“We're all restaurants feeding our customers. And it just made sense to try to do the same thing and help feed the seniors in the Memphis area that don't have the luxury of eating out,” says Ashely Robilio, president of the Hueys Restaurant company and a member of the MIFA board.
This is the first in our new series on senior food insecurity. It’s a topic that is especially important in the greater Memphis area, which has the third highest senior food insecurity rates in the country. There are a lot of challenges associated with senior food insecurity, but local organizations like MIFA (Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association) are taking a proactive approach to providing solutions.
“At the end of this, the bigger goal for More for Memphis is putting people on a pathway to economic mobility. And so for us, education is that pathway,” says Teshanda Middleton, project lead for the E&Y Anchor Collaborative and CEO of the Communities In Schools of Memphis nonprofit organization. “How you do that is being intentional about the support that you spread across generations of people.”
“Memphis is not new to developing strategic plans, so it was important for us to be thoughtful of how this process would be different and actionable,” says Jamilica Burke, chief strategy and impact officer of Seeding Success, the Memphis nonprofit responsible for coordinating the More for Memphis initiative.
There’s a term for the trauma that our children experience: Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs for short. It can impact young people for the rest of their lives.
While memories of the November elections might be fading, the results are here for the long haul as the new Michigan legislature gets to work. In this feature by MJ Galbraith, read how historically underrepresented “communities of interest” weighed in on redistricting decisions of the bipartisan Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission with some surprising results.
“(We're trying to) ultimately close the racial wealth gap in our city, for students to either own their own businesses or to have the skills necessary to secure high wage jobs,” says Larissa Gregory, Executive Director of LITE Memphis. “We believe that those things combined will really help close the racial wealth gap in our city.”
“This is a corridor that touches very diverse neighborhoods,” says Nicholas Oyler, Bikeway and Pedestrian Program Manager for the City of Memphis. “You travel through here and you’re passing through all walks of life in Memphis.”
“We want people to leave motivated and inspired to be better leaders within their circle of influence. And so maybe that's at work, maybe that's you leading in a civic organization, or even you being within the nucleus of your family,” says Kaylon Bradford, Director of Leadership Programs for New Memphis.
“Our questionnaire is really wanting to understand those who are running for public office: How will you prioritize and support neighborhood issues?” says Deveney Perry, executive director of BLDG Memphis.
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