Nourishing NYC: Growing Food is Power

Nourishing NYC tackles health and food security issues in impoverished East Harlem.  Chef and nutrition expert Gina Keatley saw the correlation between diabetes and lack of access to nutritious food in the NYC community and found a way to begin to empower residents through her nonprofit.

Twice a week, Nourishing NYC now offers nutrition classes at community gardens, shelters, and other nonprofit organizations which serve low-income people.  Urban gardening is also promoted as a way to have healthy food choices and beat paying for expensive produce.  The Junior Chef program teaches children basic cooking skills and how to smartly choose food.  The organization also distributes 1,000 free turkeys for Thanksgiving.

Keatley was recently featured as a CNN Hero.

Garden on the Go: a Farmers Market on Wheels

Indiana University found people in poverty have access to the worst kinds of food, for example, fast food and convenience stores.  The USDA indicates nearly 70% of low income areas are "food deserts" barren of affordable, healthy choices. IU-Health's Garden on the Go remedies the lack of access in poor neighborhoods with a mobile fruit and vegetable market.

IU-Health partners with a vending company year round offering regular and reliable service to people who often lack transportation.  The goal is to fight obesity rates and lower risks for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer by making healthy food available.

Garden on the Go accepts cash, credit cards, and SNAP/EBT.

Aspiritech: Jobs for People with Autism

More than 9 percent of the U.S. population is unemployed, and finding work is challenging for adults with autism even in better economies.  Brenda Weitzberg knew her university educated son could work, but his autism amounted to a serious obstacle in the job market.  His unique talent for attention to detail proved perfect in identifying software anomalies.  And so, she founded Aspiritech, which tests for software problems, not only to address her son's needs but the needs of other people in his situation.

Aspiritech's "mission to provide a path for high functioning individuals on the Autism Spectrum helps these young adults realize their potential through gainful employment."

The nonprofit's vision is to expand to other geographic and business areas in addition to inspiring others to replicate our model. To those ends, we continue to seek sources of funding and additional billable work.

You can find out more about Aspiritech by visiting the website.

Peer2Peer Tutors Impassioned in Education

Erik Kimel launched Peer2Peer Tutors as teenager.  At 16, he knew fellow students entrenched in academics were the best resource for struggling students.  Throughout college Kimel kept at the organization he founded and is now the CEO at age 25.  He not only provides academic help for kindergartners though college age but continues to employ youth as tutors starting at $12 an hour:

Peer2Peer also offers a sorely needed employment opportunity for young people, in an economic climate that has been especially tough on teens and college students. The tutoring company is poised to create 500 youth jobs. 

The organization is for-profit with a social mission.  Philanthropic efforts include donating 1% of its revenue to the communities it serves with free tutoring and services in Virginia and areas of Maryland and Connecticut tutoring Title 1 students free of charge.

Project Cuddle: Pregnancy without Fear

No baby ever has to be abandoned.  Since 1996, Project Cuddle has helped frightened girls and women find solutions and support by empowering the expectant mothers with choices.  Some need advice about telling their parents.  Others need shelter.   The range of care Project Cuddle offers can be as simple as emotional support or as involved as finding adoptive parents.

Ready to listen, volunteers man the 24-hour a day toll free number (888-628-3353) and website.   The Project Cuddle goals focus on the health and safety of the baby while in en utero and following birth.  This 501 (c)(3) nonprofit wants each birth mother proud of the decisions she makes.

Girls on the Run: Empowering Girls with Self-Respect

The core values of Girls on the Run:

• Recognize our power and responsibility to be intentional in our decision making 
• Embrace our differences and find strength in our connectedness
• Express joy, optimism and gratitude through our words, thoughts and actions
• Nurture our physical, emotional and spiritual health
• Lead with an open heart and assume positive intent
• Stand up for ourselves and others

Healthy attitudes and lifestyles during childhood can equip young girls to make positive decisions and avoid dangerous risk-taking during adolescence.  This is why Girls on the Run focuses on the development of girls eight to thirteen years old. The organization's program combines training for a 3.1 mile run and workouts that build both stamina and self-esteem.

Girls on the Run envisions a world where every girl "knows and activates her limitless potential and is free to boldly pursue her dreams."

Love Kitchen Feeding the Homeless, Hungry, Hopeless, Homebound, and Helpless

Helen Ashe and Ellen Turner have made it their business to feed the hungry.  The twin sisters carry out this mission through their Love Kitchen which has been nourishing bodies and souls for twenty years now.  The twins' charitable work  has been recognized with a CNN Heroes feature, on Oprah, and ABC's Secret Millionaire.


Every week more than 2000 meals are made.  Eighty percent of the food is for the homebound people in the Knoxville area.  The sisters have attracted a lot of volunteers who help make the work possible.  


The Love Kitchen's motto is "Everybody is God's Somebody."

50 Cent Finds a Way to Give Back

Artist, 50 Cent wants to provide a billion meals for hungry people over the next five years.  The way he's undertaken the goal is through enterprise.  He's marketing the Street King energy drink.  The concept is simple: buy a drink, feed the hungry, one drink means one meal.  50 is working with The United Nations World Food Programme.  To date, Street King has funded 2.5 million meals for those without food.

Climb Wyoming Takes Women to New Heights

Across America, single mother households often live in poverty. CLIMB Wyoming challenges the status quo with job training for low income women, and the work is paying off.  Program participants earn higher wages in fields ranging from welding to health care.  Readying single mothers for new careers is a 6 to 8 month endeavor:

• Phase 1-Program Research and Planning
• Phase 2-Participant Recruitment
• Phase 3-Comprehensive Training
• Phase 4-Job Placement
• Phase 5-On-going Support

Essential to the process are mental health services that tackle personal barriers that have impeded success in the past.

You can support the CLIMB Wyoming program at their donation page.

FealGood Foundation Supporting 9/11 Responders

The main focus of the FealGood Foundation is to raise public awareness about the catastrophic health effects on 9/11 first responders.  Founder and first responder, John Feal indicates health issues suffered by firefighters and police officers will soon claim more lives than the 9/11 terrorist attack. Feal's nonprofit  provides assistance to relieve these great heroes of the financial burdens placed on them over the last decade.

The Foundation is also working to create a network of advocacy on 9/11 healthcare issues. The organization  advocates for Ground Zero workers and teaches others how they can advocate for themselves and help others through grassroots activism.

Kenya Help, "Can ya help us?"

"Can ya help, us?" quipped Margo McAuliffe at a recent lecture for TED.  Http://kenyahelp.us is the website for the nonprofit McAuliffe established to address the educational needs of girls in Kenya.  After losing her husband, the recently retired math teacher began to daydream--seeing herself teaching in Africa.  She acted on her dreams and eventually raised more than a million dollars to open a girl's school in Kenya.

McAuliffe's first step was to visit a Catholic parish in the Naivasha District:

I interviewed 6 students whose circumstances were so dire that they were being sent home for lack of school fees. Their stories were heart wrenching: several had a single mom with no work; another’s mother worked in a stone quarry where she had been injured, breaking stones by hand. Her father was also unable to work. Several were orphans who had been taken in by family members unable to pay fees. One boy, highly recommended by his math teacher, had lost his father at about age 10 and had already been sent home. His mother had died at the exact time he was sitting for a crucial exam taken at the end of grade 8. His sister had tried to keep him in school, but had sickened while working at a flower farm and hadn’t been able to find other work. I told these students I was making no promises, but I would try to find sponsors for them.

Within a week after my return home, I had sponsors for all six! Even while I was in Kenya, “miracles” like that began to happen. Right before I left, I met a British woman who was a volunteer for Manos Unitas, a foundation based in Madrid whose mission was to fund programs for women and girls in Africa. It was just a few days after the still, small voice had spoken. Eventually Manos Unitas awarded us $55,000 to build 2 science labs.

McAuliffe credits a lot synchronicity and miracles in making the school possible.  She spends summers in Kenya teaching math.  Find out how you can help.

HERO in Alabama

HERO serves west Alabama's Black Belt community. The nonprofit's work centers around development in the impoverished region and provides housing resources and education.  Paths to home ownership are made available to residents by:

• Credit Counseling
• Rural Development 502 Loan Program
• Self-Help Housing
• Habitat for Humanity
• Rural Development Mutual Self Help
• Grants
• Step Up Financing

HERO also addresses community needs in partnership the Angel Food Ministries food bank, a Thrift Store, Pie Lab, YouthBuild job training, and utility assistance via HUD.

Volunteers for HERO's programs paint, clean, frame and roof homes. The organization welcomes those with special skills to share.  If you'd like to volunteer, contact them

• By Email: info@herohousing.org
• By Phone: 334-624-0842
• In Person: 1120 Main Street, Greensboro AL 36744

HERO is open Monday through Friday from 8:00 am - 4:30 pm