Social Justice: Equality By The Numbers

Equality By The Numbers

Byline: Shannon Mouton

Twitter: ShannonRenee

If a society is judged by its leadership, then what do these numbers say about the us?

How do they speak to our being the "land of the free and the home of the brave?"

51% - 157.2 million women in the United States (as of Oct. 1, 2010)

34% - 3 women sit on the Supreme Court

24% - 1,732 women serve in state legislatures (as of Aug. 29, 2011)

17% - 17 women serve in the Senate

17% - 72 women serve in the House of Representatives

12% - 6 women governors in the US

4% - 18 women CEOs at Fortune 500 companies

These numbers don't add up. 

PR Tips: False: All Around the World Same Song

False: All Around the World Same Song

By Nicole Hayes

Cutbacks. Higher prices. Lost jobs, closed businesses. Foreclosed homes. For more than three years, we’ve been bombarded with these words. For some of us, this may be true of our current situation. Others may consider the possibility “contagious” and assume they’ll soon become infected, singing the same tune as those who succumbed to a failed economy. But what happened to viewing “the glass half full” instead of “half empty”? All around the world, it’s not the same song…and here’s why.

More people (whether or not of their own volition) are viewing the “economic crisis” as an opportunity to reinvent themselves or pursue dreams long ignored for the sake of a steady paycheck and benefits. Some women were managers and after becoming suddenly unemployed, found their joy and business in the kitchen. Other people put a twist on daily activities to offer as a unique product or service. So how can you sing a different tune when the world is cracking around you? Here are four suggestions:

1)    Listen to and understand what drives you, excites you. This could very well be your path to reinvention.

2)    Put your face in the place—Network! By maintaining relationships with old colleagues and friends and meeting new people, opportunities are often what you make of them.

3)    Go where the people are—Social Media.  According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, at least 79% of American adults use the Internet; of which 65% use a social media networking site (Facebook or Linked In)—this is up from 61% in 2010. Social media is a vehicle where you can receive broad and rapid responses to a need or pursuit. Give it a try! Some of us (myself included) are being forced to grow our skills in the social media space, where others are more adept. Saying you “don’t have time” or “don’t know how” are simply excuses that will shut you out of waiting opportunities. Update your social media profiles regularly, let people know what you do, what you need. Someone will respond!

4)    You frame your world with your thoughts, words. Simply put, if you think it, it shall be.

If you’re not already, we encourage you to follow one or more of these suggestions to create and seize new opportunities. The sad song someone else is singing doesn’t have to be yours!

Food Day 2011

By Shannon Mouton

Today was the first annual Food Day. It was a day to bring attention to our need for "for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way." There were any number of ways you could have participated in Food Day, what did you do?

Did you attend a Food Day event?
Did you write a blog post about it?
Did you tweet about it?
Did you like it?
Did you in any way, shape or form show the slightest bit of regard for this day and what it means?

There is nothing more important than the food you eat and water you drink because without them, you will die. This is a fact, not an exaggeration or an overstatement. You can survive without shelter, you can live without a job and you most certainly can even thrive without a car; however, without f-o-o-d, nothing else matters.

As people around the world are taking to the streets to Occupy this and that place, why not OccupyYourKitchen and demand affordable, sustainable and healthy food. If you don't, who will?

Video: Spices of Life - Welcome to Food Day

Video: Spices of Life - Welcome to Food Day

 We hope you enjoyed our week long series devoted to covering food related issues in celebration of National Food Day! Remember, to celebrate healthy food & healthy living this Monday, October 24 and hopefully continue all year long!

For our weekly Friday video series post, we present this Introduction to Food Day video:

Probably many of you are familiar with the Center for Science in the Public Interest or CSPI : Founded in the early 70's, CSPI has become the leading consumer activist agency in the U.S regarding nutrition, health, food safety, alcohol safety and sound science. Or perhaps you know its Its award-winning newsletter, Nutrition Action Healthletter, with some 900,000 subscribers in the United States and Canada, the largest-circulation health newsletter in North America.

Michael Jacobson, it's founder has come up with a brilliant idea:- day styled after Earth day called "FOOD DAY" on October 24th this coming fall. It's hoped it will be a day when thousands of events in schools, college campuses, houses of worship, and even in private homes will be aimed at" fixing America's food system". According to the organizers, a Food Day event could be as small as a parent organizing a vegetable identification contest at a kindergarten class—or as massive as a rally in a city park, with entertainment and healthy food.

I like to think it will be a day when all kinds of people working in parallel universes from farmers, chefs, teachers, and politicians will come together with a common goal: t to bring awareness to improving the food and diet in the U.S.

Spices of Life asked Michael Jacobson, CSPI's founder to give you an introduction, so please give him a listen.

Enjoy!!

Diversity: How Are Food Deserts Really Affecting Us?

Photo caption: Map showing percentage of households throughout the nation currently living in a food desert.

Diversity: How Are Food Deserts Really Affecting Us?

By: Tamara Braunstein

If you’re following our blog, you know that this week we’re doing a series to prepare for National Food Day, which is next Monday. According to the website, the movement is designed to “push for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way.” To sponsors and supporters this includes advocating for “food labeling, better nutrition, and safer food,” which sound like great ideas anybody can get behind.

But what good does all of that do if access to those labeled, nutritious and safe foods doesn’t improve?

The dilemma of food deserts isn’t new, but with First Lady Michelle Obama shining the spotlight on gaps in communities’ access to healthy food – access meaning “the food is available and affordable” – the discussion is becoming a hot topic.

Much of the conversation surrounding food deserts involves their distribution and effect. While some organizations, like the National Association of Convenience Stores, challenge the view that food deserts significantly affect health and nutrition in a surrounding area, others, like the US Department of Agriculture, have found that 3.2 percent of all US households live between ½ and 1 mile from a supermarket without access to a vehicle. In low income urban areas, that figure jumps to 22 percent. In a city like DC, where our nation’s outrageous socio-economic gaps are starkly illustrated across racial lines, the issue transcends health and food.  

Once you set foot in a grocery store, what food you buy is ultimately your decision. You choose whether to eat natural, healthy food or sugary, processed food. But if getting to a grocery store is in and of itself a daunting endeavor, how likely are you to care whether the food you buy is labeled or produced “safely”?

Food for Thought... and Wellness

Food for Thought... and Wellness

By: Pam Taylor

More than 150 nation’s celebrated World Food Day this week—a good thing.  However, the ongoing dialogue about food, hunger and production is fraught with emotion and opinion and arguably even some good “science.”

See: (http://www.fooddialogues.com/2011/10/14/come-to-the-table-on-world-food-day-and-food-day-our-values-and-our-perspective).

Of course, I totally get it.  We are constantly bombarded with mixed messages about what foods are healthy and/or good for us.  Add to the dialogue, debate over how food is grown or prepared.  Let’s get back to basics and take a look at Natures Pharmacy, I believe the best cure for what ails us—and her foods taste great, too!

A sliced carrot looks like an eye. The pupil, iris and radiating lines actually mirror the human eye; and, yes, science has documented how carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.

A tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart has four chambers and is red. All of the research shows tomatoes are loaded with lycopine and are indeed pure heart and blood food.

Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and has profound heart and blood vitalizing properties.

A walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums.  Even the wrinkles or folds look like the neo-cortex. We now know walnuts help develop more than three (3) dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.

Kidney beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.  Celery, bok choy, rhubarb resemble bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. And like bones, which are comprised of 23 percent sodium, these foods are 23 percent sodium.

Avocados, eggplant and pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female—and they look just like these organs. Today's research shows that when a woman eats one avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight, and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this?  It takes exactly nine (9) months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit.

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow.  Figs increase the mobility of male sperm and increase the numbers of sperm as well as to overcome male sterility.

Sweet potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.  Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries.  Oranges, grapefruits, and other citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.

Onions look like the body's cells. Research shows onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells. They even produce tears, which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes.

Of course, I know there will always be debate over food, including whether we are or are not what we eat.  But I think we can all agree—Mother Nature got it right!

Confessions of a Foodie: We Are Not What We Eat

Confessions of a Foodie:
We Are Not What We Eat

By: Gwen McKinney

When Team McKinney decided we’d dive into National Food Day by raising our voices in the blogosphere, I immediately proclaimed, “I’m in!”

As an evangelical member of the Weight Watchers (WW) Lifetime circle, I have forged a relationship with food that is a lifeline to good health, a relatively streamlined body and joy. Food, like weight management, is a journey. It requires a commitment first and foremost to self. You must honestly zero in on why you eat, how you eat and what you eat. The journey need not be punctuated with denial “diets” and punitive food plans that ebb and flow as the scales tilt north. You can eat well, eat often and eat deliciously even as you drop pounds.

The multisensory passion of good eating gives me something to look forward to from one meal to the next. The Wednesday Food Section of the Washington Post is among my “must reads.” New recipes are cherished treasures. I collect them like jewels. And as a frequent flyer on Epicurious.com, there are always more ways to prepare my favorite foods than I have time to create or eat. The extravaganza of planning, shopping and preparing for a dinner party is almost as fun as the guests. Food is my friend, my salvation and an adventure with each gastronomic foray!

But back to Weight Watchers. It works with unparallel success. This is not an ad for WW. National Poster Child Jennifer Hudson is doing that just fine without me. In fact, she recently opened a weight loss center in Chicago that is primarily targeted to African American women. That makes the point about our community’s need to reassess its relationship with food.

Since Weight Watchers rolled out its phenomenally successful ad campaign featuring the sleek, sexy and seventy-pounds-lighter Hudson, new legions of wannabe smaller Black women have been stepping up to WW scales. My weekly WW meetings have been transformed from sparsely attended motivational lectures into standing room only Amen sessions. Sadly, if the stats prove true, the vast majority of those new recruits will fall off the wagon, trading sustainability for the old and easy way out. Weight management is not just about the scales. The centerpiece is behavioral change. And that is a bitch.

Role model or marketing scheme?

Hudson’s phenomenal reach to African American women surfaces a swelling epidemic. African American women of all ages and economic groups suffer the highest rate of obesity compared to any other demographic. Four out of five of us are considered overweight or obese. With that distinction comes all the evil ills: heart disease, diabetes, cancer and premature death.

Overweight women raise overweight children. The challenge of childhood obesity has become a national state of emergency. Our client, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, embracing the issue as a health equity initiative, has targeted 2015 to reverse the epidemic.

The notion of being “big boned” or voluptuously healthy in line with our African roots have long served as a rationalization for the status quo. Culture, genetics and glandular conditions are not the culprits. Admittedly, as a forthright foodie who shed four dress sizes over a 14-month period, I will always struggle with weight management. Food and caloric intake are almost incidental to the challenge. At the core of a slender body is affirmation of me. I am not what I eat. I am what I am determined to be.

I end here with the verb to be. We are our own best solution if we affirm we can BE. Counsel for good health care? More appropriately, it is a clarion call for Self-Care. Drawing from a campaign that McKinney & Associates launched for the California Department of Public Health, I ask every African American woman to embrace food as a key to life. But command your body as your temple to BE Well.

BEcause we’re worth it.