, was also almost too busy to talk. “I’m literally taking my first break in two weeks,” Pluma said, politely begging off. “I’m carving a turkey as we speak.”

Sandy’s billions in storm damage left thousands newly homeless amid a recovery effort that, many residents complain, has stretched the capacity of major aid agencies and federal and local governments. As of Wednesday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency reported that 453,000 disaster survivors had applied for assistance in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode Island, with $844.4 million in relief aid approved.

That translated into a $19,000 check for Youssef — a help, he said, but not enough for him to rebuild his life.

“He’s not the only one I’ve been hearing this about,” Kader said of Youssef. “This whole area has been flooded, and a lot of the people here don’t have flood insurance. It’s bad.”

In New York City, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s office said it planned to distribute more than 26,500 meals to 30 locations where residents had seen Sandy’s worst.

“As we continue to recover and rebuild from the devastating impact of Hurricane Sandy, our city will do everything we can to bring some of the comforts and traditions of Thanksgiving to families in our hardest-hit communities,” Bloomberg said in a statement, adding that the city would also give out 2,400 turkeys.

In the city’s outer boroughs, though, the government’s post-storm promises haven’t been enough for some residents, who had a somewhat tepid approval of Bloomberg’s storm response in a Quinnipiac poll released Tuesday. Advocates for the New York City homeless community said the storm’s aftermath had also widened a serious housing problem that had long existed for the city’s down-and-out. Displaced residents have found themselves bouncing from shelter to shelter as officials struggle to find a place for them.

“The storm itself brought more transparency about the situation, because there’s a lot more homeless people now, there’s a lot more displaced people now, and it’s all over the media,” said Raul Rodriguez, who sits on the civil rights committee of Picture the Homeless, a New York advocacy group. “Before, it was more of a hush-hush situation.”

Rodriguez added, “Everything is getting a little bit better, slowly but surely, but everybody’s just holding on to their heads.”

In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie — whose no-nonsense reaction to the storm recovery has earned him rock-star adulation in the media and in polls — packaged and delivered 500 Thanksgiving dinners on Wednesday to a Lowe’s with his wife and children.

“We are all one New Jersey family,” the Republican said in a statement. “When one family member is in need, we are all there to help, no matter how great or how small. It’s that commitment, resilience and generosity that make Mary Pat and I so proud of our state and our people.”

The giving spirit extended beyond the Northeast. In Perry Township, Ohio, Lauri Weinfeld said she was offering a four-bedroom rental house to Sandy survivors for four months, rent-free. When asked why she decided to do it, Weinfeld said, “If I just say it straight up, it just sounds like I’m being sappy and altruistic.

“But if you have something you can share and somebody needs it, you can share it,” she said. “I can only imagine how horrible it is to lose your home and all your things and not be sure how it’s all going to come back together. I can simplify somebody’s life at least a little bit.”

She’d just published an email address for those interested — temphouse4sandyvictims@gmail.com — and by Thanksgiving Day, one person had written, she said.

Perhaps in the spirit of the holiday, they’d written only to say thanks.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license.

By Matt Pearce, Los Angeles Times

bookmark_borderDo Not Feed The Humans

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Philadelphia, PA — The City of Philadelphia recently enacted a controversial ordinance that prohibits feeding homeless people outdoors. Following is an update from the city:

The Task Force on Outdoor Food Serving presented Mayor Michael A. Nutter with its report, “Moving Philadelphia Forward: A Path Toward Strengthening Food Access in Our Community.” The report includes the Task Force findings and recommendations on how to serve more individuals indoors and to assist people who experience hunger and food insecurity.

“I look forward to reading the report and working to help the vulnerable people of our City have access to food that meets safety standards in a safe, dignified, indoor location where we can provide supportive service,” said Mayor Nutter. “I want to thank the Task Force members for their hard work, dedication and support as we work to move outdoor food service indoors.”

The Task Force was convened in May 2012. The Task Force was comprised of individuals from city departments, philanthropic and faith-based organizations, foundations and individuals who have participated in the food service programs. The Task Force was chaired by Dr. Arthur C. Evans, Jr., Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual disAbility Services Commissioner.

“Several individuals and groups share a long-standing commitment to serving people who are in need,” said Dr. Evans. “Task Force members were actively engaged in identifying creative options to move the city forward in its efforts to address hunger.”

In the report, the Task Force identified five main recommendations that will help to move the City forward in its efforts to address hunger issues. The recommendations are:

Establishing consensus, leadership & capacity to move the City forward to address hunger and food insecurity;

Increasing and improving food access and options, and other needed services and supports for individuals in need;

Using existing infrastructure and resources to build additional capacity for addressing issues of hunger and food insecurity;

Creating opportunities for organizations and the public to better help individuals in need; and

Establishing innovative food serving models to increase access to food indoors while addressing food insecurity.