Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Small Developers in Portland



Small Developer Workshop
July 19, 2016

            At the request of the Executive Board of PNI I attended the Small Developer’s Workshop held in Louisville at the Hilliard Lyons Conference Center on July 19th of this year. The workshop curriculum was created by the Incremental Development Alliance, headed by Executive Director and faculty member Jim Kumon an urban designer , neighborhood advocate and business manager and Monte Anderson who is CEO/President at Options Real Estate. Options Real Estate is multi-service, real estate company specializing in creating sustainable neighborhoods in southern Dallas and northern Ellis counties in Texas.
            The goal of the Alliance is to resurrect the small scale developer who combines local insight and relationships to build human-scale human scale neighborhoods while earning a living. The focus of the group is to work with the existing fabric of inner city neighborhoods by employing skilled traders to construct, outfit, maintain and repair the buildings they love rather than demolish them and bring in new Construction. In order to do this the Alliance has established a training program for small business owners, neighborhood advocates, design and real estate professionals, builders and others to become small developers.
            The audience for the day long workshop consisted of neighborhood activists from Louisville and Lexington. These people came to learn and network with one another to create teams of people with different skill sets involved in small development – legal, city planners, construction and design, funders, etc. Of primary interest were the neighborhoods of Portland, Smoketown, Parkland, West Main, and Butchertown.

Discussion and training included the following:
  • Start Up
  • Assessing Options
  • Moving Forward with Best Product
  • Building the Project
  • Opening Doors and Creating Opportunities
There is a training binder with more details for anyone interested.
There were some concerns voiced by the audience during the course of the discussion. These were:
  • Displacement of people currently living in the neighborhoods.
  • Gentrification and the resulting rise in property taxes that long term, elderly residents on fixed incomes may not be able to afford.
  • Partnering with local government as opposed to private funders. Monte Anderson cautioned against committing to local governments since city councils could change and funding could be endangered.
  • Owner occupied as opposed to absentee landlords. Mr. Anderson said the goal should be to help entrepreneurs become owners and also, help them become home owners in the community.
  • Buying up delinquent taxes. Mr. Anderson said this wasn’t a good idea since the homeowner has the right to come back for up to two years.



Topics of Interest to PNI
    1. Dave Marchal – Deputy Director of Develop Louisville (Marchal@LouisvilleKy.Gov 502-574-3216) provided information on Louisville Zoning Codes. Information about this can be found at http://lojic.org/main. In light of this I spoke with Mr. Marchal about the discussion the Revitalization Committee had earlier regarding re zoning as it related to the Portland Plan. Perhaps this needs to be revisited. 
    2. There was also a discussion involving possible funding for the restoration of vacant and abandoned properties. Mr. Anderson suggested networking with local banks because these banks have more flexible programs than the national banks.
    3. Mike Radeke  Restoration Project Manager for the Kentucky Heritage Council gave a presentation on the Tax Credit Program for restoration of properties on the National Register and worthy of preservation. There is a flyer explaining this in the binder. Kentucky’s number of houses listed in  National Register is number 4 in the nation. There are three things considered in getting a house on the National Register – is it old enough – at least 50 years, is it intact enough, and is it significant enough. Mr. Radeke suggested this information could be obtained by going through library Archives and looking through old photos.
Standards and Guidelines for Rehabilitation can be found at www.nps.gov/tps/standards/four-treatments/treatment-rehabilitation.htm. Mr. Radeke’s contact information is also on the flyer in the binder. 
The last part of the conversation on rehabilitation of homes concerned using original elements when possible. Mr. Kumon pointed out that there was a reason certain elements were used in the first place. It was what was available in the area- for instance using lime in brick mortar instead of cement. Historic windows have more flexibility and are more durable because they can be repaired instead of replacing the entire window. There was a question about weather efficiency. Although no specific citations were available, the consensus of experience was that there was little difference  between the two if proper insulation, etc. was used.

Submitted by Brenda Duffey, Board Member




Sunday, July 24, 2016

Women and Peace





On of the major themes of my generational saga, The Peacemaker available at http://kentuckywoman.net is that our society has come into the 21st Century in a seemingly unending cycle of social injustice and ever increasing violence spurred by endless war. The historical reasons for this as examined in the novel, stem from one basic fault in American government, the disenfranchisement of women. If women had had the right to vote from the inception of our government, there would have been no slavery, no genocide of the indigenous people and no military industrial complex and endless war.

Not having the right to vote for over 40 percent of our government’s history has brought us to this point in the 21st Century. Institutions based on imperialism, colonialism, endless war, and destruction of the planet that sustains us were planted and allowed to grow and germinate during this time. In fact, the primary cog that runs the government and society itself is money and uncontrolled consumerism and accumulation of grotesque wealth concentrated in the hands of a few people. Even those so called “good” billionaires have far too much money because they also control people’s lives by deciding who gets a share of their wealth. Unfortunately, females have bought into this system and are simply following the path determined by the white, male oligarchy that established it in the first place.

.A thoughtful reading of our Founding Mother’s documents of freedom and essays reveals why these women pushed for the vote in the first place. These
females realized they could not have the peaceful, egalitarian society they wanted without the vote. Unfortunately, by the time women got the right to vote, only one-quarter of the females in this country voted and when they did, most did not vote from a well-informed knowledge base, they voted according to the propaganda from the white, male ruling class that stereotyped them into roles of passive, supportive wife and mother.

There is an interesting essay written by novelist and poet Alice Duer Miller in 1915 on the subject of roles and voting rights. It is entitled “Why We Oppose Votes for Men.” The purpose of the essay was to point out some of the qualities of men that weren’t so favorable to a peaceful society.
 It reads as follows:
  • Because men’s place is in the army.
  • Because no really manly man wants to settle any question otherwise than by fighting about it.
  • Because if men should adopt peaceful methods women will no longer look up to them.
  • Because men will lose their charm if they step out of their natural sphere and interest themselves in other matters other than feats of arms, uniforms and drums.
  • Because men are too emotional to vote. Their conduct is baseball games and political conventions shows (sic) this, while their innate tendency to appeal to force renders them particularly unfit for the task of government.

Over the years women have forgotten the teachings of our Founding Mothers as they have continued to buy into the values listed above. Women have joined political parties and taken part in the building of the military industrial complex and fight for control to use these principles in the best way to provide social justice. The fallacy is that it didn’t work in the 19th and 20th Centuries and has only led us down a dangerous precipice in a 21st Century facing a planet gone mad and trying to figure out how to save it.
Until women have an understanding of this and start to speak out against war and lobby for programs that result in clean air and water, production of nourishing food by sustainable methods and lobby for this instead of food stamps, college loans, insurance and pharmaceutically driven “health care,” college educations and more and more consumption, our individual physical and emotional health as well as the health of the earth that sustains us will continue in its downward spiral.
  
Women are the nurturers and genetically responsible for the care and training of the children. I support a woman’s right to a career, but, as a female, we are responsible for making sure the compassionate, nurturing component of decision making does not get lost in the process. More women are finding that they are better suited to entrepreneurship and working from home with a more flexible schedule if they have young children than the hard driving corporate life. We need more women doctors who think more about public health than a career driven by profit and the pharmaceutical  industry. We need women who are willing to admit we have sold out to the white, male oligarchy that has told us what to do for many years and, in a sense, is still telling us what we need to be.

As the world’s population explodes to an unsustainable level, there is little reason to have more children and a woman certainly has the right to choose whether or not to have a family. But these females have a special place in society because they can still function in careers where they can bring the feminine spirit into workplaces and international bargaining tables still functioning from money driven madness. That is the responsibility of women and I hope that women can return to the studies of our female ancestors who showed the way for us into a world where there is social justice and peace for all.

Saturday, July 23, 2016

A Challenge to Read and Decide for Yourself - A Look at the Man in the Mirror



Prove Hitler Wrong – Read and Think for Yourself

After reading Donald Trump’s acceptance speech, as an historian I saw some glaring similarities between some of the things he was saying about the state of our nation and the need for him to be elected to “make things right.” My first response was “I need to write an essay filled with comparisons so that those who follow my blogs will see the same thing.” Then I found a website that had a collection of quotes from Adolph Hitler that gave insight into the man and his philosophy of action in order to achieve his ultimate goal which he nearly achieved except for his “fatal flaw” that Shakespeare describes so well in many of his tragedies about great leaders.

 I don’t think anyone in our country supporting either of the major political parties sees themselves in any way associated with Hitler. In fact, I see wall posts all the time comparing the other “evil” party to someone that no rational person would attribute any redeemable qualities. After World War II, those who followed Hitler and carried out his despicable orders were put on trial and many were executed. The state of Israel, in fact, found Adolph Eichmann and executed him in the 60’s for his war crimes. The free world has struggled with discovering what was it about Germany that caused these people to follow this man? Were they inherently evil, blindly going along while witnessing the most atrocious atrocities against human kind? How did that happen? As I read a series of quotes from Adolph Hitler taken from his writings about how to attain power, my mind started making many comparisons to the hot bed of discussion in our country that has brought our country into a state of violence that concerns everyone.

Donald Trump’s discussion about the need to restore law and order in our country is what started me on this journey. But as I read these quotes listed at www.azquotes.com, I thought I would post sixteen of them here in my blog. These, hopefully, will be read by those who desire to read beyond headlines and fancy quotes posted on some wall to support preconceived biases and examine with an open mind to perhaps see where they fit into this discussion of Hitler. I have already thought about myself, but until everyone is willing to look at the “man in the mirror” I don’t think much will change.

Hitler’s Quotes in No Particular Order

“If you wish the sympathy of the broad masses, you must tell them the crudest and most stupid things.”

“The best way to take control over a people and control them is to take away their freedom a little at a time, to erode rights by a 1,000 tiny pieces and almost imperceptible reductions. In this way, the people will not see those rights and freedoms being removed until past the point at which these changes cannot be reversed.”

“Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it and eventually they will believe it.”

“To conquer a nation, first disarm its citizens.”

“This year will go down in history. For the first time a civilization has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient and the world will follow our lead into the future.”

“Pride in one’s own race – and that does not imply contempt for the other races – is a normal and healthy sentiment.”

“What luck for the government that the people are stupid.” (Hitler got rid of all the stupid people in the mental institutions).

“How fortunate for the government that people do not think. There is no thinking except in giving and executing commands. If it were otherwise human society could not exist.”

“All propaganda has to be popular and has to accommodate itself to the comprehensive of the least intelligent of those whom it seeks to reach.”

“The heaviest blow which ever struck humanity was Christianity; Bolshevism (Communism) is Christianity’s illegitimate child. Both are inventions of the Jew.”

“The man who has no sense of history, is like a man who has no ears or eyes.”

“Let me control the textbooks and I will control the state.”

“Terrorism is the best political weapon for nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death.”

“Go ahead, kill without mercy. After all who remembers the Armenian genocide?’

“The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation.”

“Thousands of Americans, Englishmen and Frenchmen have visited Germany during the months after the national revolution (1937) and were able to testify as eye- witnesses that there is no country in the world where person and property are held in better respect than in our own, but there is perhaps also no country in the world where a more vigorous fight is put up against those who believe that they are free to let loose their lower instincts on their fellow beings.”


Friday, July 22, 2016

Jingoism - A Barrier to World Peace



“For myself and all other true National – Socialists there is only one doctrine: Nation and Fatherland. What we have to fight for is security for the existence and increase of our race and our nation, nourishment of its children and purity of its blood., freedom and independence for the Fatherland, and that our nation may be able to ripen for the fulfillment of the mission appointed for them by the Creator of the Universe.”

Adolph Hitler

One of the barriers to world peace has always been jingoism. Jingoism is a term for the feelings and beliefs of people who think their country is always right and, as a result, support aggressive acts against other countries. Unbridled nationalism has led to continuous atrocities that in the 21st Century have led us down a path toward endless war.

According to “The Promise of World Peace” published by the Universal House of Justice, “unbridled nationalism must give way to a wider loyalty, to the love of humanity as a whole.”  As we face endless wars perpetrated by the radicalization of patriotism and love of country, we are challenged to develop a new concept of world citizenship.

Love of the world’s citizens as well as all sentient creatures who share the earth with us does not exclude love of country. By loving on a larger scale, all citizens and creatures of the earth benefit and can live together in peace and harmony. Without that, we will continue on the endless cycle of war and destruction of the earth we all share. Peace matters and all lives (human as well as non-human) do matter. What do you think?

Thursday, July 21, 2016

What Living Without War Can Do for the World Economy



“Every gun that is fired, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.”
Dwight Eisenhower 1953

What ten percent of the world’s annual arms budget could buy in the space of a few years.

  • 2 ½ To provide family planning and health care for all mothers.

  • 6  ½  billion To clean up the world’s air and soil and prevent further pollution.
  • 5  ½ billion   To provide clean water for the 2 billion people who do not have it; this would help prevent diseases such as cholera and hookworm.
  • 2 ½ billion     To provide basic health care for country areas in the Third World.
  • 4 ½ billion      To develop renewable energy sources such as: solar energy, water and wind power, and to restock forests.
  • 4 ½ billion      To provide basic training in work skills for the 50 million young people who start work each year.
  • 3 billion           To research and develop low-cost technology which would save on oil and use of local resources.
  • 6 ½ billion        To provide schools and teachers for the for the 50% of children in the Third World who never have the chance of going to school.
  • 6   billion           To provide a long term food aid program which would solve the problems of malnutrition.
  • 2 ½ billion         To teach everyone to read and write.
  • 7 billion             To aid the world’s small farmers with better seeds, fertilizers and irrigation. This alone would provide much more food for those who need it.
  • 3 billion               To save a million lives in Africa alone; by draining swamps and providing medicines to get rid of malaria everywhere.




Source: The 10 percent programme adopted from Ruth Sivard, World Social and Military expenditures, 1979.

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Peace Matters Just the Facts



Peace Matters

            “The intolerable conditions pervading society bespeak a common failure of all, a circumstance which tends to incite rather than relieve the entrenchment on either side. Clearly a common remedial effort is urgently required. It is primarily a matter of attitude. Will humanity continue in its waywardness, holding to outworn concepts and unworkable assumptions? Or, will its leaders, regardless of ideology step forth, and with resolute will, consult together in a united search for appropriate solutions?
 The Promise of World Peace, pg. 68.

World Budget Priorities 1983

US and European Economy

$25,600 military expenditure per soldier                                  $450 education
                                                                                                     expenditures per child

$75 per capita for military research                                            $11 for health research

$150 per capita for military forces                                              $.06 per capita for
                                                                                                 international peace keeping

These public budgets show a decided preference for military power over social programs and peaceful approaches to conflict resolution. 


World Military and Other Expenditures of Governments in 1983

Military                $706 billion
Education               650
Health                     540
Foreign Aid              36
UN Programs              4
International
Peace Keeping           0.3


Source:  World Military and Social Expenditures 1985, R.L. Sivard, World Priorities, USA

  • Although these figures are over 30 years old, current world conditions only reflect even more disparity.



“We are living under the domination of the cultural legacies of times long past. The principle of national sovereignty is one of them; it derives from our ancestral concept of sacred territory to be defended at all costs . . . The grotesque and paranoid belief that our legitimate aspirations to security can be satisfied by ever more deadly armaments is another such relic.”
Aurelio Peccei   One Hundred Pages for the Future, Pergamon Press, 1982.

The generation saga “The Peacemaker” http://kentuckywoman.net is a 300 year exploration of American history that bears out the above statement.

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Where are Our Priorites to Develop Peace?



Some Indicators of Our Madness


Statistics from the Promise of World Peace Universal House of Justice

  • To keep military expenses at their present levels, (1980) everyone during his lifetime will have to sacrifice three to four years of his/her income to the arms race.
  • The developed countries spend twenty time more on their military programs than on economic aid to the poor countries.
  • In two days, the world spends on armaments what it costs the organization of the United Nations and its specialist agencies per year.
  • More than 100 million citizens receive their wages directly or indirectly from Ministries of Defense.
  • The training of military personnel in the United States costs twice as much each year as the budget for the education of 300 million children of school age in South Asia.
  • The price of the Trident Submarine is equal to the cost of maintaining 16 million children in the developing countries in school for a year.
  • For the price of one tank, 1,000 classrooms for 30,000 children could be built.
  • For the price of one fighter plane, 40,000 village pharmacies could be set up.


Adapted from World Military and Social Expenditures 1980, by Ruth Leger Sivard, © World Priorities, Leesburg, VA 22075 and North South: A Programme for Survival, the Report of the Independent Comission on the Problems of International Development, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 
 1980.


What do you think? 


Monday, July 18, 2016

Peace Matters Maybe We Should Post the Golden Rule in Schools?



God Speaks through Many Tongues

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. And they were amazed and wondered, saying, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Par'thians and Medes and E'lamites and residents of Mesopota'mia, Judea and Cappado'cia, Pontus and Asia, Phyrg'ia and Pamphyl'ia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyre'ne, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our tongues the mighty works of God."  Acts 2:3-4

God has given his message to all religions and if we can put aside the focus on cultural and racial differences, perhaps we can finally see we all want the same from our religion. Here is one example of how all religions believe in and promote the practice of what Christians call The Golden Rule.

Hinduism
“This is the sum of duty; do naught to others which if done to thee would cause thee pain.” The Mahabharata

Buddhism
“Hurt not others with that that pains yourself.” Udana-Varqua

Zoroastrianism
“That nature only is good when it shall not do unto another whatever is not good for its own self.” Dadistan-i-Dinik

Judaism
“What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow men. That is the entire Law, all the rest is commentary.” The Talmud

Christianity
“All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law of the prophets.” The Gospel of Matthew

Islam
“No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself.” Hadith




Baha’i Faith
“He should not wish for others that which he doth not wish for himself, nor promise that which he doth not fulfill.” Gleanings

I wonder if Atheists have a Golden Rule? “Religion without science is blind. Science without religion is lame.” Einstein


Sunday, July 17, 2016

Eric Fromm on Peace






Quotes from the Promise of World Peace

            “I believe that the One World which is emerging can come into existence only if a New Man comes into being ─ a man who has emerged from the archaic ties of blood and soil, and who feels himself to be the son of man, a citizen of the world whose loyalty is to the human race and to life, rather than to any exclusive part of it; a man who loves his country because he loves mankind, and whose judgment is not warped by tribal loyalties.
Eric Fromm


What do you think?

Saturday, July 16, 2016

The Promise of World Peace



The Promise of World Peace
By the Universal House of Justice

            One of the books I read while developing the story for “New Pangaea – An Evolution into the Fifth World” was a collection of thoughts and inspirational messages about peace and the common desire for peace among all religious faiths as well as thoughts about the obstacles to peace. I am reading the book again as I am within pages of completion of my manuscript. So many quotations are jumping off the page and resonating with me as I read them again, so I thought I would share some with you. I am posting only the quotations without comments and hope you will find they resonate some way with you in your desire for peace and economic justice today. The first is the one  I will attribute to the two people who compiled the book – Juliet Mabey and Novin Dootstar and intend on using as an Epilogue to the novel. Feel free to make any comments that resonate with you in the section for comments at the end of the blog. These will be daily entries and I hope you enjoy reading them and that they inspire your thinking toward universal peace.

A Critical Juncture
“The Great Peace towards which people of goodwill throughout the centuries have inclined their hearts, of which seers and poets for countless generations have expressed their vision, and for which from age to age the sacred scriptures of mankind have constantly held the promise, is now at long last within the reach of nations. For the first time in history it is possible for everyone to view the entire planet, with all its myriad diversified peoples, in one perspective. World Peace is not only possible but inevitable. It is the next stage in the evolution of this planet ─ in the words of one great thinker, “the planetization of mankind.” Pg. 12


Synopsis of "New Pangaea - An Evolution into the Fifth World.

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Vote Your Conscience - Don't be Snaffued



An Independent View of this Election

            This blog is intended for anyone who wants to understand that the election of the President is not the most important thing to get this country back on track. Our government is not a dictatorship nor is it an absolute monarchy.
 A dictator controls not only the army and the economic system, he/she also has absolute power over the entire country. No law nor any economic measure can be instituted without the dictator’s consent because the dictator controls the military and all law enforcement.
            The President of the United States is commander-in-chief of the military and his office also conducts foreign relations. For that reason, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are not viable choices for me as President. Therefore, I am voting for Jill
Stein, but I don’t see that as giving one or the other major party candidate the election because there are other just as important elections occurring during this election year. All of the Representatives in the House of Representatives (which controls appropriations) as well as one-third of the Senators are up for re-election.
            In our system of government, power is shared among the three branches (judicial, legislative and executive) and each of these branches has powers that keep the other branches in check. For instance, (and this has not been the way our government has operated since World War II), Congress must declare war before the President can send in troops. In addition, Congress controls the purse strings so even if the President usurps that power as in the case of Lyndon Johnson and George Bush, Congress can still avoid war by not funding the war. That is exactly why I did not support Lyndon Johnson or George Bush and also why I could not trust Bernie Sanders because he voted to fund the war in Iraq, along with Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama.
            If my face book memes are correct, I, along with many other Americans do not support either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. I have chosen to support Jill Stein because she is everything I want in a President, including being female. Many people support the idea that a vote for Jill Stein will give the election to Donald Trump. I do not care because I am, for the first time in a long time, voting for my choice not the lesser of two evils. I am, however, making a stand against Donald Trump in Congress. I have informed Republican Rand Paul whose Senate seat is up for re election this year, that if he endorses Donald Trump, he will not get my vote.
            When Senator Paul was running for the Republican Presidential nomination, even though as an independent, I couldn’t vote in the primaries, I followed him closely and liked what he had to say. If, however, he puts his support behind Donald Trump, I will not vote for him. You have the power to do that also. But if you continue to focus on the candidates for President as the be all and end all for this country, in my opinion, you will abolish all the gains individual Americans who were excluded from the government in 1787 have made over the last three centuries and we are no better now than when we were living under an absolute monarchy.

Saturday, July 2, 2016

Food Justice Not Food Stamps



Extra! Fresh Food at Wholesale Prices – Use WIC or SNAP Benefits
Portland is on the move and the proud residents of our community have yet another opportunity to come together and insure quality food at prices we can afford while supporting local producers instead of corporate agriculture which does not have our interests in mind. We have the opportunity to participate in a very special New Roots community initiative called the Fresh Stop Markets. The main goal of the New Roots Fresh Stop Markets is to give everyone the opportunity—regardless of race, income, zip code or age—to gain access to the farm fresh food we all need to be happy and healthy, and work together toward the solution. New Roots is looking for new shareholders and volunteer leadership for the Shawnee Presbyterian and Russell Fresh Stop Markets—both on the border of the Portland Neighborhood. This is a great opportunity to start to discover the joy of this model and work to bring it here to the Portland Neighborhood in 2017. Please call New Roots Director Karyn Moskowitz at 502.475.8979 with any questions and/or with your share order and payment. You can also go to www.newroots.org for more information on the dates and times of the Markets. All orders must be placed in advance so please call Karyn soon!
What is a Fresh Stop Market? In my opinion it is at the heart of revitalization of our Portland Neighborhood. I grew up in Portland and when I decided to move back, I wasn’t interested in gentrification or becoming an absentee landlord. I wanted to be a part of bringing back the neighborhood I remembered that was safe, healthy and happy before those who profit from others’ misfortunes came in and created multiple problems for the families living here, among them, the current food desert. Fresh Stop Markets is the answer. These markets, described below, offer the opportunity for residents to take control of their food by giving them the opportunity to deal directly with the producers. What better way to insure high quality food at prices anyone can afford? Join the revolution that really counts!
            Fresh Stop Markets are markets that pop up biweekly at local churches, housing authorities and community centers in fresh food insecure neighborhoods. The food has been paid for in advance so that farmers don’t face the same degree of risk as they do with a standard farmers’ market. Families pay in on a sliding scale—$6 for families on WIC, $12 for families with limited resources, $25 for all others—so there is enough money and SNAP Benefits to purchase wholesale quantities of ten varieties of organically certified seasonal produce from a network of 50 Kentuckiana farmers for each family, every Market event. Each family receives the same “share” of affordable, delicious produce, regardless of what they paid. Everyone wins: farmers, eaters, and the broader community from having something positive, beautiful AND healthy in the neighborhood and the opportunity to meet new people. People in the community describe Fresh Stop Markets as welcoming and happy—like a family reunion where all five senses are engaged and there is lots of laughter, food and fun! There is "positive peer pressure“ from veggie cheerleaders, urging shareholders to try something new. 


Get involved by using any of the contacts below:
Karyn Moskowitz, Executive Director
new roots, inc. and 
fresh stop markets
P.O. Box 4421
Louisville, Kentucky, 40204 USA
@newrootsky