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Millions of dollars' worth of food ends up in school trash cans every day. What can we do?

Lela Nargi

April 09, 2019 |

Ensia |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Fayetteville, Arkansas

Across the United States, schools, government agencies, and individuals are taking steps to reduce food waste in our schools’ cafeterias. There are collaborations that are trying to change the systemic processes by creating guides on how to conduct food waste audits, providing research frameworks for innovative change, and providing policy guidance. A large effort is underway to change how children think about food, which means bringing them to farms and into kitchens to bring them closer to the process.

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Copenhagen Wants to Show How Cities Can Fight Climate Change

Somini Sengupta

March 25, 2019 |

The New York Times |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Denmark, Copenhagen

Copenhagen is doing its best to become net carbon neutral by 2025. With strong leadership from Mayor Frank Jenson, the city has installed wind turbines, a trash incinerator that also helps heat the city, and stronger bike lanes. Without national support, however, the city is fighting an uphill battle to protect itself from climate change.

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North Carolina working to erase biggest rape kit backlog in nation

Kate Martin Imari Scarbrough

March 20, 2019 |

Carolina Public Press |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Fayetteville, North Carolina

With the largest backlog of rape kits in the country, North Carolina is taking steps to expedite the process. A key challenge in this effort is the autonomy of police departments to test them at their own discretion. Still, cities like Fayetteville are making headway and seeing results, namely, 37 arrests. On the state level, a bipartisan bill is in motion that would designate $6 million for testing rape kits.

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Childcare Is Broken In America. This City Has A Plan To Fix It.

Bryce Covert

March 18, 2019 |

The Huffington Post |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington, District of Columbia

In Washington, D.C., universal pre-K is creating a more accessible landscape for childcare services, which often take up unmanageable amounts of parents' budgets. The city is now taking another step to ease the burden: implementing a cap on how much income can be spent on childcare for children between birth and three while also exploring how to make childcare services affordable while retaining necessary quality.

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No Paid Family Leave? A Growing Number of States Allow Babies at Work.

Graham Vyse

March 12, 2019 |

Governing |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Vermont

Across the country, and particularly in states with no paid leave laws, state agencies are allowing new parents to bring infants to the workplace. While the change has been welcomed, critics don't believe it goes far enough.

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Small ag feels growing pains: Lack of workers

Jonathan Romeo

March 06, 2019 |

Durango Herald |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Durango, Colorado

In southeastern Colorado, the Good Food Collective is piloting new initiatives to help small-scale farmers fill the labor shortages. With grant funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, they’re looking at what others across the country have done to address this issue, like developing a workers cooperative where workers can have some security in an unstable field. For now, they’re figuring out what works for their region, which includes “gleaning” – using grant funding to pay for individuals to harvest food for food pantries.

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Trash talking goes high-tech in San Francisco

Steve Rubenstein

March 04, 2019 |

San Francisco Chronicle |

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Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

In San Francisco, a debate over trash cans has led to the installation of 1,000 high-tech sensors from a Danish company that will increase efficiency of trash collection and minimize spilled waste. It will also save the government thousands of dollars compared to the expensive Bigbelly trash cans that are more willing to break. After a successful testing program last year, the city knows this switch will improve sanitation, costs, and time.

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Cautiously Optimistic

Allison Shirk Collins

March 01, 2019 |

Chattanooga Times Free Press |

Multi-Media |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States

Small and large cities around the United States have their own ways of deterring gun violence, from heavier police presences, to community engagement efforts, to public health approaches. An ongoing and similar challenge for these cities is pinpointing where the most effective change is coming from. In cities like Chattanooga, Savannah, and Philadelphia, each one has seen some impact from their work, but without ongoing evaluations, proving and thus sustaining the successful programming is challenging.

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'Nobody was born bad'

Allison Shirk Collins

March 01, 2019 |

Chattanooga Times Free Press |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Chattanooga, Tennessee

Chattanooga’s Violence Reduction Initiatives used a focused deterrence strategy to reduce crime. The initiative has led to a decrease in gang-involved homicides and shootings, working with individuals on probation to provide them with the social services they need to stop them from re-entering a life of crime. A core part of this method is to show communities that they’re not forgotten and that they’re cared for, and yet securing funding and consistent support for such programming has been challenging.

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The importance of early engagement for new public service initiatives

Amanda Bernardo

February 22, 2019 |

Apolitical |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: Canada

When designing policies, user engagement is an essential part of obtaining feedback and raising awareness among the very people that the policies are intended to impact. One small government team in Canada, the Next Generation HR an Pay Team, also contends that user engagement must come early on in the process to allow for course correction.

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