Social Impact Social Media

Founded by Linda Hess in 2009 South Pasadena-based Urban Harvester is a nonprofit solving multiple problems to the benefit of grocery stores, restaurants, food pantries providing services for the hungry and those in need of a healthy meal. According to the US Department of Agriculture 1 in 6 Americans go to bed hungry every night. Data from The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) indicates that 40% of the food produced in the United States is discarded each year. Enter Urban Havester. In 2017 the organization rescued 175,000 meals providing food donations representing  $800,000 in savings for nonprofit organizations. They have partnered with organizations like Costco and Pepperdine University to reduce food waste. And in 2019 they are still going strong and making a difference for homeless and disadvantaged communities. To learn more or to donate to support their good work visit www.urbanharvester.org

Sierra Leone Rising, formerly known as The Kposowa Foundation, is a 501c3 non-profit organization that was formed in 2006 by co-founders, Sarah Culberson and Hindo Kposowa to  build and restore much needed educational facilities, provide safe clean drinking water, solar electricity and agricultural development in the village of  Bumpe Sierra Leone. The nonprofit’s plans have grown broader over time. Bumpe  was selected because Sarah, adopted and raised by a white family in the U.S., traced her natural family and heritage there. Visiting Bumpe to trace her roots Sarah discovered human suffering and need that she could not turn her back on. The Bumpe high school, once a renowned boarding school with an enrollment of over 600 students from as far away as Nigeria, was destroyed by R.U.F. rebels during Sierra Leone's 11-year-long civil was from 1991-2002. The Civil war also caused serious and grotesque human rights violations to...

boundlessloveproject.org   Peace Pilgrim, born Mildred Lisette Norman, was an American spiritual teacher, mystic, pacifist, vegetarian activist and peace activist. In 1952, she became the first woman to walk the entire length of the Appalachian Trail in one season . She did so to bring attention to her international message of peace. John and Ann Rush operated the first Peace Pilgrim Center from their home in Hemet, California for 18 years. In April of 2001 the center relocated to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in Somerset, California about 50 miles east of Sacramento. In November of 2005 the organization moved operations out of California to Connecticut and Oklahoma. The nonprofit organization continues to believe in and spread her message of peace. While the primary organization focus over the years has been and sending out books and writings perpetuating the international message of peace of "the Peace Pilgrim" Mildred Lesette Norman the o...

Machao Orphanage is located in Makueni Kenya. As a result of a US outreach initiative the story of the orphans resonated with Eric Riddle, of Pasadena California. Eric shared his experiences there with his mother and others in the local Pasadena community. On his visit Eric was greeted by smiling, welcoming orphans----and the conditions they  live in--- the overbearing stench of burning trash, no evidence of any sanitation, no electricity and the only food available consisting of what is grown at the orphanage. machaoorphanage.org During his time there the work of Eric's team focused on a sustainability project to build a greenhouse and chicken coop essential to improving the children's diet from only one meal a day consisting of grains. With the greenhouse and chicken coop the children have vegetables and sources of protein. Any excess can be sold at local markets. Having so little -- to the orphans these improvements are an incredible leap  yet they still d...

This Southern California nonprofit group home provides special education and counseling to children of abuse, mental illness or in foster care. The main campus is 17 acres and includes 6 group homes serving kids 7 – 18.  Founded over 100 years ago HILLSIDES, based in Altadena, CA,   has made its mission is to create safe places for children, strengthen families, provide special education; and advocate for children’s rights. This Southern California nonprofit creates safe places for children in its residential treatment program where children living in the group homes, are in foster care or that have been referred by the Department of Mental Health or public school districts. On the Hillsides’’ campus   they have the chance to live in a secure, stable environment enabling them to heal and rebuild trusting relationships with adults. Hillsides works with many social and child services organizations, including Los Angeles County, Pasadena, Glendale, and San G...

If you haven’t heard the inspiring story already you must find a way to see the documentary “Delicious Peace Grows in a Ugandan Coffee Bean,” directed by   Curt Fissel. The film tells a story we can all learn from.   In 2003 J.J. Keki , a Ugandan coffee farmer had a dream. To make his dream a reality he walked door to door and asked his Jewish, Christian and Muslim neighbors to put their differences aside for the benefit of all. They were all third and fourth generation coffee farmers struggling to make a living with   low local coffee prices. The farmers did put difference aside and formed the Peace Kawomera Cooperative.   With help from Laura Wetzler from the US-based organization Kulanu, and   Paul Katzeff, CEO of Thanksgiving Coffee Company in Fort Bragg, CA,   these Jewish, Christian and Muslim farmers formed a coffee cooperative that is not only sharing delicious coffee around the world but also showing by example that   differences can...

Founded in 1988 the charity whose volunteers once built hiking trails, worked in libraries, and did myriad other tasks, has overhauled its service program to focus on a single mission: improving graduation rates in struggling public schools. The transformation was tied to a Johns Hopkins research study worked on by Robert Balfanz, brother of City Year's President  Jim Balfanz. According to the Johns Hopkins study the high-school dropout crisis is concentrated. Roughly 12 percent of the country’s high schools account for 50 percent of the students who don’t graduate. Says Robert Balfanz,  “It all sort of clicked in my mind,” he says. “They can give us a team of 10 to 15 corps members who are trained and focused and are in the building 7 to 7.” If each volunteer works with 15 students who show warning signs that they might drop out, he says, “we can now reach 150 to 200 kids a day with that constant nagging and nurturing.” The math and English tutoring and the vo...