Feel Good Friday - StoryCorps

While many people call the day after Thanksgiving Black Friday and spend it shopping, it’s also a day for The Great Thanksgiving Listen, created by today’s organization, StoryCorps.

Founded in 2003 and headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, the mission of StoryCorps is “to help us believe in each other by illuminating the humanity and possibility in us all—one story at a time.” 

Since its founding, StoryCorps has helped nearly 700,000 people across the country have meaningful conversations about their lives, with recordings collected in the U.S. Library of Congress in what is now the largest single collection of human voices ever gathered. To hear how StoryCorps works directly from the founder, Dave Isay, watch this 3-minute animated Introduction to StoryCorps video.

In 2008, StoryCorps launched the National Day of Listening, an initiative that asks Americans to set aside time to record the stories of their families, friends, and local communities. It occurs on the Friday after Thanksgiving as an alternative to Black Friday shopping. In 2015, StoryCorps evolved the project into The Great Thanksgiving Listen and began encouraging intergenerational conversations, with young people interviewing elders, mentors, and those they admire.

Additional programs include the Military Voices Initiative for veterans and military families, the Memory Loss Initiative for individuals with Alzheimer's and other forms of memory loss, and the Griot Initiative preserving the voices and experiences of African Americans. You can see their full list of programs here. 

If you’re curious to hear stories from your older relatives, I encourage you to talk to them while you still can. You can record a conversation using the free StoryCorps mobile app or visit the MobileBooth as it tours the country. Select stories are shared with the public through weekly broadcasts, their podcast, animated shorts, digital platforms, and best-selling books. Listening to, or contributing, a story is a great way learn about what we have in common.

If you'd like to support StoryCorps, you can make a donation to help preserve the stories of our time in America and amplify their message on social media. Follow StoryCorps on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and subscribe to their YouTube channel. Happy Great Thanksgiving Listen!

Feel Good Friday - Share Meals

As we prepare to share Thanksgiving meals with family and friends next week, it's a good time to spotlight Share Meals, an organization working to ensure college students don't have to choose between paying for their education and paying for food.

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in New York City, the mission of Share Meals is to ensure all college students are food secure while empowering them to strengthen their own communities through sharing food. This is accomplished through technology, activism, and advocacy. 

The organization began when founder Jonathan Chin, then an NYU graduate student, saw a post on the Facebook page "NYU Secrets" from a student who had run out of meal swipes and couldn't afford food. Within 24 hours, Chin coded a solution that would connect students. You can see him talk about the origins of Share Meals in this video.

College student hunger affects approximately 40% of students nationwide at some point during their academic careers. The financial pressures of tuition, housing, textbooks, and living expenses often leave students making impossible choices that impact their ability to focus in class and stay enrolled.

Share Meals addresses this through several programs. The Share Meals app serves as a digital platform where students can donate unused meal swipes to peers experiencing food insecurity. Many college meal plans include "swipes"—prepaid meals that students access by swiping their ID cards at campus dining halls. Unused swipes expire and the app enables students to donate swipes to peers before that happens. The app also allows students to post information about free food available from campus events—all in real-time based on location.

Other programs include Open Kitchen, offering community cooking classes where students learn to prepare affordable, healthy meals together, and Packathon events where students package meals for distribution.

Share Meals now operates on over 400 university campuses across the United States, helping more than 15,000 students and facilitating thousands of shared meals. In 2021, the app assisted 4,000 food-insecure NYU students in just one semester.

If you'd like to support Share Meals, there are many ways to do so. Make a donation and amplify their message on social media. Follow Share Meals on Instagram or LinkedIn and subscribe to their YouTube channel. Happy Thanksgiving!

Feel Good Friday - Redhawk Native American Arts Council

November is Native American Heritage Month and this is a great time to learn more about Redhawk Native American Arts Council.

Founded in 1994 and headquartered in New York City, the mission of Redhawk Native American Arts Council is “educating the general public about Native American heritage through song, dance, theater, works of art and other cultural forms of expression.”

Created and maintained by Indigenous American artists, performers, and educators residing in New York and New Jersey, Redhawk Native American Arts Council produces some of the largest Indigenous and Indigenous heritage celebrations in the Northeast, including the Raritan Native American Heritage Celebration & PowWow, the Bear Mountain PowWow and the Indigenous Peoples’ Day event in New York City.

In addition to these events, there are several programs that Redhawk runs. Educational workshops include Indigenous dance, music, storytelling and traditional arts programs for students from pre-k to university levels, corporate employee diversity programs that help people better understand Native American cultures, and workshops that focus on the relationship between Indigenous cultures and Mother Earth.

The social justice work they do focusdes on topics such as Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and the harm that is being done by the use of Native American mascots. There are also a series of online programs accessible to people in and outside of the tristate area which include social justice and activism from an Indigenous perspective, Native American dancing and Pow Wow history, cultural sensitivity training, and classes in music, art and dance.

If you’d like to support Redhawk Native American Arts Council and the work they do give people a better understanding of Indigenous American history and of the diverse cultures represented within Indigenous America you can. Make a general donation to the organization or target the scholarship fund for First Nations college students who reside or attend a college in the New York City area. You can also amplify their message on social media by following Redhawk Native American Arts Council on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn and subscribe to their YouTube channel.