http://makewavesnotnoise.com/resources/blog Blah, Blah, Blog en bonnie@makewavesnotnoise.com Copyright 2008 2008-08-19T16:39:39-05:00 http://makewavesnotnoise.com/resources/blog/a_marketing_plan_for_the_global_partnership_for_afghanistan/ http://makewavesnotnoise.com/resources/blog/a_marketing_plan_for_the_global_partnership_for_afghanistan/#When:16:39:39Z This fall, MAKE WAVES president Bonnie McEwan will once again be teaching a graduate course in marketing at Milano: The New School for Management and Urban Policy, where she has served on the adjunct faculty for the past 13 years.  The course, titled Marketing in Nonprofit and Public Organizations, provides students with a solid understanding of how the strategic marketing process should work in nonprofit and public contexts and also helps them acquire the analytical skills to apply marketing concepts toward mission fulfillment.  This time around, Bonnie will be pilot testing a new format for the course, one that we think will interest readers of Ripples & Wipeouts. Rather than relying primarily on text readings and case studies to learn the elements of marketing in nonprofit situations, Bonnie will use a hands-on consulting model wherein class members work as a team to develop a comprehensive marketing plan for a single client.  That client will be the Global Partnership for Afghanistan (GPFA), an outstanding nonprofit organization and NGO based in New York City and Kabul, Afghanistan. Since 2004, it has engaged in community-based development programs to help Afghan farmers revive and rehabilitate their fruit and nut orchards, vineyards, woodlots, croplands and forests with the goal of generating food, jobs, income and environmental and health benefits. GPFA’s current programs are in the provinces of Kabul, Wardak, Logar, Parwan, Panjshir, Kapisa and Paktya. The organization has 2 staff in New York City and nearly 70 who work in Kabul and in the above provinces.  Find more information at www.gpfa.org.  GPFA hopes to increase in scope and size and expand to other provinces over the next few years.  To achieve this goal the organization requires a strong, professional marketing plan that will position it to succeed in a marketplace that is increasingly competitive for donations, public recognition and policy influence.  Developing this marketing plan will be the mission of the students in the course. GPFA is especially interested in enhancing its presence online, hoping to increase the interactivity of its Web site, conduct email campaigns and engage in social media activities.  For that reason, MAKE WAVES’ senior e-strategist Leah Kopperman will be partnering with Bonnie and the students to create a robust e-strategy as part of the larger marketing plan.  (See Leah’s bio in the About Us section.) As the semester progresses, we will be documenting the development of the marketing plan in this blog, with updates provided by the students who are working on the project.  Check back here for updates or, better yet, subscribe to our blog and receive updates in your email. 2008-08-19T16:39:39-05:00 http://makewavesnotnoise.com/resources/blog/focus_groups_better_messaging/ http://makewavesnotnoise.com/resources/blog/focus_groups_better_messaging/#When:18:34:36Z I am struck by the large number of “writing” questions that nonprofit executives are asking on a website offering advice about online fundraising (malwarwick.com).  While it’s not surprising that people would seek help in writing strong subject lines for their emails or ask about copy length and other technical questions, I was intrigued that there were many, many questions about message content: • Should we feature stories of individual clients? • How direct should we be about “the ask”? • Must we include a call to action and, if so, what should it be? Some questioners indicated that there were conflicts among executives within their nonprofit over which clients to feature or which programs were most worthy of inclusion in an email.  Some struggled with specific language choices – Is it better to say reproductive justice or reproductive freedom, for example.  Often these issues are resolved not based on evidence, but based on experience with direct mail fundraising or internal politics. Focus groups can help nonprofits make better decisions about their messages and target audiences, whether for fundraising, media advocacy or event promotion, and this type of qualitative research doesn’t have to cost an arm or a leg.  At least it shouldn’t, which is why I recently became trained in focus group moderation and design.  I wanted to offer MAKE WAVES’ clients affordable opportunities to acquire reliable evidence that will help increase the quality of their decisions, and thus the effectiveness of their donor appeals, media pitches and overall message platforms.  If your organization could use this kind of messaging help, contact MAKE WAVES to schedule a free consultation.  We’ll meet to discuss your needs and how focus groups can make your marketing and fundraising efforts more effective.  And we’ll give you an estimated budget too, also at no cost.  212-627-2404 or info@makewavesnotnoise.com.  -- Bonnie Marketing & Communications, Nonprofit Issues 2008-08-13T18:34:36-05:00 http://makewavesnotnoise.com/resources/blog/small_package_big_solutions/ http://makewavesnotnoise.com/resources/blog/small_package_big_solutions/#When:18:53:19Z Ever heard of a new food called Plumpy Nut? The very name has a gluttonous connotation. It sounds fatty. Calorie-heavy. Stocked full of sugar and oil. And in actuality, Plumpy Nut is all of the above. Children everywhere, from the United States to Niger, need energy-dense, nutrient-rich food. Plumpy Nut is an innovative part of the Doctors Without Borders solution to the international crisis of malnutrition. As filling as its name suggests, Plumpy Nut contains peanut butter, milk powder, sugar, oil, and a complex combination of vitamins and minerals. In 2005, Doctors Without Borders served 60,000 children with Plumpy Nut; this year, the organization will reach over 100,000 children with this Ready-To-Use Therapeutic Food.  Plumpy Nut is a fantastic, small-scale example of an organization reaching a happy medium between providing aid and pushing for self-sustainability. Here, mothers do not lose valuable time lingering at ambulatory clinics for food. They take Plumpy Nut, in its neat and compact bar form, home with them and return regularly for additional supplies and medical exams for their children. Eventually, with the help of Plumpy Nut, these children will move out of the red zone of malnutrition.  Check out Anderson Cooper’s coverage of Plumpy Nut here --SHANIKA Nonprofit Issues 2008-08-04T18:53:19-05:00 http://makewavesnotnoise.com/resources/blog/media_day/ http://makewavesnotnoise.com/resources/blog/media_day/#When:15:01:50Z Kiah Thomas is a recent high school graduate preparing to transition to college in the fall.  These are her thoughts on Media Day, an annual even organized by Junior Achievement of New York (JANY) to show middle schoolers the various types of careers they can have in the media. I admit it, I didn’t like middle school. The kids were always so quick to judge, and once they made a judgment about something, or somebody, they’d stick to it (even me). That’s why I was a little hesitant when my mom told me about presenting in front of middle school kids for Media Day.  I could see their unenthused expressions, slumped in deteriorating auditorium chairs wondering why they were being put through this. I could see some yawning, talking to their friends next to them. Some on their phones or sidekicks, which has become a teen’s bff. When asked questions, no one’s hands would go up. I remembered my own middle school days, going to assemblies and being bored out of my mind as people I didn’t know talked about stuff I didn’t care about. I soon felt guilty, because I was now the person they didn’t know, informing them on things they probably wouldn’t care about.  My mom and I made our presentation at the Mirabal Sisters School, located on168th Street in Manhattan. The Mirabals were four sisters who grew up in a city in the Dominican Republic called Salcedo during the era of the dictator Rafael Trujillo. Three of them — Minerva, Patria, and Maria Teresa — were killed by Trujillo’s henchmen for their involvement in efforts to overthrow the fascist government. The surviving sister, Bélgica (more commonly known as Dedé), lives in Salcedo, tending the museum in Ojo de Agua that commemorates her sisters. The Mirabal sisters, now national heroines of the Dominican Republic, have been immortalized in poem, fiction, art, and even with an international day dedicated to them.  Although the sisters haven’t yet gained such international recognition as to become household names, they have had their share of memorialization in the years since their horrific murders. In recent years, especially, the Mirabals have been recognized for their courage in the face of such a totalitarian and paranoia-inducing tyranny. The school is a tribute to the legacy of those three sisters.  Junior Achievement of New York (JANY) organized Media Day to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy.  They felt that The Mirabal Sisters School would be a perfect place to hold the event.  Media day is an opportunity for middle school kids to learn about all the different career paths that the media industry has to offer.  Other presenters were photographers, makeup artists, a newspaper editor and a reporter. My mom volunteered to present for media day.  She works for a marketing and public relations firm called Make Waves.  She is responsible for directing and executing the media strategies for her clients and works a lot with reporters and producers at newspapers, and radio and television shows.  A large part of executing the strategies is to have a good message.  My mom says that a message is like a concept or a point of view that supports a person’s position on an issue and is used to get others to agree to that point of view.  She thought it would be cool to have me be a part of the presentation because the kids could relate to me as a young person.  I was a senior in high school at the time.  I also wrote for my school paper and became co-editor this past year.  In addition I am a singer and actress and in the fall, I will be attending Five Towns College in Long Island to study theater. My mother and I made up a skit to demonstrate the right way and the wrong way to deliver a message. My mom explained that we all deliver messages – we try to get people to do things we want them to do all the time – we just don’t realize it.  The skit was going to show how I was going to convince my mom to let me go away for the weekend with friends. In the first skit, my mom came home from work all hot and bothered and I tried to talk with her then.  I wasn’t very clear and confident about the details of the trip and she completely blew me off.  In the next skit, I was ready.  I explained how the weekend away could be a good intro to dorm life and that my friend’s parents would check in unannounced to make sure that we were behaving.  I also chose a better time of day to talk with my mom and she was much more receptive to the idea.  You see, in order for a message to be effective you have to know your audience, and prepare your message in a way that shows them there’s a benefit for them.  Another important aspect to remember is that the messenger is as important as the message.  In the second skit, my mom would benefit from me learning to be responsible for myself and with my things.  For her, this would help to make my dorm life successful and increase the likelihood that I would stay in school. I was amazed when I stepped into the first classroom - thankful that it wasn’t a large auditorium full of bored faces - to see bright and shiny faces looking and sitting up straight. I relaxed a little more when I saw that hands shot up when my mother or I asked the class a question. I was surprised that only one student had fallen asleep, but he was in the back of the room. To my own amusement, the boys in the next classroom paid extra attention to me when I asked them questions. They yelled “Goodbye Kiah,” a little too excitedly. But overall I was very impressed with the behavior of the students in the classrooms. It seemed that they were genuinely interested and paid attention to what my mom and I had to offer.  This whole experience made me realize that there are kids who are ready to learn new things.  I was also happy to see that they were asking questions and answering with equal energy.  I would love to come back to this school and tell the students about my experiences in college. I hope that students the next go-round will be just as eager and excited as this group was. --KIAH THOMAS 2008-07-21T15:01:50-05:00 http://makewavesnotnoise.com/resources/blog/when_aid_is_not_enough_the_crisis_of_malnutrition/ http://makewavesnotnoise.com/resources/blog/when_aid_is_not_enough_the_crisis_of_malnutrition/#When:15:11:56Z This entry marks the first blog post of our summer intern, Shanika Gunaratna.  Shanika is currently an undergraduate student at Northwestern University, and she will be making waves with us through the end of the summer. Recently, TIME Magazine published a special issue tackling America’s obesity epidemic. On the cover of this issue, entitled “Our Super-Sized Kids,” was an obese child curiously eyeing a double-scoop ice cream cone – one scoop sugary pink, the other an artificially bright orange. The magazine was stocked so full of information on national overeating that it was double its regular size. It is with this renewed awareness of American obesity that I attended a Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) lecture on a very different topic: the international crisis of malnutrition. According to MSF, there are five million annual deaths related to malnutrition in children under five years old. Twenty million children are currently malnourished, meaning they are being supplied with less than the bare minimum amount of food required for health and growth. In short, these children stand stagnant between growth stages, unable to move from one to the next because of the conditions of their childhoods – often, conditions caused by the adult-made conflicts in which they live. With CNN’s Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour as moderator, the panel featured experts on food aid: Bruce Cogill, Global Nutrition Cluster Coordinator at UNICEF; Nicolas de Torrente, Executive Director of MSF-US; Susan Shepherd, Medical Advisor for the MSF Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines; and Alex de Waal, Director of Justice Africa. The panelists – pulled from the different spheres of field work, academic research and professional aid coordination – brought diverse opinions to the discussion. Slowly, their conversation evolved into a broad, complicated and passionate debate over the long-term benefits and dangers of food assistance programs. The problem is this: international organizations, such as Doctors Without Borders and UNICEF, fight malnutrition by providing large-scale food assistance; but these programs face a persistent tension between meeting immediate needs and undermining long-term stability in developing nations. How does an organization deal with the fact that, for instance, its much-needed provisions are shifting the market equilibrium and driving local suppliers out of the market? Or, that its involvement is changing local tastes in food, making it hard for a population to transition into a post-assistance period?  As Alex de Waal argued, debt relief and reform of the international trade system are much more effective ways to fight hunger. But, he noted, when politicians come together to discuss these issues the conversation inevitably strays from reevaluating policy to simply enlarging aid budgets. This is a short-term solution, a crowd-pleasing, mediagenic band-aid on the festering wound of third-world poverty. The key, rather, lies in pro-growth economic policies and debt forgiveness in addition to a healthy aid budget. It is the job of governments to provide these policy solutions. Yet every time I attend an event with Doctors Without Borders, their spokespeople are asked to provide policy recommendations and justify the nonpolitical nature of their organization. MSF answers honestly: saying that only by sidestepping the underlying questions of politics can they serve the millions of adults and children who, at any given moment, are in need. On principle and due to necessity, the organization is independent and does not explicitly talk politics. (This is the case with Darfur, a conflict MSF cannot call by the name “genocide” without risking the loss of access to Darfur’s worst hit zones.) It is time we redirect our energy and put more pressure on governments, both ours and those in the developing world, to back sound economic policy for the world’s poorest and most malnourished. We need to be asking these questions at press conferences, presidential debates, at every spare moment we can. Now, during the mid-summer lull in the presidential election, is a perfect opportunity. Let’s use this time to bring international aid and trade reform to the front of the public consciousness. Read Nicolas de Torrente’s theory of apolitical aid here. Paul O’Brien of the Harvard Human Rights Journal on why humanitarianism should be political, here. --SHANIKA 2008-07-10T15:11:56-05:00 http://makewavesnotnoise.com/resources/blog/the_branding_bandwagon/ http://makewavesnotnoise.com/resources/blog/the_branding_bandwagon/#When:12:48:01Z Branding has generated a lot of buzz in the nonprofit world over the last few years, and while I can appreciate the desire to stand out from the crowd, I wonder if nonprofits’ wholesale adoption of corporate branding practices is a wise move in terms of mission fulfillment.  We (I say “we” because I identify as an activist) are spending a great deal of money – sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars – for corporate style tag lines, logos, commercial partnerships and strategies that might impress a news reporter or even a foundation executive, but don’t necessarily move us toward our missions.  This is a particular hazard for those organizations dedicated to cultural change and social equity.  Changing the world is a big and costly job.  There’s plenty of work to go around, yet we spend serious resources trying to “one up” each other. It’s ironic that nonprofits are the only organizations expected to collaborate with their “competitors.” Look behind that irony, though, and you will see that there is some logic to this.  There are very few, if any, nonprofit organizations that have truly unique missions.  Mostly, our differences are matters of strategy and tactics – various ways of reaching similar goals and producing “social goods.” Social goods such as shelter for the homeless, voting rights and wilderness protection are not generally things from which profits can be made.  That’s why nonprofit organizations exist in the first place.  In business, competition clearly drives innovation and improvement, but we need to ask ourselves if the same is really true in the nonprofit sector.  When multiple organizations share a similar mission – one that is difficult and costs money rather than generates profits – wouldn’t it be smarter to cooperate rather than spend resources to outshine or undermine one another?  Why are we on the branding bandwagon? I suppose the answer to that question is based on fear.  Fear of missing out on a big donation.  Fear of seeing a rival quoted instead of ourselves.  Fear of not having clout in the advocacy arena.  We think, hope, that branding will position us to win.  But that assumes that we are playing in a zero-sum game.  If I win, you must lose, or vice versa.  What if we change the game?  What if we resist the fear and instead partner with the best of our peers?  What if foundations rewarded nonprofits that applied for grants as a team?  What if we divided up chunks of work and didn’t duplicate what others were already doing?  What if we insisted on having models of marketing, branding and communicating that were not mere grafts from the corporate world, but were designed and built just for us, for the nonprofit universe? Last week I had the opportunity to lead a workshop at Fund Raising Day in New York, where I threw out some of these ideas to a group of nonprofit professionals. A good discussion resulted.  One participant from the Orange County (NY) United Way told me that her organization is encouraging its grantees to take a team approach by working in coalitions, a tactic that I suggested in the PowerPoint presentation I used at the session.  Another woman talked about starting her own nonprofit, a move that others challenged and something that I will be writing about in future blog posts.  I also plan to do a lot more thinking and writing about how we can measure and compare results among nonprofits, with an eye to helping truly excellent organizations find one another.  That will help us create coalitions and partnerships based on performance.  Only those organizations that pull their own weight and deliver results should be included in a high-performing partnership.  And that level of excellence can form the foundation for branded coalitions, a kind of branding that is based on trust, cooperation and mission fulfillment. You can view the Fundraising Day presentation below.  For best viewing, click the link “view” (a new page will open) and then choose enlarge the presentation to fit on the full screen (that way you can read my notes!). Please post your comments, thoughts and challenges below.  Maybe before we can change the world, we might have to change ourselves. -- Bonnie | View | Upload your own 2008-06-18T12:48:01-05:00 http://makewavesnotnoise.com/resources/blog/foreclosure_theres_no_hiding_from_it/ http://makewavesnotnoise.com/resources/blog/foreclosure_theres_no_hiding_from_it/#When:11:56:00Z The Associated Press reported that Ed McMahon may loose his home to foreclosure.  Unfortunately, this situation affects thousands of senior citizens everyday and their stories don’t make the evening news. Joan Kuriansky, Executive Director of Wider Opportunities for Women, cuts to the heart of the issue.  She states, “The news reports of the foreclosure proceedings on Ed McMahon’s home in Los Angeles beg the question, ‘If Mr. McMahon, with all his status and resources, is in this situation, what are the prospects for ordinary men and women living on fixed incomes?’”Wider Opportunities for Women, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, DC, in partnership with the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston, has created the Elder Economic Security Standard Index™ in order to help policymakers, service providers and others construct realistic and effective policies and programs to help older Americans secure the income necessary to live independently and well.  The Elder Index is a realistic measure of what it costs to live in the US today, with the data calculated on a county by county basis.  In Los Angeles County, where Mr. McMahon lives, it takes $30,591 for a single senior just to meet housing and other minimum basic expenses when they are still carrying a mortgage. If they have paid off their mortgage, they still need $16,355 per year to meet basic expenses. The average Social Security payment of $12,540 is not enough to live on, and yet, one out of three seniors in California rely exclusively on Social Security to cover their basic costs. To date, the Elder Index has been launched in three states - California, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania - and two more states will launch Indexes this summer, Illinois and Wisconsin.  Ultimately, data will be available nationwide. Every American deserves to be able to age in place with dignity and the Elder Economic Security Index helps make that ideal a reality. Visit the Elder Economic Security Initiative blog. Wider Opportunities for Women News 2008-06-06T11:56:00-05:00 http://makewavesnotnoise.com/resources/blog/call_me_on_my_cell/ http://makewavesnotnoise.com/resources/blog/call_me_on_my_cell/#When:12:03:55Z According to a New York Times magazine article, a little over half the world’s population, 3.3 billion people to be precise, has a cell phone.  This in turn means that there are still at least 3 billion people who do not have cell phones.  Cell phones have transformed the way we live.  Not only do cell phones let you make phone calls without using a traditional land line, you can now access google via text message (text your query to “google” [466453]) download music and video onto cell phones, and in some cases, check and send emails.  In other words, you are connected to the internet, and therefore the world, all the time.  However, is this a good thing?  Dissenters say that this constant access makes it impossible to separate work from play. (I.e., if your blackberry rattles next to your head at 1 a.m. with an email from your boss, are you obligated to answer it then because technically you can?) On the other hand, a person could argue that cell phones and gadgets like blackberries and iphones offer access to important information, improve efficiency, and facilitate communication that would have been prohibitively expensive or impossible even ten years ago.  It is an indisputable fact that cell phones have exponentially enhanced our ability to access information at the push of a tiny button on a tiny device no bigger than a deck of cards.  And the best part of this access—it is often quite cheap!  If you are a farmer in the developing world, a cell phone lets you check market prices on fruits and vegetables just moments before you complete a transaction with a buyer, to make sure that you maximize your profits.  If you live in India and try to find work as a bellhop helping customers load and unload their cars in front of a hotel, a cell phone lets you find out where the work is on any particular day.  Because we live in a country where so many people have regular access to the internet and the latest and greatest technology, it’s hard as an American to imagine how transformational a cell phone can be.  Did you know that in Bangladesh, women in areas without access to landlines buy cell phones and then charge their neighbors a small fee to use them?  Seems pretty smart to me.  I can’t imagine that cell phones are going to rid the world of poverty.  However, a cell phone does create access to global resources.  This in turn creates a valuable opportunity for individuals and families to increase efficiency, productivity, and most importantly, profit in their business ventures.  Cell phones are not a perfect solution to poverty, but they sure are a step in the right direction towards creating opportunity for self-improvement. To read the New York Times magazine article, click here. --AMI Culture 2008-05-14T12:03:55-05:00 http://makewavesnotnoise.com/resources/blog/a_drop_in_the_bucket/ http://makewavesnotnoise.com/resources/blog/a_drop_in_the_bucket/#When:13:23:49Z My father was an environmentalist before the term was invented, when people like him were called ‘conservationists.’ I remember once years ago, when he and I paused during a hike to drink from a mountain stream in our home state of Pennsylvania.  He remarked, “Someday you will have to pay for water.” I laughed and thought, not for the first time, that the old man was a little crazy.  Now I see that I was the one with the mental problem, a vision problem actually.  He had foresight; I had myopia. I think of him often when the Poland Spring comes out at business meetings, or when I read about those little plastic bottles clogging up our landfills.  And I thought of him the other day, when they turned off the water in my apartment building to work on a construction project. I’d forgotten that the water would go off at 10:00, but was reminded a few minutes beforehand by a neighbor.  I rushed to fill up a couple of sauce pans and the bathroom sink, then suddenly nothing more came out of the tap.  Although I knew what was happening, there was nevertheless an unreal quality about the dry faucet.  I was so used to taking for granted that the water would flow on demand that my mind couldn’t quite comprehend it wasn’t happening. The day went on in much the same vein.  I decided to work at home since I’d been unable to shower.  I kept forgetting there was no running water, being repeatedly surprised when I’d turn on the tap and get…nothing.  I cleaned the cat litter and reflexively flushed kitty’s waste down the toilet, using up all the water stored in the tank.  Gulp.  No more bathroom use until after 5:00.  I couldn’t run the dishwasher, or make a pot of coffee.  It was a hassle to brush my teeth. By the afternoon, I was Silas Marner the Water Miser, careful not to overfill the dog’s dish and postponing the plant watering until tomorrow.  As I pondered whether I could risk making a cup of tea, I thought about women all over the world, many who live in places where they can’t get clean water no matter how hard they work or how far they travel.  Many who would find it a stunning privilege to go without water for a single day only.  In many parts of the world, collecting water and fuel is women’s work, and according to the United Nations, women and girls spend up to five hours a day (!) on this task.  It’s not unusual for women to walk over 10 miles to reach and return from a water source.  This is time that girls could be in school and their mothers could be engaged in a host of other activities that would improve life for their families and their communities.  And then there are the many other challenges related to the availability, or lack, of clean water:  personal hygiene, sanitation, cooking, cleaning. Just as my dad had vision, so did my mother, but hers was of a different sort.  For nearly 40 years, she taught first grade in what was then called ‘the ghetto.’ Her dream was to give children of very color, everywhere, the education they needed to make their own way in the world as adults.  And she did a fine job of that in her little corner of the globe. Every year, as Mothers’ and Fathers’ Days approach, I feel sad that I no longer have living parents to celebrate with.  It occurs to me that this year I can honor my parents by honoring their visions, so I am going to make a donation to help some girl, somewhere – and maybe her whole family too – have easier access to clean water and to education.  It’s a drop in the bucket, and there’s plenty of room for you to add some drops too. --BONNIE Find out more about women and water at Water Aid America Culture, News 2008-05-08T13:23:49-05:00 http://makewavesnotnoise.com/resources/blog/of_doctors_guns_and_tomatoes/ http://makewavesnotnoise.com/resources/blog/of_doctors_guns_and_tomatoes/#When:11:00:30Z A friend of ours who is a med student at Columbia says some Americans are so overweight that they could live for a full year without food, just as long as they had water.  A doctor at the Outer Cape Health Center in Provincetown, MA, points out that this is the first generation of American children who are expected to have shorter life spans than their parents!  What is going on?  Has our excessive consumerism become fatal?  Is it greed?  A breathtaking lack of self-discipline?  Are we eating ourselves sick as Rome burns?  Well, maybe.  But before you pass judgment on—I’ll say it, fat people—consider this observation from Angela Glover Blackwell, the charismatic CEO of the nonprofit group, PolicyLink:  In some neighborhoods of the US, it’s easier to buy a gun than it is a tomato. Access to fresh, wholesome food, especially fruits and vegetables, has become a luxury for many of us.  (That’s us, as in “we the people,” “united we stand,” “land of plenty” and all that.  For a baby boomer who grew up in the 1950s, believing what they taught in history class, this is pretty hard to take in.) So why no tomatoes?  Well, according to PolicyLink and other groups that focus on development, which means how and where we build things, many neighborhoods are neither constructed nor designed to support healthy living.  On the contrary, some areas of our country are simply sacrificed to business interests that tear up the land and pollute our air and water with impunity – still, 30+ years after the Clean Air and Water Acts.  And they are not doing this in Riverdale, Grosse Point, Fisher Island, Melrose or Malibu.  Surprise!  Poor neighborhoods seem to be the ones that find themselves with brown fields and bus depots. But that’s only part of the problem.  There are multiple factors that keep people from getting tomatoes:  sketchy food distribution systems dominated by agribusiness, neighborhoods that lack the public services to attract supermarkets and other service businesses, highways that bisect neighborhoods and make walking difficult, lack of reliable public transportation, no safe public parks. Now I concede that individuals have a major role to play in maintaining a healthy weight.  But if you’re a kid who lives in an area where it’s not safe to go out and play, where asthma is a major child health problem and the nearest market is miles away, you don’t exactly have a lot of options to get exercise, fresh air and fresh produce.  And neither do your parents, who are probably making minimum wage and struggling to make ends meet.  I think America (that’s us, people) owes these kids more.  And we can get it for them if we work together for positive changes in this richest of all nations.  Find out more about equitable development and what you can do to make it happen: An Editorial in the April 21st New York Times PolicyLink’s Equity Blog Unnatural Causes, a PBS Documentary Urban Habitat Living Cities --BONNIE 2008-04-21T11:00:30-05:00