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Cash for carrots? More school districts looking for fresh, local produce for lunch programs
What’s for lunch? For millions of school students, the answer may be fresh lettuce and tomatoes, apples and carrots grown by nearby farmers, or, in a few states, fresh lamb or haddock, raised or caught locally. Local foods, once rare on school lunch trays, are gradually becoming more available in school cafeterias as states promote […]
Advocates seek to make prison work voluntary
Prisoners making license plates is a popular stereotype, but most of the nation’s 800,000 incarcerated workers hold jobs more similar to those on the outside: They cook and serve food, mop floors, mow lawns and cut hair. Unlike other workers, though, the incarcerated have little say, if any, in what jobs they do. They face […]
State parks trying to attract more diverse visitors
As Americans plan their summer vacations, states around the country are struggling with a persistent challenge: How to attract more Black residents and other visitors of color to their parks. The racial gap in park visitation is longstanding: Officials estimate that about 3 in 4 visitors to America’s state and national parks are White, well […]
Gun storage safe is a rare moment of agreement in gun control debate
An 11-year-old boy in eastern Tennessee grabbed his father’s shotgun and fired once, killing an 8-year-old neighbor girl—because she wouldn’t let him see her puppy. The boy was convicted of murder, but the adult gun owner was not charged with a crime. In 2016, a few months after the shooting, Tennessee state Sen. Sara Kyle […]