Briefs: Healthy Food for All, Rotary fundraiser, more

Healthy Food For All joins Center for Transformative Action

Healthy Food For All, a leading community food security program in our region, has moved from its longtime home at Cornell Cooperative Extension Tompkins County (CCE-Tompkins) to join other social justice projects under the fiscal umbrella of the Center for Transformative Action (CTA), an independent 501(c)(3) organization affiliated with Cornell University.

Conceived in 2006 by local farmers in partnership with CCE-Tompkins’ agriculture program, Healthy Food For All (HFFA) provides fresh produce to families with limited incomes through affordable community supported agriculture (CSA) shares. HFFA also bolsters farm viability by fairly compensating participating farmers for their products.

Now in its 16th year, HFFA has grown from a pilot project of three farms enrolling 18 families to a robust collaboration of more than 10 farms that offers over 1,000 youth and adults reliable, dignified and affordable access to fresh produce through subsidized summer and winter CSA shares.

Projects such as Food as Medicine, Farm-to-Pantry and Farm-to-Plate that are offered in partnership with health care providers, food pantries and transitional housing programs have further expanded HFFA’s reach to the most vulnerable members of our community. A profile recounting HFFA’s beginnings and growth appears in the CCE-Tompkins 2021 Annual Report (tinyurl.com/2jh9lsss)

According to Elizabeth Karabinakis, HFFA’s director since 2008, becoming a project of CTA enables her program to leverage a wider array of administrative services and partnerships to support its growth and expansion and to focus the program’s work on the service delivery model for which it is seen as a leader nationwide.

“With CTA’s support, we look forward to expanding on our tradition of nimble and responsive program development to address community needs and scaling up programs to increase impact,” she said.

Karabinakis and her staff have moved with the program and, as employees of CTA, will ensure program continuity.

“Of equal importance, the move will enable farmers who have been key stakeholders and partners in HFFA from the very beginning to step into a more formal leadership role,” she added.

HFFA’s new advisory board will comprise half local farmers and half community partners and Cornell faculty and staff who have content expertise specifically related to HFFA’s programs and goals.

“We at CCE-Tompkins are proud to have been able to support the development and growth of Healthy Food For All over the years and look forward to the next stage in the program’s growth as a project of CTA,” said Graham Savio, agriculture and horticulture issue leader at

CCE-Tompkins, who will serve as a member of the new advisory board.

“We are happy to build upon our strong relationship with HFFA into the future and anticipate collaborating with them as community partners on food security work on a regular basis going forward,” he concluded.

CCE-Tompkins will remain an integral project partner, leveraging the full breadth of Extension resources to support strategic planning, implementation and evaluation going forward.

For more information, contact Savio at gs695@cornell.edu or (607) 272-2292. To learn more about Healthy Food for All, visit healthyfoodforall.org. Find the Center for Transformative Action online at centerfortransformativeaction.org and CCE-Tompkins at ccetompkins.org.

Photo: Young girl holds a CSA vegetable box from Healthy Food For All.

 

Community Outreach Worker Program receives over $1K from DIA

The Downtown Ithaca Alliance (DIA) recently donated over $1,000 to the Community Outreach Workers Program (COWP) hosted by Family & Children’s Services of Ithaca.

The DIA regularly supports the COWP for its services in the downtown community. The nonprofit organization acquired this donation through its inaugural Giving Tuesday campaign, where the DIA reached out to the public requesting its financial support for this valuable program.

Community Outreach Workers aim to support a welcoming and inclusive downtown community by engaging people with a kind attitude, which is often needed to de-escalate potential conflicts. The Outreach Workers travel throughout downtown’s corridor — from Meadow Drive to Aurora Street and from Court Street to Green Street, including support to the Tompkins County Public Library and Dewitt Park — keeping an eye open for people who are exhibiting signs of distress.

Kiara David and William Taylor are Community Outreach Workers (Street Outreach) in the downtown corridor. The COWP program is funded by Tompkins County, the City of Ithaca, DIA and other local funders.

“The Community Outreach Worker Program enables the outreach workers to assist people in need on our streets. This program has demonstrated a capacity to make a difference in the lives of these individuals, and we are delighted to help raise extra funding to support this most worthy effort. Thank you to those who donated to our campaign on Giving Tuesday,” said DIA Executive Director Gary Ferguson.

Community Outreach Coordinator Natalya Cowilich added, “We thank the Downtown Ithaca Alliance for this generous donation and its ongoing support of our outdoor outreach. We will use these funds to continue providing valuable resources to those in distress and those in need of support service in the downtown community.”

For more information about the Downtown Ithaca Alliance, visit downtownithaca.com. Or for the Community Outreach Program, visit fcsith.org/community-outreach.

In this photo: The Downtown Ithaca Alliance presents to the Community Outreach Workers Program (COWP) a check that includes funds raised during the DIA’s Giving Tuesday campaign. Pictured in the photo from left to right: Taylor, David, Cowilich and Ferguson.

 

District 3 Democrats choose Currie to run for Legislature

Former Tompkins County Public Library Director Susan Currie (pictured) is the Democratic candidate to fill the vacancy created by the November passing of County Legislator Henry Granison (tinyurl.com/2ho3qajj). The search committee, comprising Democratic party members from Tompkins County Legislative District 3, selected Currie by unanimous vote.

District 3 voters will go to the polls Jan. 24. No other candidate came forward before the deadline for being included on the ballot. However, write-in candidates are still possible.

Currie was director of the Tompkins County Public Library from 2009 until her retirement in 2017. During that time, she closed a $750,000 deficit caused by the 2008 recession and expanded services. Currie returned as interim director for four months in 2021, helping the library recover from the pandemic while a permanent director was sought.

First taking the helm just as the impact of the 2008 recession was being felt gave Currie a front-row seat to the county legislative process. She was impressed.

“They have a very difficult job,” she said. “There are so many needs, and they’re all very important. But the County Legislature has a thoughtful, balanced view. They listen to all the feedback of constituents, they seek out additional information for their decisions, and they work well together.”

She remembers being turned down for funding requests, “but there was always a thoughtful, careful and thorough process. This legislature is very invested in the county and has done incredible work, especially during the pandemic, to ensure that residents are taken care of.”

A South Hill resident for more than 30 years, Currie has a long record of local volunteer service, including the United Way Board of Directors, the advisory council for the Sciencenter and the county historical commission.

“Susan has a great record of service to the county,” said search committee co-chair Ann Sullivan. “She brought a combination of experience and a record that made us think that she would be a super representative.”

Sullivan continued, “This was in many ways a difficult task for us because we were all so fond and appreciative of Henry Granison and his service to the district. It was a task that we did not happily take on, but we were glad to do it to honor Henry’s memory.”

Currie said of Granison, “He was a wonderful man,” citing Granison’s volunteer work at the library and the daily email he sent to district residents during the pandemic.

“He was such a kind, caring, hard worker,” she said. “I hope that I could honor his legacy of service.”

For more information, visit tcdemocrats.org.

 

Ithaca Rotary starts fundraiser to upgrade Ukraine bomb shelter

The Ithaca Rotary Club has launched a fundraising campaign to refurbish and heat an underground bomb shelter at a high school in Lviv, Ukraine.

The project, estimated to cost $31,000, will cover the cost of electric heaters, comfortable benches, new windows, a permanent toilet and a medical office at the shelter, located at a school enrolling more than 1,000 students.

The Rotary Club has already raised $28,500 for the renovations, including a $25,000 disaster response grant from The Rotary Foundation. The club has also received $2,500 in individual donations from Rotary club members and a $1,000 gift from Cornell University.

Ithaca Rotary members are now seeking to close the funding gap by appealing to the Ithaca community to donate money for the project.

Tax-deductible donations to the project can be made through the Community Foundation of Tompkins County Rotary Club of Ithaca Fund (cftompkins.org/giving/give-online/). (Donors can type in the “Rotary Club of Ithaca Fund” and specify “Ukraine” in the comments.)

“This effort will bring comfort and a small semblance of normalcy to the difficult days these young people in Ukraine are experiencing because of the attack on their country,” said Mary Kane, president of the Ithaca Rotary Club.

The Rotary Club also plans to raise funds from a benefit concert by the pianist and composer Emmanuel Sikora, an Ithaca native who made his orchestral debut with the Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra. The concert will take place Feb. 19 at 4 p.m. at the First Unitarian Society of Ithaca and will include a silent auction of artwork by local painters.

For the past two months, Ithaca Rotary members have been working with the Rotary Club of Lviv, which identified the poor conditions of school bomb shelters as a critical need in the city in Western Ukraine. At Lyceum #2, a high school in Lviv (pictured), students have to spend up to four hours a day during air raid sirens in the underground shelter, which is sparsely furnished with wooden benches, chairs and four portable toilets.

“This project will make a huge difference for these students and give them a well-heated and welcoming space to pass the time each day they have to spend in this underground shelter,” said Sherrie Negrea, an Ithaca Rotary member who helped organize the project.

The club has been assisted in this project by Words into Deeds, an Ithaca-based nonprofit that is working closely with the Rotary Club of Lviv.

 

CMC designated U.S. News Best Maternity Hospital

Cayuga Medical Center (CMC), a member of Cayuga Health, has been designated a 2022-2023 Best Maternity Hospital by U.S. News & World Report. CMC is one of only nine New York state hospitals to receive this distinction. This is the highest award a hospital can earn for U.S. News’ Best Hospitals for Maternity Care.

The annual evaluation is designed to assist expectant parents and their doctors in making informed decisions about where to receive maternity care.

Cayuga Medical Center earned a High Performing designation in recognition of maternity care as measured by factors such as newborn complication rates.

“This recognition is a testament to the committed members of our Cayuga Birthplace team at CMC and all who support them,” said Martin Stallone, MD, CEO of Cayuga Health. “We believe that every patient should have convenient access to safe, compassionate maternity care, at every stage of pregnancy. We are honored to provide such a high-quality service for new mothers.”

Naph’tali Edge, Cayuga Health’s chief nursing officer, added, “We are proud of the care our obstetricians, neonatologists, midwives, nurses and entire maternal and child health team provides. Our family-centered approach to prenatal care, labor and delivery, through the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit ensures our patients receive compassionate, collaborative attention at all levels.”

The U.S. News Best Hospitals for Maternity Care methodology is based entirely on objective measures of quality, such as C-section rates in lower-risk pregnancies, newborn complication rates, exclusive breast milk feeding rates, early elective delivery rates and vaginal birth after cesarean (VBAC) rates, among other measures.

For more information about the Cayuga Birthplace at Cayuga Medical Center, visit cayugamed.org/services-2/birthplace/.

 

DIA announces holiday window display winners

Downtown Ithaca Alliance’s (DIA) Holiday Window Display Competition ended earlier last week. Over two dozen businesses participated in this fun and festive event (tinyurl.com/2gf5wlm7), and the results came from the judges and the public.

Home Green Home (pictured) was a two-time winner, earning first place from the judge’s panel and the People’s Choice, grand prize spot for its magic mushroom window display. The various mushrooms were made in-house — including 150 paper clay mushroom ornaments made by store owner Megan Vidler.

As a bonus, Home Green Home’s window display also won the Retail Doctors Holiday Window Competition organized by retail expert Bob Phibbs, CEO of The Retail Doctor, an internationally recognized business strategist, customer service expert, sales coach, marketing mentor, author of three books and motivational business speaker.

“These victories aside, I have to say that the competition was a worthwhile exercise for us,” Vidler said. “I had hoped for team-building among the retailers — and we got that. Businesses were sharing tools and supplies back and forth; I watched neighboring shop owners consulting with one another outside their stores, and it got us to sync our decoration timeline. Multiple shop owners said they enjoyed seeing our windows empty around the same time and feeling the anticipation of the new displays going up over the following days.”

Vidler continued.

“What I had yet to consider was the team-building element inside my store,” she said. “The anticipation started building from my initial pitch a few months ago and grew as the crew watched the materials come together. Once it was go-time to put the display up, my team was hyped to have a big, fun, exciting project we worked on for the next week. Now, they’re enjoying the friendly competition and compliments from customers. It’s been great for us, and I hope that’s been true within other stores as well.”

Additional Holiday Window Display Competition results are listed below:

Panel Judges Results:

– 1st place: Home Green Home on the Commons

– 2nd place: Ithaca Guitar Works in Dewitt Mall

– 3rd place is a 3-way tie: The Brain Shoppe on the Commons, Sunny Days on the Commons Cat’s Pajamas in Dewitt Mall

– People’s Choice Award Winner: Home Green Home

The DIA and its new Retail Committee helped organize this fun and friendly competition. More than two dozen businesses participated in this year’s activity, and the DIA hopes it will become an annual contest among the business community.

“We thank the public for its votes and all the businesses for participating in this campaign this year. We hope everyone enjoyed viewing the businesses’ creations and picking the winners. All of the participating businesses did an incredible job … the displays were extremely impressive,” said DIA Business Development Director Kristina Thelen.

Even though the contest is over, everyone is welcome to continue enjoying the displays while they visit downtown for shopping, dining, entertainment and services throughout the holiday season.

As a friendly reminder to visitors, parking in downtown Ithaca is free in the evenings — after 6 p.m. on the street and after 8 p.m. in the Green Street, Seneca Street and Cayuga Street parking garages — and free all day on Saturday and Sunday. Parking will also be free from Dec. 19 through 26 on the street and in all the city parking garages.

For information about downtown’s other holiday offerings visit downtownithaca.com.