All People Making a Difference
Difference MakerRelief from the fields: Tackling food waste, hunger in one swoopMore than 38 million Americans face food insecurity. ProduceGood gets fresh fruits and vegetables to people who may otherwise have none.
Difference MakerSowing dignity: Vertical Harvest grows produce – and communityThis Wyoming greenhouse provides meaningful employment for people with disabilities, planting seeds of dignity to cultivate robust lives and professional success.
Difference Maker‘El Librotraficante’: Getting banned Latino books into readers’ handsTony Diaz has spent two decades stitching together a network that encourages Latino writers and readers to treasure their stories – and themselves.
Difference MakerIn Cleveland, fine dining serves up training – and dignity – after prisonInspired by his own experience, a chef offers an instructional approach in which skills and dignity are both key ingredients to helping formerly incarcerated people get back on their feet.
Christine M’Lot breathes new life into Indigenous educationA spirit of Indigenous renewal is helping to transform education in Canada, giving voice to silent histories and reviving Indigenous methods of learning.
Difference MakerSchool on Wheels delivers tutoring – and hope – for homeless studentsThousands of homeless students in LA are matched with tutors and get school supplies through the nonprofit School on Wheels.
From soup to jobs: How Boston’s Haley House builds communityHaley House is more than a soup kitchen. The organization’s live-in model takes a holistic approach to combating homelessness and food insecurity.
Difference MakerMeet the volunteers maintaining the Appalachian TrailDedication. Love. Humility. Those are just a few of the qualities volunteers who maintain the Appalachian Trail bring to the paths year after year.
Laughing Bear Bakery has a recipe for a fresh start out of prisonHiring at Laughing Bear Bakery is aimed at those with a criminal record – it’s a place to give them skills and the space to start anew without stigma.
Difference MakerGame changer: How Sam Wasser became the ivory detectiveSam Wasser developed forensics to link poaching to perpetrators, and a new center brings together scientists and governments to expand the work.
Difference MakerHelping homeless moms ‘get their shot’ at opportunity and educationHomeless mothers get life-changing emotional, financial, and professional mentoring – not just money – from the Hearts of Gold nonprofit program.
Meet the nurdle hunter combing the beach for hidden pollutionMark McReynolds’ nurdle hunters scour the sands for a tiny pollutant most beachgoers don’t even know exists.
Difference MakerSponsor Circle opens hearts and homes to Afghan refugeesAfghan refugees are finding their resilience bolstered by one-on-one relationships that nurture transitions to life in the U.S. after upheaval.
Preserved by students, WWII internment camp becomes national parkFor decades, Colorado students have preserved a World War II Japanese American internment camp to honor those relocated there. Now it will be a national park.
How to help Ukraine? A sampling of charitable efforts.Dozens of charitable groups are feeding, sheltering, and assisting those in Ukraine and the more than 3 million people who have fled the war. Here are a few of those organizations helping out.
Difference MakerA secret town’s renewal, from radioactive cleanup to recycling jobsNorthern Estonia once fueled the USSR’s nuclear arsenal. Tõnis Kaasik cleaned up the radioactive waste and created jobs for the Russians left behind.
At 82, she coded an app. She just wanted a game she could win.Technology serves as a gateway to new skills and social opportunities. Wakamiya Masako is making sure fellow seniors aren’t left behind.
Growing Griots: Modern-day storytelling shapes young people’s identitiesGrowing Griots: Modern-day storytelling builds confidence and bridges cultural divides.
Difference MakerRhythmic gymnastics: One man’s fight for equalityPeterson Ceus is creating space for men in rhythmic gymnastics, hoping to change ideas about what the sport should look like.
‘You are not alone’: Love For Our Elders offers embrace via lettersLove For Our Elders volunteers write and send letters to older people around the globe to help remedy their isolation.
