Dear friends,
It’s a good feeling when Tuesday rolls around and I’m not scrambling to find a few shreds of good news.
First up is an important reversal of bad policy: the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) rejected the previous administration’s tortured ‘interpretation’ of equal protection for people seeking health care. Of course, the prohibitions against sex discrimination in healthcare also protect transgender and gender-nonconforming people.
“Fear of discrimination can lead individuals to forgo care, which can have serious negative health consequences,“ the HHS secretary, Xavier Becerra, said in a statement. “Everyone – including LGBTQ people – should be able to access healthcare, free from discrimination or interference, period.”
The sharp decline in hunger in the US is also encouraging. Putting money in peoples’ hands has allowed them to feed their families. (Why is anyone surprised?!) The Biden administration is also aiming to expand the increased SNAP benefits beyond the September expiration date (set in December) and to extend the universal free meals programs to more school districts.
What we want, of course, is structural change. And it’s happening. Food forests are starting to pop up as an answer to food insecurity and the intractable problem of urban food deserts. The biggest food forest in the country, Brown Mills, is in Lakewood, an Atlanta neighborhood that is a certified food desert, according to the USDA.
Food forests are part of the broader food justice and urban agriculture movement and are distinct from community gardens in various ways. They are typically backed by grants rather than renting plots, usually rely on volunteers and incorporate a land management approach that has a focus on growing perennials. The schemes vary in how they operate in allocating food and policies on harvesting, but they are all aimed at boosting food access.
Celeste Lomax, who manages community engagement at the Brown Mills forest and lives in the neighborhood, believes education is key to the forest’s success and beams like sunlight when sharing her vision for the fertile soil she tends. “We’re using this space for more than just growing food. We have composting, beehives, bat boxes, and this beautiful herb garden where we’re teaching people how to heal themselves with the foods we eat. We’ll be doing walkthrough retreats and outside yoga. This is a health and wellness place. It’s so much more than just free food.”
Food, health care. We’re getting somewhere.
Check here for times and locations of pop-up vaccination sites with free transit!
Late last week, the mayor announced the creation of the City Artist Corps, a $25 million recovery program which will employ more than 1,500 artists and bring visual and performing art to city residents in all five boroughs this summer. The long-term goal is to create 10,000 jobs and to revive the arts and artists who are so important to the vibrancy of the city.
Which reminds me…my favorite local artist is giving a talk on Thursday night as part of Brooklyn Public Library’s Inside Art series.
Sign up to attend Springs, Wells, Trees, and Shelters with Stanley Greenberg on Thursday at 7 PM.
Over 50 branches in the three public library systems opened yesterday to browsing. I went to Brooklyn’s Central Branch. I browsed the new fiction, had a lovely conversation with a stranger who was as giddy as I was, borrowed eight books, and used the very clean, all-gender public restroom.
Let the mayor and council members know that libraries provide essential services and must be fully funded.
Have a good day!
with love,
L