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Frito-Lay and Feed the Children partner to help provide food to thousands of students during COVID-19
09.10.20
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Frito-Lay
Did you know one in five families are unable to provide everyday essentials and food for their children? This summer was also the hungriest on record with one in four children not knowing where their next meal will come from – an increase from one in seven children prior to the pandemic. The effects of COVID-19 continue to be felt around the country and many people struggle to secure basic needs. Unemployment is at an all-time high and an alarming number of families face food insecurity, not only from the increased financial burdens but also because many students and families rely on schools for school meal programs and other daily essentials.
This school year is unlike any other. Frito-Lay knew the critical need to ensure children have enough food and resources to succeed. The company quickly pivoted to expand its partnership with Feed the Children, a leading nonprofit focused on alleviating childhood hunger, to create the "Building the Future Together" program to provide shelf-stable food to supplement more than a quarter-million meals and distribute 500,000 pantry staples, school supplies, snacks, books, hand sanitizer, and personal care items to schools in underserved communities.
<p>Each school participating in the inaugural "Building the Future Together" program across Atlanta, Baltimore, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Orlando and Phoenix will receive donations of approximately 5,000 items per month consisting of food and everyday essentials for the entirety of the school year. Overall, it's estimated students in these markets will engage with the program and receive needed items over 100,000 times throughout the 2020-2021 school year.</p><p>"As a food company, we have an opportunity to serve a greater good and work to support children having access to the food and resources they need," said Steven Williams, CEO, PepsiCo Foods North America.</p><p>Because programs like "Building the Future Together" can pivot their giving, regardless of whether students are in school or at home learning online, they will still receive the resources they need on a consistent basis.</p><p>"With the 'Building the Future Together' program, we've pivoted our longstanding community giving efforts to provide a level of food security for thousands of disadvantaged students," Williams added. "While a lot of uncertainty remains, we will do our part to support students and families in underserved communities no matter how schools operate this year."</p><p>Nearly eight in 10 students attending schools participating in the "Building the Future Together" program qualify for free meals, according to Public School Review. </p><p>"We believe that no child should go to bed hungry, especially during this unsettling time around COVID-19," said Travis Arnold, president and CEO of Feed the Children. "We understand that many are facing unexpected challenges and we are working diligently with our partners such as Frito-Lay and the 'Building the Future Together' program to ensure that as needs rise, students continue to receive the food and supplies they need."</p><p>Since the onset of COVID-19, PepsiCo, including Frito-Lay and other PepsiCo business units, have committed more than $60 million to COVID-19 relief, which has provided 57 million meals to help feed communities in need, medical and economic aid, jobs creation and more. In addition, Frito-Lay has donated more than $16 million in product to more than 90 organizations in nearly 90 cities across the U.S. </p><p><strong>For more information, visit: <a href="http://FeedtheChildren.org" target="_blank">FeedtheChildren.org</a> or <a href="http://FritoLay.com" target="_blank">FritoLay.com</a><a href="http://FritoLay.com" target="_blank"></a>.</strong> </p>
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Culture
'Why Schitt's Creek Deserved All Those Emmys' by someone who hated the show at first
09.22.20
My husband and I had just finished watching "The Office" for the third time through and were looking for a new show to watch before bed. I'd seen a couple of friends highly recommend "Schitt's Creek," so we decided to give it a try.
My initial reaction to the first episode was meh. The characters were annoying and the premise was weird (pretentious and previously-filthy-rich family lives in a scuzzy motel in the middle of nowhere??). I felt nothing for the main characters, and I hate shows with horrible main characters that I can't root for. Even predicting that they were going to eventually be transformed by their small town experiences, I didn't see liking them. It didn't grab either of us as worth continuing, so we stopped.
But then I kept hearing people whose taste I trust implicitly talk about how great it was. I know different people have different tastes, but I realized I had to be missing something if these friends of mine raved on and on about it. So we gave it another shot.
It took a bit—I don't know how many episodes exactly, but a bit—to start liking it. Then a bit longer to start really liking it, and then at some point, it became a full-fledged, gushy, where-have-you-been-all-my-life love affair.
So when the show took home nine Emmy awards over the weekend—breaking the record for the most wins in a season for a comedy—I wasn't surprised. Here's why:
<p><strong></strong><strong>The character development—but not in the way I expected</strong><br></p><p>This part seems predictable just based on the premise, right? The characters are self-centered and snooty in the beginning, but they're going to be changed by their experiences in this small, quirky town, blah blah blah. And they are. That happens. But what I found surprising about the character development in the show is how much they <em>didn't</em> change. The town and the people they got to know certainly had an affect on them, and vice versa, but the changes in the characters felt more like a slow revealing of the different dimensions of their personalities rather than an actual change in who they were. We got to see the characters bloom into themselves as opposed to change from one thing to another, which is honestly the best kind of character development. </p><p>I was also surprised to find that some of the things I found annoying in the beginning became endearing. The Roses didn't give up the frivolous complaints, the bizarro accents, or the distinct fashion sense that they started with, and those things became lovable quirks, endemic to their characters. So while transformation was predictable, it didn't play out quite the way I expected, and I found myself oddly happy that it didn't.</p>
<div id="d65a4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3af05ff66598f00cd0aa9b0b86c8e1c8"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1308043682181009414" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">A gentle reminder that TV shows need time and space to lay foundation, to develop, and to grow. In the wrong hands,… https://t.co/SmMw0j0F6D</div> — dan levy (@dan levy)<a href="https://twitter.com/danjlevy/statuses/1308043682181009414">1600696890.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p><strong>The wide range of relationships </strong><br></p><p>Along with the individual characters, the relationships between the characters also bloom into themselves. John and Moira's marriage is steady and solid throughout, and it's sweet to see their consistent and genuine support of one another. Alexis's relationships fluctuate between sexy and sickeningly cute, and we get to see her grow and mature through them. </p><p>David and Stevie's friendship is hilarious—to see these two sardonic souls find one another in the unlikely setting of a cheap motel and navigating that "are we or aren't we" question until they figured it out is just plain old good TV. </p><p>But David and Patrick's relationship is where Schitt's Creek really shines. Though seeing homosexual relationships on television isn't really novel anymore, I don't recall ever seeing the entire arc of one, from meeting to marriage, in a TV series. And the way they made it a classic rom-com romance, with a sort of sweetness and purity to it, was something new and fresh. They're genuinely adorable.</p><p>And then there were the Roses as a unit. It feels like they became a true family in Schitt's Creek before ultimately going their separate ways because they were ready to. I really did find myself rooting for all of them. </p><p><strong>The humor and the GIFs</strong></p><p>Honestly, I wasn't sure about the humor at the beginning of this show. Much like "The Office" and "Parks and Recreation," "Schitt's Creek" is a character-driven comedy, so the laughs take a while to develop. Once they do, though, it's sheer delight. When my husband and I started quoting lines from the show, from Moira's "Alexis can't have a be-be" to Alexis's "Ew, David," all the time, we knew we'd found a winner.</p><p>And the GIFs. There is a "Schitt's Creek" GIF for every occasion, which in the age of social media is pretty much the hallmark of a good comedy. Eugene Levy is always funny, but Dan Levy (his son in real life as well as on the show) is simply genius in this role. His facial expressions, body language, inflections—he's so dang hilarious. Catherine O'Hara is so over the top as Moira that it somehow works, and Annie Murphy rounds the family out with her own brand of physical comedy and iconic voice work.</p>
<div id="f5db2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="afd53ed7efc38bf88df12a25ca655dbd"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1307849523654520832" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">no really tho https://t.co/3Eup3OEy6V</div> — Schitt's Creek (@Schitt's Creek)<a href="https://twitter.com/SchittsCreek/statuses/1307849523654520832">1600650599.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p><strong>And this...</strong><br></p><p>It's hard to describe how lovely and enjoyable this show is without making it seem boring or unrealistic or silly or simple. And maybe it's some of those things, and maybe that's okay. More than that, though, this show created a story that didn't rely on so many of the problematic tropes that show up in practically every show, whether it's a comedy or drama. This tweet by Sarach McGonagall said it perfectly. </p><p>"Schitt's Creek made a point to make viewers feel safe by showcasing women without harassment, queer love without trauma, sexual fluidity without shame, economic disparity without mockery, and creativity without limitation. What they built is just so special. They deserve it all."</p>
<div id="5b8c3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="67166d3f02696ed10eaa6601c87e885f"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1308135291505586176" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">💛 https://t.co/XbiZBJW7Mk</div> — Schitt's Creek (@Schitt's Creek)<a href="https://twitter.com/SchittsCreek/statuses/1308135291505586176">1600718732.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>It's just so good. So much better than the first few episodes would indicate. If you watched an episode or three and it didn't take, I highly recommend sticking it out. It's well worth it, and totally deserving of the Emmy Awards sweep. <br></p>
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Divest/Invest
Global mayors are declaring their commitment to divest from fossil fuels and invest in a sustainable future
09.22.20
True
$200 billion of COVID-19 recovery funding is being used to bail out fossil fuel companies. These mayors are combatting this and instead investing in green jobs and a just recovery.
Learn more on how cities are taking action: c40.org/divest-invest
The legality of abortion is one of the most polarized debates in America—but it doesn’t have to be.
People have big feelings about abortion, which is understandable. On one hand, you have people who feel that abortion is a fundamental women’s rights issue, that our bodily autonomy is not something you can legislate, and that those who oppose abortion rights are trying to control women through oppressive legislation. On the other, you have folks who believe that a fetus is a human individual first and foremost, that no one has the right to terminate a human life, and that those who support abortion rights are heartless murderers.
Then there are those of us in the messy middle. Those who believe that life begins at conception, that abortion isn’t something we’d choose—and we’d hope others wouldn’t choose—under most circumstances, yet who choose to vote to keep abortion legal.
<p>It is entirely possible to be morally anti-abortion and politically pro-choice without feeling conflicted about it. Here’s why.</p><h2><strong>There’s far too much gray area to legislate.</strong></h2><p>No matter what you believe, when exactly life begins and when “a clump of cells” should be considered an individual, autonomous human being is a debatable question. </p><p>I <em>personally</em> believe life begins at conception, but that’s my religious belief about when the soul becomes associated with the body, not a scientific fact. As Arthur Caplan, award-winning professor of bioethics at New York University, <a href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2017/04/when-does-life-begin-outside-the-christian-right-the-answer-is-over-time.html" target="_blank">told Slate</a>, “Many scientists would say they don’t know when life begins. There are a series of landmark moments. The first is conception, the second is the development of the spine, the third the development of the brain, consciousness, and so on.” </p><p>But let’s say, for the sake of argument, that a human life unquestionably begins at conception. Even with that point of view, there are too many issues that make a black-and-white approach to abortion too problematic to ban it.</p><h2><strong>Abortion bans hurt some mothers who desperately want their babies to live, and I'm not okay with that.</strong></h2><p>One reason I don’t support banning abortion is because I’ve seen too many families deeply harmed by restrictive abortion laws.</p><p>I’ve heard too many stories of families who <a href="https://www.scarymommy.com/loss-abortion-worst-thing-been-through-should-be-legal/" target="_blank">desperately wanted a baby</a>, who ended up having to make the rock-and-a-hard-place choice to abort because the alternative would have been <a href="https://www.scarymommy.com/abortion-a-choice-i-never-knew-id-have-to-make/" target="_blank">a short, pain-filled life </a>for their child. </p><p>I’ve heard too many stories of mothers having to endure <a href="https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/nekpw7/i-went-to-a-catholic-hospital-during-my-miscarriageand-it-nearly-killed-me" target="_blank">long, drawn out, potentially dangerous miscarriages </a>and <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/texas-forced-this-woman-to-deliver-a-stillborn-baby" target="_blank">being forced to carry a dead baby</a> inside of them because abortion restrictions gave them no other choice. </p><p>I’ve heard too many stories of abortion laws doing real harm to mothers and babies, and too many stories of families who were staunchly anti-abortion until they found themselves <a href="https://www.scarymommy.com/crisis-pregnancies-stillbirth-changed-views-abortion/" target="_blank">in circumstances they never could have imagined</a>, to believe that abortion is always wrong and should be banned at any particular stage. </p><h2><strong>I am not willing to serve as judge and jury on a woman's medical decisions, and I don't think the government should either.</strong></h2><p>Most people's anti-abortion views—mine included—are based on their religious beliefs, and I don’t believe that anyone’s religion should be the basis for the laws in our country. (For the record, any Christian who wants biblical teachings to influence U.S. law, yet cries “Shariah is coming!” when they see a Muslim legislator, is a hypocrite.) </p><p>I also don’t want politicians sticking their noses into my very personal medical choices. There are just too many circumstances (<em>seriously, please read the stories linked in the previous section</em>) that make abortion a choice I hope I'd never have to make, but wouldn’t want banned. I don't understand why the same people who decry government overreach think the government should be involved in these extremely personal medical decisions. </p><p>And yes, ultimately, abortion is a personal medical decision. Even if I believe that a fetus is a human being at every stage, that human being's creation is inextricably linked to and dependent upon its mother's body. And while I don't think that means women should abort inconvenient pregnancies, I also acknowledge that trying to force a woman to grow and deliver a baby that she may not have chosen to conceive isn't something the government should be in the business of doing. </p><p>As a person of faith, my role is not to judge or vilify, but to love and support women who are facing difficult choices. The rest of it—the hard questions, the unclear rights and wrongs, the spiritual lives of those babies,—I comfortably leave in God's hands. </p><h2><strong>Most importantly, if the goal is to prevent abortion, research shows that outlawing it isn't the way to go. </strong></h2><p>The biggest reason I vote the way I do is because based on my research pro-choice platforms provide the best chance of reducing abortion rates. </p><p><a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/ss/ss6713a1.htm?s_cid=ss6713a1_w" target="_blank">Abortion rates fell by 24%</a> in the past decade and are at their <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/17/509734620/u-s-abortion-rate-falls-to-lowest-level-since-roe-v-wade" target="_blank">lowest levels in 40 years</a> in America. Abortion has been legal during that time, so clearly, keeping abortion legal and available has not resulted in increased abortion rates. Switzerland has the <a href="https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/fertility-matters_the-secret-of-switzerland-s-low-abortion-rate/33585760" target="_blank">lowest abortion rate on earth</a> and their rate has been falling since 2002, when abortion became largely unrestricted. </p><p>Outlawing abortion doesn't stop it, it just <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-03-31/heres-what-happens-country-where-women-are-punished-having-abortions" target="_blank">pushes it underground </a>and makes it more dangerous. And if a woman dies in a botched abortion, so does her baby. Banning abortion is a recipe for more lives being lost, not fewer. </p><p><strong>At this point, <a href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2016/05/abortion-rates-are-constant-in-developing-countries-while-developed-ones-see-a-sharp-drop.html" target="_blank">the only things consistently proven to reduce abortion rates </a>are comprehensive sex education and easy, affordable access to birth control.</strong> If we want to reduce abortions, that’s where we should be putting our energy. The problem is, anti-abortion activists also tend to be the same people pushing for abstinence-only education and making birth control harder to obtain. But those goals can’t co-exist in the real world. </p><p>Our laws should be based on reality and on the best data we have available. Since comprehensive sex education and easy, affordable access to birth control—the most proven methods of reducing abortion rates—are the domain of the pro-choice crowd, that’s where I place my vote, and why I do so with a clear conscience.</p>
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Country musician Tyler Childers share's a powerful racial justice message from Appalachia
09.21.20
Biases, stereotypes, prejudices—these byproducts of the human brain's natural tendency to generalize and categorize have been a root cause of most of humanity's problems for, well, pretty much ever. None of us is immune to those tendencies, and since they can easily slip in unnoticed, we all have to be aware of where, when, and how they impact our own beliefs and actions.
It also helps when someone upends a stereotype by saying or doing something unexpected.
Fair or not, certain parts of the U.S. are associated with certain cultural assumptions, perhaps none more pinholed than the rural south. When we hear Appalachia, a certain stereotype probably pops up in our minds—probably white, probably not well educated, probably racist. Even if there is some basis to a stereotype, we must always remember that human beings can never be painted with such broad strokes.
Enter Tyler Childers, a rising country music star whose old-school country fiddling has endeared him to a broad audience, but his new album may have a different kind of reach. "Long Violent History" was released Friday, along with a video message to his white rural fans explaining the culminating track by the same name. Watch it here:
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c515fc8d65f0f0bc02718908a9fc8836"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QQ3_AJ5Ysx0?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">A message from Tyler.</small>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ3_AJ5Ysx0" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
</small>
</p><p>Childers shared that he has no intention to be preachy, describing the humbling reality of being six months sober. "But as a person who has been given a platform by providence, luck, support, and working at it, I feel undeserving of the grace this world has given me, and I would find it a waste were I not to try and use it to make some good."<br></p><p>He talked about the moment we're in and what prompted him to write an album of music that captures this moment, calling on people to empathize with other individuals or groups. And he directed his message to a specific audience by placing the movement for Black lives into a context that rural white Americans like himself might more easily relate to.</p><p>"What if we were to constantly open up our daily paper and see a headline like 'East Kentucky Man Shot Seven Times on a Fishing Trip' Read on to find the man was shot while fishing with his son by a game warden, who saw him rummaging through his tackle box for his license and thought he was reaching for a knife. What if we read a story that began, 'North Carolina man rushing home from work to take his elderly mother to the E.R. runs stop sign and was pulled over—beaten by police when they see a gun rack in his truck.'</p><p>Or a headline like 'Ashland Community and Technical College Nursing Student Shot in Her Sleep.' How would we react to that? What form of upheaval would that create? I'd venture to say if we were met with this type of daily attack on our own people, we would take action in a way that hasn't been seen since the Battle of Blair Mountain in West Virginia."</p><p>The Battle of Blair Mountain was the largest armed uprising since the American Civil War, led by union coal miners and supporters in 1921. After years of labor disputes, miners and coal companies clashed violently in a gunfight between thousands of miners, coal company supporters, and law enforcement. After private planes hired by the sheriff dropped two homemade pipe bombs and federal troops were brought in, the miners' siege of Blair Mountain ended. </p><p>So...yeah.</p><p>"And if we wouldn't stand for it," Childers continued, "why would we expect another group of Americans to stand for it? Why would we stand silent while it happened? Or worse, get in the way of it being rectified? I've heard people from my Appalachian region say that we wouldn't act the way we've seen depicted on various media outlets. But I've also seen grown folks beat each other up the day after Thanksgiving for TVs and teddy bears. And these aren't things these communities have lost. These are sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, and cousins, mothers and fathers. Irreplaceable threads within their family fiber torn from their loved ones too soon with no justice, and they are demanding change. Same as I expect we would." </p><p>Here's the video of Childers' title track, "Long Violent History."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2e4a9f14c2cf4884bd366d3c551f9dbc"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2_I3Rp1CQak?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="Add Photo Caption...">Tyler Childers - Long Violent History (Audio)</small>
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="Add Photo Credit...">
<a href="https://youtu.be/2_I3Rp1CQak" target="_blank">youtu.be</a>
</small>
</p><p>In particular, sit with these verses a minute:</p><p><em>Now, what would you give if you heard my opinion<br>Conjecturin' on matters that I ain't never dreamed<br>In all my born days as a white boy from Hickman<br>Based on the way that the world's been to mе?</em></p><p><em>It's called me belligеrent, it's took me for ignorant<br>But it ain't never once made me scared just to be<br>Could you imagine just constantly worryin'<br>Kickin' and fightin', beggin' to breathe?</em></p><p><br></p>
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