The Spirit of Giving on Display in Tallmadge City Schools

 

 

Story By: Katie Cassaro

Christmas is the season of giving. But what if it was like Christmas in the city all year round? What would that look like?

Tallmadge city schools and their Dare to Share (DTS) program feeding students from low-income households give us a glimpse of that.

Out of the 18,000 residents in Tallmadge, 10% of live in poverty.

Six hundred students receive free and reduced cost lunches in the elementary, middle and high schools.

And for the past year, thanks to DTS, kids aren’t coming to school hungry on Monday mornings anymore.

BRIGHT STAR BOOKS OFFER BRIGHT FUTURES

Keith, Christin and Keaton Seher

 

Story by Dorothy Markulis

  A world without books.

  Unimaginable and yet many children in Summit County live in homes with no books of their own.

  But that is about to change, due to the actions of a Macedonia family: Keith, Christin and Keaton Seher.

  “We want to put books in the hands and homes of limited resource children, focusing on the crucial ages of zero to five,” Keith said.

  According to Keith, that’s when children without early learning resources fall developmentally behind their peers.

Highland Square ‘little library’ offers free books with an artistic angle

 The free library in Highland Square is a lending library
housed inside of a commissioned art piece. (Photo: Chris Miller)

 

Story by Thom Callahan courtesy of the Akronist

For those who appreciate art and possess a passion for books, both can be fulfilled in the courtyard adjacent to the Angel Falls Coffee Company, where the sleek, ready-to-read Highland Square Little Free Library opened recently.

“It’s a very communal thing, and I’m hoping that once the neighborhood realizes it’s here, it will become another place to meet in Highland Square,” notes Victoria Ramey.

Gray Fox Farm strikes savvy balance between urban, rural agriculture

Story by Chris Miller courtesy of the Akronist

Meredith Poczontek, who owns the Gray Fox Farm 
in Hudson with her husband, uses social media to 
stay in touch with customers. (Photo: Shane Wynn)

Hudson couple practices suburban
farming with digital media footprint

Meredith Poczontek does not fit the traditional stereotype of a farmer. She’s young, upbeat, funny and, during a recent tour of the 14-acre Gray Fox Farm in Hudson — which she owns with her husband, John — she jokingly shares this piece of chicken sociology: “It’s like a junior high lunchroom every day in the chicken coop. The bottom of the pecking order is not a nice place to be.”

Walk a Mile in My Shoes

(Editor’s note: this originally appeared in the
Love Akron Network Ford’s Focus)
By Pastor Mark Ford

 

The other day I almost fell out of my chair while watching a national newscast because, to my surprise, the name of a pastor friend from California was mentioned.  Pastor Rick Cole, Lead Pastor of Capital Christian Center in Sacramento, was being interviewed for a human interest piece.  Pastor Cole revealed to his very large congregation that he had made a decision to become homeless for two weeks and live on the streets incognito.  With only a backpack, he spent 14 days sleeping in alleyways, eating what and when he could, and listening to people’s stories.  He said the experience changed his life forever.  For those two weeks, he climbed into the world of the invisible and ignored and personally experienced the loneliness and indignity that homeless people endure every day.