April 30, 2011
BFJ Admin

Small Kindnesses, Big Impact

Bread for the Journey® chapters give micro-grants to ordinary people – with extraordinary spirits – who have an idea to improve their community. These small, timely grants are helping to make communities across the country more vital, healthy, and just. Here are a few of their stories.

Bread for the Journey Radio interviews ordinary people doing extraordinary things—people who, in small and big ways, are making their world a better place. And from time to time, we interview inspiring authors and leaders to nourish us on our journey of generosity.

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Socially Responsible Businesses – An Interview with Jay Coen Gilbert

February 20, 2012
BFJ Radio

This week Marianna interviews Jay Coen Gilbert, co-founder of B Lab. Jay’s vision is simple yet ambitious: to redefine success in business. What would success look like? Individuals having greater economic opportunity, society moving closer to a positive environmental footprint, more people being employed in great places to work, and stronger communities at home and across the world.

Jay and B Lab are building a community of Certified B Corporations that use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems. B Corps meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance and transparency. By also advancing socially responsible investments and public policies, B Lab is redefining business success. Today there are 517 Certified B Corporations in 60 industries representing $2.9 billion in revenues.

With B Corp certification, you can tell the difference between “good companies” and just good marketing, so you can support businesses that align with your values. Tune in!

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Farming for Good: Greg Welsh of Organic Valley Farms

February 13, 2012
BFJ Radio

In a new series of interviews on BFJ Radio, we’re talking with Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Deeds within the context of businesses as good local, national, and global citizens. This week we feature Greg Welsh of Organic Valley Farms – a national cooperative owned by family farmers. From their start, Organic Valley Farms has based all of their decisions on the health and welfare of people, animals and the earth. We felt that qualified them as good citizens of the earth.

Greg Welsh grew up on the Welsh Family Farm in Lansing Iowa. His family farm was certified organic in 1988 when certification was in its infancy. He was there when Organic Valley Farms formed, a time when family farms were on the brink of extinction. Creating a cooperative helped them to save their farms. Instead of folding, they flourished. Greg was Organic Valley’s first employee and Co-op Manager.

Basing all of their decisions on the health and welfare of people, animals and the earth has paid off in the most holistic way possible. Today Organic Valley is the number one source of organic milk in the nation. They champion a system of farming that supports family farms; it defends the ethical and humane treatment of farm animals; it’s good for the earth; and gives all of us high-quality organic food.

Tune in and explore how your choices can make a difference for the family of earth.

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Tools for Local Garden Network Leader

February 7, 2012
BFJ Southwest Michigan
community garden in Kalamazoo

The Oakwood Community Garden, one of nearly 40 community gardens in the Greater Kalamazoo Garden Network

Shelly Claflin is passionate about community gardens as a way to help all communities have access to food and nutrition. Already managing two community gardens, Shelly began fielding lots of phone calls from people wanting help with starting a garden in their own neighborhood.  So in 2010, she initiated the Greater Kalamazoo Garden Network to share information, support new gardeners getting started, and help gardeners help one another.

“We just want as many people involved in making sure that our community has more food, nutritious food, accessible to everybody,” says Shelly in an interview with WMUK public radio.

Today the network includes nearly 40 community food gardens in the Greater Kalamazoo area.

 

Shelly frequently brings groups together to problem solve. She approached Bread for the Journey of SW Michigan about a grant for a three-month facilitator training course at the Dorothy Johnson Center for Philanthropy in Grand Rapids, MI.  Shelly needed to register soon before the class filled up.  Though our chapter had nearly depleted our funds with three new grants, our board agreed that the course would really help Shelly do her good work in our community, and it would be well worth funding.  Bread for the Journey of SW Michigan was pleased to grant Shelly $200, enough to cover the portion of the cost that Shelly had not been able to cover otherwise.  She was very excited about the grant, and quickly registered for the course! We look forward to great results!

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Business for Social Good: An Interview with Merry Korn

February 5, 2012
BFJ Radio

Merry Korn is a clinical social worker with exceptional business acumen. While she was very successful in the business world – leading business management services for some of the country’s largest companies – Merry felt like a fish out of water. Then she discovered she could marry her two passions to create an enterprise that is good for people and good for business.

In 2005, Merry launched Pearl Interactive Network, which delivers business services such as call centers and marketing research by tapping a workforce of home based, skilled and talented agents nationwide. What makes Merry’s business unique? The workforce she taps: service disabled veterans, military spouses, and people with disabilities. With assistive technologies, Merry and her team train and enable skilled people who are geographically isolated or blind or quadraplegic to provide valuable business services from home.

Merry is making splash with her success in creating business solutions that are virtual, green, people-centered, and home-based. From Businessweek to the National Association of Women Business Owners, Pearl Interactive is being recognized as a social enterprise that works.

Do you have a vision to do something good? Tune in and let Merry’s story fuel your passion!

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Chosen Few Ministries: The Promise and Progress of a Changed Man

February 2, 2012
BFJ Austin, TX

Refurbished computers will help with job searches and resumes. Photo courtesy of Goodwill Industries.

Eric Valentine of the Texas Parole Board refers to Robert Powell as “a blessing” to the recently incarcerated men and women that Robert ministers to.  In Robert’s words, “I can’t model perfection like Jesus, when he walked the dusty earth, but I can model progress of a changed man.”  And that is precisely what Robert has set about to do, and to inspire others to do, through Chosen Few Ministries.

Robert’s compelling messages come through his life experiences and that is what makes him such a valuable resource to the Parole Board, and to the 5 Texas prisons he recently gained access to in order to prepare men to transform their lives on the “outside”.

Robert holds weekly meetings and conducts street outreach to invite men and women who would like to transform their lives.  He has connected with numerous volunteers who assist him with job training, transportation, housing and other issues.  He invites others to join him in his street outreach in order to expand the reach of his organization.

Tanya Gooden, of Goodwill Industries, asked Robert to address youth ages 12-17 in order to inspire them to turn away from gangs, crime and violence.  She was so impressed with the impact his personal passion and story had on the youth that she has recommended he address the adults there as well. Robert has also been invited by a prison chaplain to join him in his ministry to inmates.

Bread for the Journey of Austin asked Robert to define the most immediate need for his ministry and he responded by requesting 2 computers and printers for assisting men in a donated office at the Parole Board to look for jobs, prepare resumes, and to gain computer literacy skills.  Through Goodwill of Austin Bread for the Journey was able to purchase 2 refurbished computers, monitors and printers that Robert set up the following week, just in time for Christmas! Bread for the Journey Austin had the unique opportunity of giving more than the usual financial contribution by finding the refurbished computers through Goodwill Industries for Robert and purchasing the computers with all of the necessary accessories on a trip with Robert. This was an especially meaningful way to continue to foster the ‘relationship’ part of our vision and organization.

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Inspiring Leadership and Service in Youth

February 2, 2012
BFJ Seattle, WA
HOBY Youth

HOBY Youth put leadership skills to good causes

Founded in 1958, Hugh O’Brian Youth (HOBY) Leadership’s mission is to inspire and develop our global community of youth and volunteers to a life dedicated to leadership, service and innovation. HOBY programs are conducted annually throughout the United States, serving local and international high school students. HOBY programs provide youth selected by their schools to participate in unique leadership training, service-learning and motivation-building experiences.

 

HOBY also provides adults with opportunities to make a significant impact on the lives of youth by volunteering. Over 4,000 committed HOBY volunteers plan and execute the programs each year, serving both at the local HOBY affiliate level and on HOBY’s Board of Trustees. Due to the selfless efforts of volunteers and the contributions of generous donors, nearly 9,000 students participate in HOBY programs annually. In May 2011, Bread for the Journey of Seattle donated $600 to the HOBY banquet.

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Voices Project Expands to Parents

February 2, 2012
BFJ Seattle, WA
Two girls from Voices Project

Young Poets Tell Their Stories in the Voices Project. Photo Courtesy of the Voices Project

The Voices in Wartime Education Project became a friend of Bread for the Journey of Seattle in 2008 when its local visionary, Merna Ann Hecht, poet, storyteller, and arts and literacy educator, approached Bread for the Journey with a request to provide seed money to create an outreach to immigrants through poetry project in one high school South of Seattle. Over time, we have watched the Voices Project, and the increasing number of immigrant students it reaches, flourish as lost voices are found, individual stories are told, and painful journeys are transformed into beautiful narrative and poetry.

 

Parents of these youth also have stories to tell. In this most recent expansion of the Voices Project, students were enlisted to interview their parents, connecting generations through honest and meaningful storytelling. Bread for the Journey of Seattle granted the Voices Project $500 to pay for the publication of immigrant parents’ stories, written in partnership with their children. As founder of the Voices project, Merna Hecht, says with poetic poignancy, “…Because writing is made of VOICES. Like threads weaving a cloth, or like the patterns we draw to connect the stars, we must remember that our voices connect us to the human family.”

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Feeding Homeless Youth in Seattle – Annual Family Activity

January 24, 2012
BFJ Seattle, WA

Each year, the Seattle chapter of Bread for the Journey invites their families to participate in building community not only through financial contributions, but also through acts of service. In April 2011, BFJ of Seattle’s families – partners, children, parents –  helped provide a warm meal for homeless youth through Stand Up for Kids Seattle. The families purchased food, prepared the meal, and served it to youth in a safe location. Together, they prepared and shared a meal with youth who rarely receive warm meals, and who don’t have their own families to care for them. Bread for the Journey of Seattle was honored to contribute $258 toward the entire cost of the meal.

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Healing the Psychological Wounds of War

January 24, 2012
BFJ Seattle, WA
picture of man receiving acupuncture

Photo courtesy of Seattle Acupuncture for Veterans

Regardless of political persuasion, like many Americans, we find it difficult to know how to support or thank US soldiers and veterans who risk their lives and suffer trauma as a result of combat in war. That’s why BFJ of Seattle felt such strong support for a new acupuncture clinic, exclusively dedicated to war veterans. War is a reality that for most Americans feels distant, and for veterans returning home with physical and emotional scars from a war halfway across the world, reintegrating into civilian life is a challenge. History has shown that the long-term impact of war takes a tremendous toll on veterans for decades.

 

Seattle Acupuncture for Veterans clinic offers group acupuncture sessions at no-cost. The beauty of acupuncture is that it is a simple and low-cost treatment that provides immediate, effective, and easily accessible treatment. Veterans at clinics like this are experiencing benefits such as a full night’s sleep for the first time in years and fewer flashbacks and nightmares. They are reporting improved mental clarity, less anxiety, relief from hyper-vigilance, and a reduction in stress.

 

Bread for the Journey of Seattle granted $500 seed money to Seattle Acupuncture for Veterans in their work to help mend our veterans’ psychological wounds and to prevent the persistent suffering of veterans through time.

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Respecting – and Nourishing – Our Elders

January 24, 2012
BFJ Marin County, CA

Curt and Ruth ~ nourishing seniors on limited incomes

Back in 2005, Ruth Schwartz and Curt Kinkhead noticed that many of their neighbors at their subsidized senior housing development in Novato were not getting enough to eat. They decided to do something about it.

Ruth and Curt reached out to local supermarkets and other food purveyors, asking if they could have the dated food the supermarkets had to take off their shelves, the produce that was a little too ripe to sell, and the grocery items that had damaged packaging. They wanted to get that food – that would otherwise be wasted –  to people who could use it right away.

Supermarkets responded, and Respecting Our Elders was born. Respecting Our Elders is an all-volunteer charity organized to collect and distribute free food to needy seniors and others in Marin County. Their mission is to eradicate hunger in Marin County while building more community in the process, reducing waste, and providing a viable model that others can create in their own communities.

Respecting Our Elders changes lives

Today, Respecting Our Elders volunteers pick up food daily from nine locations and distribute it to eighteen different locations where people in need reside or gather. They estimate that they are feeding 1,500 people every week.

Lives are being touched in so many ways. A community member writes:

When I am able to save money from my food budget, I can afford to pay for my IV nurse to give me my weekly treatment. So your help is literally saving my life. It touches my heart to see your faces and feel the kindness every week because I am so isolated because of my illness. Thank you again for all you do.

Bread for the Journey of Marin was pleased to give a grant of $1,000 to support Respecting Our Elders in this work of kindness and generosity.

 

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