Good News Headlines 12/16/2024
Photo courtesy About Fresh
The New “Convenience Food”? How A Local Org And All In Are Partnering To Make Fresh Food Accessible.
by Sarah Watts, Upworthy
Ask the people of Boston what issues impact them the most, and you’ll likely hear something about the cost of food. In 2023, Boston saw the second-highest grocery inflation in the country, and prices of basic household necessities have only increased since then. Between rising grocery costs, limited transportation, and tight holiday budgets, more and more people in the Boston area (and throughout the country) are struggling to put food on the table. But for more than a decade, About Fresh, a nonprofit dedicated to increasing access to fresh foods in underserved communities, has been working on being part of the solution.
The Mashpee Wampanoag Work With A Cape Cod Town To Restore Their Fishing Grounds
by Emma Glassman-Hughes, Civil Eats
Vernon “Buddy” Pocknett steered his truck through the curving streets of Popponesset Island, Cape Cod, jostling a satchel that hung from the rearview mirror above a trucker hat reading “WTF (Where’s The Fish).” The satchel was made from a seal paw, adorned with long claws that jiggled as Pocknett took the turns, passing Teslas, sailboat-shaped mailboxes, and sunburned cyclists. Pocknett drove to Fishermen’s Landing at the members-only Popponesset Beach, stopping at a “beach security checkpoint” run by two teenagers who hid from the July sun under an oversized umbrella. One asked Pocknett if he was there to fish, and Pocknett said he was doing research.
Patients Couldn’t Pay Their Utility Bills — So One Hospital Turned To Solar Power For Help
by Martha Bebinger, AlterNet
Anna Goldman, a primary care physician at Boston Medical Center, got tired of hearing that her patients couldn’t afford the electricity needed to run breathing assistance machines, recharge wheelchairs, turn on air conditioning, or keep their refrigerators plugged in. So she worked with her hospital on a solution. The result is a pilot effort called the Clean Power Prescription program. The initiative aims to help keep the lights on for roughly 80 patients with complex, chronic medical needs. The program relies on 519 solar panels installed on the roof of one of the hospital’s office buildings.
Boston Broke A Record Last Year For Fewest Homicides. It’s On Track To Do It Again.
byTroy Aidan Sambajon, The Christian Science Monitor
Boston is on track to set a new record. The city may ring in the new year with its fewest homicides and shootings in a single year – for the second year in a row. In 2023, it reported 37 homicides, its lowest number ever since the Boston Regional Intelligence Center began counting. The murder rate of 5.29 per 100,000 residents was the city’s lowest in the 21st century. As of Dec. 10, Boston has reported 22 homicides – a little over half of the 40 it had just two years ago, according to the City of Boston Homicide Dashboard. The historic decline began early. In the first quarter, the city of 654,000 residents saw the largest drop among all big U.S. metropolises.
World’s Oldest Known Wild Bird Lays Egg At 74
by Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch
Wisdom, a 74-year-old Laysan albatross, is the oldest-known wild bird on the planet. First fitted with a band in 1956, the Hawaiian seabird has laid her first egg in four years, according to United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) officials. Wisdom returned to the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge to lay what could be her 60th egg, USFWS said, as reported by The Guardian. “We are optimistic that the egg will hatch,” Jonathan Plissner, Midway Atoll’s supervisory wildlife biologist, said in a statement, as The Associated Press reported. Millions of seabirds come back to Midway Atoll each year to nest and rear their chicks.
