Written by Cydnie Melson, Green For All College Ambassador 

GFA College Ambassadors Cydnie Melson and Vicky Valera

On Saturday, October 12, 2013 at 9am- 1pm, I, along with my fellow Ambassador Vicky Valera, organized an awesome community activity for Clark Atlanta University students. We collaborated with the Miss Women’s Leadership Council of Clark Atlanta University and presented the event, “Farming Atlanta.” We arrived at 8:30 a.m. at the Clark Atlanta University campus student center to welcome our fellow students and get ready for the day’s activities. After meeting at the student center we walked to a nearby community farm. We walked so that we could reduce the carbon footprint of our event. Every little bit helps.

Written by Phaedra Ellis Lamkins, CEO of Green For All

Cross-posted on Huffington Post. Read original post here.

The first time I knew that being poor made me different than everyone else was when my mom sent me into the grocery store to get food with food stamps. We had just picked up our free cheese at the food bank. I was running into the store to get pickles for the cheese and pickle sandwiches that I took to school everyday. A woman behind me smirked and made a comment about food stamps being used for snacks. She had a cart full of groceries and she was judging our family based on the jar of pickles and food stamps. I did not understand what I had done wrong. I knew I was supposed to be ashamed and I was. 

Written by Kimberly Freeman Brown, Washington Office Chief of Green For All

Cross-posted on Huffington Post. Read original post here.

Food is not a luxury. It's a fundamental resource -- one that too many people in our wealthy country struggle to find each day. A staggering 16 million kids in the U.S. live in homes where the simple act of eating isn't a sure thing. They don't know where their next meal will come from or if there will be a meal at all. 

Written by Kimberly Freeman Brown, Washington Office Chief of Green For All

Cross-posted on AtlantaBlackStar, World Swagg and REASNY.

Despite America’s wealth, many in our nation go hungry each day. A staggering 16 million children in this country live in homes where food isn’t a sure thing. Among African-American kids, the statistics are much worse. Nearly one-third don’t know where their next meal will come from—or if there will be a meal at all. 

Written by Kimberly Freeman Brown, Washington Office Chief of Green For All

Cross-posted on Huffington Post. Read original post here.

America may be one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but you wouldn't know it by looking at the number of people who go hungry each day. A staggering 16 million kids in this country live in homes where food isn't a sure thing. They don't know where their next meal will come from -- or if there will be a meal at all.

By Maritza Martinez

Green For All Fellow Hakim Cunningham feels that “service work is one of the highest calling a man can undertake in his lifetime.”  He is the director of organizing at the Boston Workers Alliance, a community organization led by unemployed and underemployed workers fighting for employment rights. 

By Maritza Martinez After spending four months in Southeast Asia, Dana Frasz returned to the U.S., a country where more than one in five children don’t know where their next meal will come from. Yet she watched as institutions from colleges to restaurants to farms throw perfectly good food into our landfills. It was a jarring contrast after seeing so much poverty and hunger overseas. Seeing leftover food poured into the trash in her college dining hall sparked Frasz into action. 

Written by Kimberly Freeman BrownWashington Office Chief, Green For All

Cross-posted on Huffington Post. Read original post here.

Disponible en español. Available in Spanish.

My in-laws were raised in the South where they had access to fresh produce that they grew alongside their parents. They knew what good, wholesome food was and they established healthy eating habits for their kids -- my husband and his brother -- even in Brooklyn, N.Y., where they resided for 46 years. 

Written by: Maritza Martinez, Fellowship Program Manager

“Everyday, Bronx activists make lemonade out of lemons” Green For All Fellow and BLK Projek founder Tanya Fields told a reporter for a recent article. She was not only referring to a recent snub from TedxManhattan, but also to the state of food access in her neighborhood. 

Written by: Maritza Martinez, Fellowship Program Manager

Village de l’Est is a community that suffers from environmental racism.  The predominantly Vietnamese neighborhood in New Orleans has been a targeted site for landfills, as well as numerous auto junkyards and dumpsites. The neighborhood’s residents have been fighting this kind of dumping since the early 1900s, when flood zones and wetlands were frequently polluted by these practices.