Latest news with #Doane
Boston Globe
06-05-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
9 ways to fight food insecurity on a personal level
Approximately 18.4 percent of all households in Massachusetts Advertisement Ask your local food pantry what they really need (and really don't need). Donating food is not about spring cleaning, rummaging through your cupboard to find unopened cans of chickpeas. It should be purposeful, targeted, and useful. Call your pantry in advance to ask what's most helpful. Get Winter Soup Club A six-week series featuring soup recipes and cozy vibes, plus side dishes and toppings, to get us all through the winter. Enter Email Sign Up 'They might not need another can of tuna but could really use cereal, cooking oil, or laundry detergent instead. Or consider giving something like gluten-free, low-sodium sun butter or almond butter,' Doane suggests, which are perennial necessities. Bigger isn't always better. If you're shopping for donations, size matters. 'Don't buy the biggest box of oatmeal or cereal at Costco. It's hard for food pantries to decide who to give a large box to — you don't want to play favorites when there's only one big box. Instead, buy two or three regular-sized items,' Doane says. Advertisement Run a food drive. Food drives can have a bigger impact than a la carte drop-offs: Working as a group generates more donations and more awareness. Needn't be complex: Just ask your pantry what it needs, and then ask guests at your next book club, dinner party, or soccer game to bring something on the list, only if they'd like. Leaving people an easy out is really important: If I've learned one thing about volunteering with my food pantry, it's that you really never know who's coping with food insecurity. Just because someone's on your rec pickleball team or in your book club doesn't mean they're in the same financial boat. Food drives should be judgment-free zones. To that end, a cardboard donation box — on the sidelines, at your doorstep, wherever — is subtler than collecting person by person. Bags of fruit await Waltham residents during a food drive in 2020. Erin Clark/Globe Staff Volunteer in person. Donating food or supplies is wonderful, but sometimes food pantries really need actual bodies: to drive delivery vans, staff shopping shifts, unload and organize inventory, and more. Plus, volunteering can offer a chance to connect with pantry shoppers: people just like you and me. Money is always welcome. Donating funds might seem like the route of least resistance, but it's actually hugely helpful. 'Your local food pantry can use that money to purchase a lot more food from their local food bank, such as at the Greater Boston Food Bank,' Doane says. Get creative: Schools, shelters, and nonprofits need donations, too. A few weeks ago, my kids and several friends put together Easter baskets for kids at our local Boys and Girls Club; the director had identified several kids who could really benefit. This was a win-win, because it was meaningful for them to pick out stuff their peers would like (Sour Patch Kids! Mad Libs!), and it also filled a need that wasn't directly addressed otherwise: We only found out because we inquired. Advertisement Maybe your neighborhood elementary school or community ed program needs to stock their snack closet for kids who come in hungry. Reach out and ask. Visit your town's Everything Is Free or Buy Nothing Facebook pages. This is an excellent way to get a sense of your community's needs and to reach out directly to people who might need help. Sure, some posters are there for hand-me-downs or dorm room furniture, but plenty of others post because they're struggling. Try the SNAP challenge. It can be hard to truly comprehend the restrictions of food insecurity if you've never coped with it. In March, the Food Research & Action Center launched a Last, but definitely not least: Only donate what you'd like to eat. 'I'm always trying to remind folks to stop giving food pantries the stuff that's in the back of your cupboard and is old. If you don't want it, no one else wants it — and it makes more work, sometimes at a cost, to food pantries,' Doane says. Kara Baskin can be reached at
CBC
17-04-2025
- Business
- CBC
CBC B.C. launches paid summer internships for young, aspiring Indigenous storytellers
Social Sharing Twenty years ago, Robert Doane started his career with CBC British Columbia. A journalism school graduate with a little experience in private radio, he was part of an internship program designed to teach and mentor young, aspiring Indigenous journalists. "[It] allowed me to get my foot in the door as a researcher," he said. "If it wasn't for that program more than 20 years ago, I would never have been able to be a host, a producer, to be in the role that I'm in today." Now, as the leader of CBC's National Indigenous Strategy, Doane is excited about the launch of a new paid internship program designed specifically for First Nations, Inuit or Métis individuals aged 18 to 35, at one of five of CBC British Columbia's bureaus. CBC will hire up to two researchers, who will work out of either Victoria, Prince George, Prince Rupert, Kamloops or Kelowna for seven weeks. The public broadcaster is looking for candidates who are curious about a career in journalism and eager to learn more about different perspectives within their community. Those who get the job will shadow journalists, pitch story ideas for radio programs, write scripts, conduct interviews, gather audio and video in the field, among other things. Doane, who sparked the idea for the program, said it will help candidates learn whether journalism might be the right career for them, but it will also help bring new perspectives and ideas to the CBC. "I look at our small markets and I always have to ask the question, are we represented? Are we seeing ourselves reflected in the workforce and right now?" said Doane, who is Gitxsan and living and working on Lheidli T'enneh territory. "I'd say we're not." "It's a way for us to bridge and build relationships with those communities and those territories in which we're on and get to know people better and to hopefully have them come in and reshape how we operate in the long term." Alison Broddle, senior managing director for CBC in B.C., echoed Doane's sentiments around the benefits for the successful candidates and CBC's newsrooms. "We're very excited to be offering this program specifically designed for young Indigenous storytellers," Broddle said. "We can see so many benefits, both for the individuals and their communities in having their stories shared, but also for our staff to see the potential of different perspectives in our newsrooms, as well as deepening our connections to Indigenous communities."
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Election 2025: 5 races we are watching in Whiteside, Lee counties
Apr. 1—DIXON — Sauk Valley-area voters headed to their polling places Tuesday to choose who will represent them on city, school, park, library and township boards. After the polls close at 7 p.m., visit the Sterling Gazette/Dixon Telegraph's website for election night coverage and updates on the races. Here are five local races we are watching: Rock Falls City Council Ward 2: Running for a four-year term, Brian Snow — who has held his seat for more than two decades — is going up against former 4th Ward Alderman Marshall Doane. Snow was first elected to his 2nd Ward seat in 2005 and has been reelected four times. Doane ran for a four-year 4th Ward seat in 2021 against Violet Sobottka. Doane lost the election but was appointed to a two-year term as the second 4th Ward representative alongside Sobottka. He resigned in 2022 after purchasing a home outside 4th Ward boundaries, Doane said in an interview with Shaw Local. Doane has lived in Rock Falls almost his entire life and works as a logistics coordinator with Riverside Logistics in Sterling. He also owns his own business, Phoenix Wicks Candle Co. Rock Falls City Council Ward 3: In the 3rd Ward, also running for a four-year term, incumbent Steve Dowd will face off against newcomers Mary McNeill and Austin Zink. Dowd, a retired Northwestern Steel and Wire worker, was first elected in 2021 by defeating 12-year incumbent Jim Schuneman. Newcomer Zink is a 25-year-old looking to get more young people involved in the city. He will be graduating from Northern Illinois University in May and works at Anne's Garden Center in Dixon, Zink said in an interview with Shaw Local. He has lived in Rock Falls his whole life and is a Rock Falls High School and Sauk Valley Community College graduate. Sterling City Council At-Large seats: In the running for two four-year alderman-at-large positions on Sterling's City Council are incumbents Jim Wise and Kaitlyn Ekquist as well as two newcomers, Ryan Nares and Allen Przysucha. Wise was first elected to the council in 2017 and was reelected in 2021 to serve his current four-year term. Ekquist was first elected to the council in 2021 for her current term. Nares is a business owner who in October opened The Mercantile, 117 W. Third St. in Sterling, with his wife Ashley Nares. The couple also own Nares Event Co. and 'Til Death Photo and Film. Przysucha currently serves on the Sterling planning commission and as a youth committee member for Sterling Township. He is also a board member at United Way of Whiteside County and is a member of the Sterling Noon Rotary Club. Dixon Township highway commissioner: Incumbent Corey Reuter is running against newcomer Cameron Magne. Reuter has been involved in township government for almost 20 years. He first started as a part-time employee at Dixon Township in 2006 and has held the position of highway commissioner for the past five years. Magne has worked for the city of Dixon for 13 years and currently serves as the general foreman in the water department. The Whiteside County Public Safety Sales Tax: Whiteside County voters are once again being asked to consider a countywide sales tax to help fund emergency dispatch services. Residents were asked in November to consider the same 0.5% public safety sales tax but the measure failed after 65.85% of voters said no. If approved, the sales tax would add an additional 50 cents for every $100 that shoppers spend on general merchandise in Whiteside County. The tax would not apply to groceries or items that must be titled or registered by a state agency, including watercraft, aircraft, trailers, mobile homes, qualifying drugs (including over-the-counter medications and vitamins) and medical appliances. Amy Robbins, the county administrator for Whiteside County, said dispatch services cost $1.8 million annually to operate. Outside of radio surcharges, the county and the cities of Sterling and Rock Falls foot the bill. Robbins said there is a deficit of about $500,000 each year. If Whiteside County voters approve the tax, cities would not have to pay to cover the services, and the money that Sterling and Rock Falls now spend for 911 services could possibly remain in their general funds for other uses. If the tax does not pass, cities throughout the county would have to pay for services. The tax is estimated to raise an annual $2 million that could only be used for matters of public safety. Any funds left over would be used to buy equipment and radio and software upgrades while allowing for multiagency interaction.
