Missed Northside P.O.W.E.R.’s Public Meeting Common Sense, Common Good? Watch the video here (8:30)

Contact: Kristi Sanford
Telephone: 773-456-4024 cell
Email: Kristi@ajustharvest.org

 500 Northside Residents Gather to Demand

No More Charter Schools in 49^th Ward,

Affordable Higher Education and

Closure of Illinois Corporate Tax Loopholes

With the State of Illinois unable to pay its bills, Chicago Public Schools claiming a $1 billion deficit, and college students facing rising costs, ballooning debt and grim job prospects, five hundred (500) North Side and North Shore residents will gather to demand public policy changes.

Northside P.O.W.E.R. Public Meeting: Common Sense, Common Good

Sunday, March 10

6:30-8 p.m.

Willye White Field House

1610 W. Howard St., Chicago

Even though no Rogers Park schools are on the CPS school closure list, neighborhood schools are threatened by the expansion of charter schools. With fierce competition for funding often based on test scores, charter schools are incentivized to attract and admit only the best students.  An investigation by Reuters revealed that many charter schools require lengthy application forms, student and parent essays, mandatory family interviews, entrance exams, and even illegally demand Social Security cards and birth certificates.  Charter schools often require parents to cover additional educational costs, an obstacle for poor parents.  Northside P.O.W.E.R. has invited Ald. Joe Moore to attend to answer questions about charter school expansion in the 49^th Ward.

The struggles for those already overburdened continue at institutes of higher learning. Loyola University will increase the cost of its freshman and sophomore meal plans. All undergraduate resident students are required to have a meal plan, yet the cheapest freshman year plan will increased 12%, and the sophomore plan by more than 150% in the 2013-2014 academic year.  More than 100 Loyola students will attend.

State Representatives Robin Gabel and Kelly Cassidy will attend. Northside P.O.W.E.R. will ask them to make a public commitment to support corporate tax transparency and to close corporate tax loopholes.

Two-thirds of corporations in Illinois pay no state income tax, and a meager 8% of state revenue comes from corporate income taxes.  Eighty-one (81%) of state revenue comes from personal income and sales taxes. Statistics from the Public Policy Polling, a non-partisan polling firm found that nearly 80% of Illinois voters say legislation to require publicly-traded corporations to disclose how much they pay in Illinois corporate tax income is a good idea. By closing three corporate tax loopholes, Illinois could raise $1.5 billion over 3 years to help solve its budget crisis.

Northside P.O.W.E.R. (People Organized to Work, Educate and Restore) is an institution-based people’s power organization whose members are located in the North Side of the City of Chicago and North Shore Communities.  Northside P.O.W.E.R. is the community organizing arm of A Just Harvest.

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by Drew Rindfleisch

In September of 2012, I began serving as the chaplain in the Community Kitchen for staff, volunteers, and guests joining A Just Harvest for daily dinners.  Through the Urban Clinical Pastoral Education program, chaplains are placed in Chicago outside of the standard hospital to face issues of life and death in community and neighborhood settings.  In the Community Kitchen, I provide spiritual care for our sisters and brothers in times of joy and stress; many who struggle to find adequate and affordable housing, jobs that pay living wages, and healthy food to sustain their lives.

During my first month at the kitchen, I sat with a woman who had been quietly and patiently waiting to speak with me.  Though the kitchen was closing, we ended up speaking with one another for an hour.  She had held a job for over twenty years, but then hit several hardships during the Great Recession.   She was recently homeless, and felt more alone than ever.  At one point she broke down and said, “I am so tired of hearing everyone say that they will pray for me.  What good will that do? Prayers won’t help.  At this point, prayers won’t give me money or work.  Prayers won’t help pay my bills, or put food on the table.  Prayers won’t provide me a warm, safe place to sleep at night.  I need something more than prayers right now.”  I struggled to find any words to respond.  But there were no words—my sister was hurting; mentally, physically, spiritually, and economically.  Hearing her story and the raw, human pain stirred my soul.

(Drew Rindfleisch speaks at a public action calling on Senator Durbin to preserves Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other economic safety net programs in “fiscal cliff” budget negotations in December 2012.)

While we hadn’t known each other until that day, she taught me something no seminary education could sell.  Her words, which at first glance seemed to be dismissing the power of prayer, in fact invoked the longest prayer tradition we know as People of God.  She prayed through her tears: lamenting for she had once helped those in her exact spot, and now feels no one will help her in her time of need.  Lament is healthy and good.  Her lament is holy, even if it pains us to hear.  But that is also why A Just Harvest is here—to hear the laments of those struggling on the streets and in our communities, and move people to collectively cry out and organize for justice.

Through organizing with Northside P.O.W.E.R. staff, volunteers, and community members remind us that laments are not in vain.  God calls us to be actors who not only hear the cries and laments of sisters and brothers by serving a meal to feed those left hungry, but to demand changes to the structures that make people poor and prevent communities from flourishing.  By working on issues that address the causes of hunger and poverty, Northside P.O.W.E.R. has provided a prophetic voice with the most vulnerable among us.

Working in coalition with other groups from across Chicago, we privately met with and publicly pressured Senator Dick Durbin to take Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid off the chopping block this December.  The budget deal made back in 2011 between Congress and the President could have made devastating cuts to our schools, nutrition and Head Start programs, and other critical public services.

We also went to the state legislature to lobby for a corporate transparency bill which passed in the State Senate but stalled in the State House Revenue Committee.  This bill would require corporations to disclose how much they pay in tax to the State of Illinois so that we can better determine who pays their fair share of taxes.  Northside P.O.W.E.R. will continue to follow this bill into the next legislative session as we fight locally, state-wide, and across the nation to make sure Wall Street and other corporations pay their fair share, so that we all can get a fair shake in life.

Editor’s note: We invite you to learn more about Northside P.O.W.E.R. by attending it’s next public meeting on Sunday, March 10 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Willye White Field House, 1610 W. Howard St.  To volunteer in our Community Kitchen, contact Mary Frohna, volunteer coordinator, at 773-262-2297 x24.

By Rev. James Findlay

For those of us who seek to follow Christ by doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly before God, the sacred season of the Forty Days and Forty Nights of Lent is a wonderful opportunity provided by two millennia of faith tradition to savor our lives anew. And if we take up this gracious opportunity, we can see our work, our relationships, our ministries, and the deeper aspects of our existence in the light of God’s divine love.

One fruitful form of Lenten meditation, especially for those of us touched by A Just Harvest’s ministry, is to consider our sacred connection to food. In fact, food is the ideal focus for our exploration, since bread is vital to life, to ministry, and to traditions of Lenten paths of spiritual growth.

In the past, many have seen Lent as a time for “giving up something.” By refraining from some activity or not eating a certain type of food, the change in our habits was intended to move us from the limitations of “the usual” to greater open-ness and awareness. And many Lenten disciplines, including restraint, contemplation, devotion, or even fasting, can provide us with “empty space” – which we then leave open, to be “filled up with God.” In addition, we can see Lent as a time of growth; though winter lingers, the days lengthen and the Light increases. By pruning our busy-ness and doing a bit less, we open ourselves to God’s care, our perception of God grows – and we can see and sense more of the sacred, in ourselves, in others, and in the world.

If we choose a path of open and perceptive discernment for Lent, rather than “giving up” food for Lent, we might instead lift into God’s hand our relationships to food. When we consider food from a spiritual point of view, we know that it sustains all life. Without food, our relationships, work, and growth are not possible. Truly, our Food is Our Life. In addition, we also know that our food and our life come from “the Earth and everything in it,” which is “the Lord’s.” [Ps 24:1] But where on the Earth does come from? Near our homes or far away? Was the Soil which birthed it nurtured in producing this food before us? Or was the food manufactured, packaged, marketed, and processed? As the world’s systems shift in our times, we can also see with a spiritual eye that the politics of food production and consumption can be the politics of human empowerment – or the power of corporately-produced food. As we eat, we can ponder how the food on our table came forth from the bosom of God, and which hands (or machines!) blessed it and carried it on its path to becoming a blessing for us.

Thus, as our food nurtures each of our bodies, we do not receive it in solitude, but as a gift from God and a host of God’s people. In addition, most of us rarely eat alone. In fact, what we do when we eat and the times and place of our meals are among the most holy experiences of our lives. Many of our most wondrous moments, whether as lovers, families, or communities, are times of preparing and sharing food. When we eat together, we create sacred space as we gather. Are we side by side at the table? Are we face to face? Is the table a circle, a square, a long rectangle, or a small and intimate space? As followers of Jesus, we find the greatest holiness in the most human act of sharing: the Mighty Acts of God are clearest to us in eating and drinking, breaking bread together and sharing a cup filled with the fruit of the vine.

As we continue our Life Journey, may we savor Lent as God’s gift of time and space, with food at its center. Not so much a “renouncing” of food, as attentiveness to the health we receive and the blessed quality of our food. Perhaps it can also be a time of questions and discernment. How is community and family shaped by the food we eat and the rituals surrounding it? Is the food before us the fruit of justice, or injustice? Did it reach us fresh from Mother Earth – or by mechanical and managed means? Is it shared in love? Are we experiencing God’s grace as we eat and drink?

May all of us have a Holy Lent – fed by God’s love and care, blessed by the beauty and life in the food which gives us life, nurtured by the food we eat and the fellowship it creates for us.

Rev. Dr. James D. Findlay has his doctoral training in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, but his skills and interests are wide ranging. He has taught college and graduate level courses in the History of Christianity, both Testaments of the Bible, World Religions, Mysticism, and Logic and Critical Thinking, as well as courses in methodology related to the study of Religion. In addition he has led retreats and provided spiritual support for persons and groups of various ages and backgrounds.

Editor’s Note: You’re invited to attend The Genesis Project’s Open House on Saturday, February 23, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. to learn about our work to create internships and leadership development opportunities for young adults via sustainable food production in Rogers Park. RSVP to Anthony@ajustharvest.org.

Save the Date for Northside P.O.W.E.R.’s Public Meeting

Common Sense, Common Good
Sunday, March 10 from 6:30 – 8 p.m.
Willye White Field House
1610 W. Howard St., Chicago

A Just Harvest’s Northside P.O.W.E.R. is working in coalition with many groups from around the city to ensure that the “fiscal cliff” budget negotiations protect the economic safety net and middle class priorities like education and infrastructure.  We believe that if the wealthy and large corporations paid their fair share of taxes, we could afford to preserve Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, public education, food safety inspections and all the other many important government functions without increasing our deficit.

Northside P.O.W.E.R. leaders helped organized this Durbinville action on December 6, 2012 to call attention to the dire economic consequences we will face if sequestration cuts are implemented.

Northside P.O.W.E.R. members, including members who are underwater in their mortgages, visited both the Romney and Obama Campaign offices in Chicago on Saturday to deliver petitions signed by over 175 people.  The petitions call on both presidential candidates to address the issue of underwater mortgages in this campaign.

At the Romney offices the homeowners were able to get into the offices and talk to the campaign manager who accepted the petitions and said she would do her best to deliver the petitions to Governor Romney. She also agreed to provide her contact information so that Northside P.O.W.E.R. leaders can follow up to get a report on whether or not Governor Romney received the petitions.

After leaving the Romney office the homeowners went to One Prudential Plaza, national headquarters of the Obama Campaign. There the homeowners were immediately stopped by security. They were told to leave the premises, including the outside plaza, and the Chicago police were called. The security manager did call the Obama Headquarters and asked the campaign to send a representative down to the sidewalk to accept the petitions, but the campaign refused.

The petition delivery was part of a larger national campaign “Home Is Where the Vote Is,” which is designed to give voice to the more than 15 million owners of underwater homes, that are $1.2 trillion underwater. Resetting those mortgages to fair market value would save the average underwater homeowner $543 per month, pumping $104 billion into the national economy every year. This would create 1.5 million jobs nationally.

Underwater homeowners, people who owe more on their home then what it is worth, have had their lives ripped apart. The blame falls squarely on Wall Street fraud that crashed our economy just a few years ago. But while the banks prosper because taxpayers bailed them out, millions of homeowners are now faced with their entire life savings gone, the fear of foreclosure looming over their heads, and the enormous uncertainty of whether they can provide for their children keeping them awake at night.

Principal reduction is the bold plan we need to fix the housing crisis, create jobs, and reset the economy. We are calling on President Obama and Governor Romney to make housing and its tie to our country’s economic recovery a key issue this election season and to support bold solutions like principal reduction to fix the housing crisis, create jobs and reset our economy.

The Underwater Voter is the Soccer Mom of 2012 — and our political candidates need to earn their vote.

Anita Hohenstein, Edgebrook Covenant Church

After retiring from the AT&T regulatory department in 2008, Anita Hohenstein became more active in Edgebrook Covenant by volunteering at A Just Harvest. Anita has done everything from plating food to serving patrons to cleaning up. She loves to interact with the patrons and enjoys bringing the food to them. She continues to volunteer at A Just Harvest because she believes that she has a servant’s heart and likes the feeling of serving those in need.

Anita grew up in La Porte, Indiana then moved to Chicago, then to Milwaukee and back to Chicago with her husband Tom. Tom, a retired captain from the Chicago Fire Department, and Anita have two daughters - Emily and Ana. Ana has also volunteered at AJH with Anita. Together the family loves to travel to places such as Guatemala, Italy, Spain, California, and Colorado.

Anita also volunteers at the American Cancer Society by driving patients to their appointments. She also volunteered at the bakery at Misericordia. In her free time, Anita likes to spend time in the garden, cook, and read for her book club. She is the co-leader of the crocheting/knitting ministry at Edgebrook Covenant Church known as Crafty Angels, which has donated bags and bags of hand knit scarves and hats for our patrons. Anita also considers herself a foodie and loves to eat Thai and Indian food.

Flora Coleman, Rogers Park Presbyterian Church

Flora Coleman has been preparing delicious casseroles and spaghetti for A Just Harvest through Rogers Park Presbyterian Church for two years and has absolutely loved it. The dishes are hearty meals and Flora is proud to lend her talent to a great cause. She finds it rewarding to volunteer at AJH because she is helping her own community. Flora believes that people truly need one another for support and encouragement and that AJH is a place where people can experience both.

Flora grew up with 9 brothers and sisters. She is married and has four children and a granddaughter. Flora has had a large passion for cooking since a young age when her grandmother taught her how to make fried chicken and greens. Flora’s favorite dish to make and eat is rib tips. In her free time Flora enjoys reading, cleaning, and helping out at Rogers Park Presbyterian.

Flora was born and raised in Chicago and has always found it important to help others, especially in the kitchen. AJH is special to Flora because it builds community and allows for people to relate with one another. Flora plans on adding on to her volunteer duties and by coming to the Community Kitchen to serve the food that she has prepared off-site for our patrons.

Kim Schuman and Kim Lattin, Willow Creek North Shore

Kim Schuman is the Willow Creek North Shore volunteer coordinator for her congregation’s service on the fourth Friday of every month. She recruits church members to plate and serve the chicken and rice dinner they serve that day.

Time at A Just Harvest is a family experience for Kim: her daughters, husband, and sister volunteer with her.  Family is very important to Kim and she loves spending time with them at church and home.  Kim has also brought many of her friends to volunteer at the Community Kitchen.

Kim is very active at Willow Creek. Kim and her family have helped do seed packing for the church, sending plant seeds to Zimbabwe to help start gardens. The plants include many types of vegetables like tomatoes and cabbage. In general, religion is valued in the Schuman household and participating at Willow Creek is central to their lives.

Kim was born and raised in Chicago and now lives in Niles. She is active in advocacy events for Lupus including a support group and a fundraising walk.

Kim loves AJH because of the friendly and familiar faces she gets to encounter. Kim finds hunger to be an important issue to combat because of her personal experience and the belief that everyone should have a support system in their lives.

Kim Lattin graciously donates the surplus food from a Thursday night pre-class dinner held at Willow Creek Community Church North Shore.

A Just Harvest gladly excepts donations of food left over from events on the same day or day after as long as it has not been on a buffet line and has been properly refrigerated.  The food comes from various restaurants in the Northfield area. Kim has been delivering this food for the last three years.

Kim takes the time to give to AJH because she wants to share the blessings in her life. She describes it as her humble gratitude. She has been volunteering on mission trips since she was young, but this is the first time she has led volunteer projects. She has also helped facilitate military care packages to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Kim has been at Willow Creek for eight years.  She truly loves her job and her coworkers. They describe her as humble and dependable.  Willow Creek members are always looking to Kim for advice or help. Kim is the co-leader of the divorce and separation recovery group at the church and also leads the 40+ singles group.

Kim enjoys traveling on vision trips with Willow Creek including a fantastic trip to Guatemala. Kim has also been to Argentina, Chile, and Europe. She has 2 children that currently reside in California. Kim grew up in Morton Grove and today lives in Glenview.

by Kristi Sanford

Editors Note: As we publish these volunteer profiles, it is amazing to reflect upon how many of our volunteers have been with us for more than a decade.  Monica and Julia have been working with us for 15 years!  Our staff and patrons are truly blessed to have such long-standing relationships with so many of our volunteers!  If you’d like to join with us to celebrate their gifts and help raise much needed funds for A Just Harvest, please purchase a ticket or make a donation to our 9th Annual Awards Banquet & Benefit on Sunday, October 14.

Monica Geocaris, Community Church of Wilmettte

Monica Geocaris was born and raised in northwest Kansas. After she left home, Monica lived in Denver where she met John, her future husband.  Although Colorado was near and dear to her heart, they relocated to Wilmette so John could enter the family business his father was anxious to retire from.  John’s dad founded Barnaby’s Pizza, and although the family sold the restaurant chain years ago, the company, Little Lady Foods, Inc., now contract manufactures fine food products for other companies under the direction of John and his brother.

Volunteering for A Just Harvest has been a part of Monica’s life for the past 15 years.  It’s ironic that she took over when another congregation member moved to Colorado.  Although she’s made a great life for herself in our fine Midwestern state, she still misses the West.  Knowing her neighbors are hungry makes her uncomfortable and that is what has driven her to help those in need.  That, and the example her parents set.  She likes Pastor Marilyn’s vision of being so successful at fixing the root causes of hunger and poverty that we can put ourselves out of business as a Community Kitchen.  But in the meantime, she plans to keep feeding the hungry.

Monica’s work at A Just Harvest includes organizing volunteers and delivering and serving a lasagna meal with other members and friends of Community Church of Wilmette on the second Wednesday of every month.  At this point, with the help of her other volunteers, it’s a well-oiled machine, and they enjoy dinner together at a nearby restaurant following their meal service.  Monica, along with Judy Smith, Debbie Sayles and Jeanne Winter,  also organized “Bella Notte” an Italian-themed fundraising dinner in her congregation’s hall. The event raised $8,000 for a Just Harvest from a combination of ticket sales, a silent auction and a live auction.

Monica has a Master Gardener Degree and an Ornamental Plants Certificate from the Chicago Botanic Garden.  She volunteers there in Plant Information and works part-time in garden design.  In the future, she would like offer her assistance in creating community gardens so that those who don’t usually have access to fresh produce can, at least seasonally.

Julia Joehl, St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church

Julia Joehl is the face of A Just Harvest at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church of Wilmette.  She has been coordinating our partnership for more than 15 years, and every time she stands to make an announcement, congregation members know that she’ll be asking for additional volunteers.

Julia has been a special education teacher for pre-kindergarten students at a Chicago Public School in the Edison Park neighborhood for the last 21 years. Julia loves her work, saying “I work with children who have severe multiple disabilities and with their parents. My job is challenging and very rewarding. It’s the best job in the city.”

Julia and her husband Raymond, who is a general surgeon with the Veterans Administration, have six children and two grandchildren.  Three of their six children are blind and have benefitted tremendously from amazing teachers and the commitment of the North Shore public school districts to meet the needs of children with disabilities.

At the end of this year, Julia will be turning over her responsibility for coordinating St. Augustine’s service at A Just Harvest to Mary Whitely.  We are so grateful to Julia for all her years of service!

Terry Carmichael, Sacred Heart Parish

Terry Carmichael has been volunteering at A Just Harvest through Sacred Heart Parish in Winnetka for the past ten years.  As with most ministries, it is in giving that we receive:  Each time Terry serves, she is certain her sharing of time and energy is nothing compared to the joy she receives from this experience.

Helayne Levin, Temple Judea Mizpah