The local foods movement has become much more than a short-lived dietary or environmental trend. Can it actually fuel the new Southern economy?
The term “locavore” has become ubiquitous since appearing in the American vernacular about ten years ago. It represents a rapidly growing movement of people choosing locally produced food rather than packaged goods that traveled hundreds of...
Despite improving employment numbers, the U.S. Census Bureau announced Wednesday the poverty rate in 2014 remained virtually unchanged from 2013 – its fourth consecutive year of statistical stagnation. At 14.8 percent, 46.7 million Americans lived in poverty last year (defined as $24,230 or less for a family of four). There has also been negligible change in income for three years in a row,...
Ten years ago, Hurricane Katrina spawned the need for new construction and a skilled workforce all over the Gulf Coast. It also exacerbated already dire economic situations for low-income women in Mississippi. The Moore Community House , which serves low-income women and children in east Biloxi, found a way to address both of those needs when it launched its Women in Construction (WinC)...
Sophia Bracy Harris is Executive Director of the Federation of Child Care Centers of Alabama (FOCAL) and Alabama Director of the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative for Economic and Social Justice (SRBWI). Her lifelong dedication to improving educational opportunities for children and their families has been recognized with the Rockefeller Public Service Award, Gleitsman Foundation “People...
Shirley and Charles Sherrod founded the Southwest Georgia Project for Community Education in 1961 to educate, engage and empower through advocacy and community organizing. SWGAP has successfully addressed school segregation, welfare rights, voter rights and education, housing, land loss, economic development and unfair policies affecting school children and families.
After decades of...
