Kroger closings in SE Raleigh

As a resident of Knightdale/southeast Raleigh, I was very saddened to see in the news this week that Kroger grocery stores are planning to close two of their Southeast Raleigh stores.  This saddens me not only because Kroger is where I regularly shop and track points for coupons and gas discounts but even further upsets me because it is yet another resource being stripped from the people who live in this region.  According to an article on the WRAL website (linked below), Southeast Raleigh is recognized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a "food desert," an urban low-income area where the poverty rate is at least 20 percent and at least 33 percent of residents have low access to a supermarket or large grocery store.
For many Southeast Raleigh residents, this is the only walkable grocery store from their homes and they do not have transportation and will therefore have to use public transit to get groceries.  This WRAL article:  http://www.wral.com/kroger-stores-closing-in-southeast-raleigh/11826959/ shows a map with the lack of grocery stores in the Southeast Raleigh region.  For some, the next nearest grocery store is several miles away.  Some local residents are interiviewed in this article and mention that they'll have to take a bus or two buses just to get food home.  Terrible.  I look at the jobs that will be lost by these employees, many of which are already considered to be in a low-income bracket, now left fearing for their futures just as the new year begins.  The stores are slated to close in mid-January. 

Per the article previously mentioned:  http://www.wral.com/Raleigh-nonprofit-gets-refund-ahead-of-Krogers-closings/11849844/  Raleigh Mayor Nancy McFarlane and members of the City Council are working on a letter to send to the Ohio-based company asking it to reconsider closing its stores on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and New Bern Avenue.

City leaders and residents say they are concerned about the local economy and about the ease of access to food for the community.  According to one of the articles, "Carl York, advertising and public relations manager for Kroger's mid-Atlantic marketing region, said in a statement Thursday that the two stores that are closing operated for more than a decade without a profit and that keeping them open is no longer 'financially feasible'."  I am actually surprised to read this since the store along New Bern Avenue I shop at is always busy; the parking lot always full.  The location along Martin Luther King Blvd seems to be busy often too.  I don't understand, however, why they need to close both.  Perhaps they should keep at least one of them open; especially the MLK Blvd location as it's the only grocery store for several miles in that vicinity. 

This is an absolute concern for me as well and I plan to advocate for those stores to stay open.  If you want to join my Twitter march to advocate for residents in SE Raleigh and for Kroger to stay open:

Send messages to Kroger on Twitter at:  @KrogerCo 

And send messages to Raleigh Government & Governor Nancy McFarlane at:  @RaleighGov

Thanks!

Intoxication Destination

With so much discussion this semester about Hurricane Katrina and the shambles it's left New Orleans in on so many levels, I thought it was interesting to find this recent episode of Drugs, INC. that discusses briefly the increases of drug abuse that have resulted. 

The full episode "Hurricane Blow" aired a week or two ago and according to the National Geogaphic channel's website will air again on December 11th if anyone is interested in viewing it.  Here is a brief 3-minute excerpt:
http://www.hulu.com/#!watch/427081

It states that nearly 400,000 people were displaced from their homes due to Katrina.  As we know, mental health issues increased drastically following the storm.  Many suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.  As a result, according to the feature, many became addicted to drugs as a way to stay numb and avoid thinking about the pain and stress.  One of the dealers they interviewed discusses how he personally knows many people who accept money from the Red Cross and instead of buying homes or food they would support their drug addiction.  It's truly sad.

So much devestation has effected the people of this region and even now, seven years after the storm they are still struggling with what it did to them emotionally and psychologically.  They need help and so I wanted to share with you some organizations in that region that are specifically working with victims of the storm and people in NOLA with drug addictions.

If you'd like to support, here are a few of the many organizations offering support to residents of this region:

REACH NOLA: http://reachnola.org/

Healing Hearts NOLA:  http://www.healingheartsnola.org/

Addiction Recovery Resources, Inc.:  http://www.arrno.org/

Louisiana Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters:  http://lavoad.org/services/

Get Up & Get Moving!

I think most of us become more sedentary in the winter months. If you're anything like me, you find it difficult to maintain a workout routine in the winter either because it gets dark early so your outdoor activity is limited, or because it's so cold in the morning that you hate leaving your cozy, warm bed to go out into the cold to head to the gym.   All of this is true for me.  That, and my travel and recruitment with work is over and so I find myself sitting, day-after-day at my desk reading files, answering calls and emails.  I always joke that I feel myself gaining weight as I sit there; sitting and snacking when I get bored of sitting.  If you find yourself sitting more than you used to, this blog is for you........

Weight gain isn't the only negative result of being more sedentary.  Someone took it upon themselves to bring a little truth to the walls of our office a few months back and hung up a very insightful, yet somewhat depressing (especially to those who are required by work to sit all day) set of statics and data about sitting. 
I was able to find it online; here is the link to it if you'd like to read it:  http://brainz.org/truth-about-sitting-down/

Some of the statistics it quotes are:
*Sitting increases risk of death up to 40%  (sitting 6+ hours/day makes you 40% more likely to die within the next 15 years than someone who sits less than 3; even if you exercise. 

*People with sitting jobs have twice the rate of cardiovascular disease as people with standing jobs.

*Those who sit 3 hours or more per day watching TV are 64% more likely to die from heart disease


Theses are some staggering statistics!  So, because your health should always be a top priority to you.  I wanted to share some helpful tips I use to get up and moving and some new techniques I found online that I plan to incorporate in my routine as well:

1-- Park far away and walk to office/class
2-- Get up once an hour to walk around & get blood flowing
3--Take stairs instead of elevator
4--Flex muscles (abs, legs, glutes, biceps) and hold for 10-second intervals when sitting at desk
5--Do wall-sits
6--Leg lunges or squats
7-- Push-ups against wall
8--Do dips on a chair or table (dips= arm workout for triceps)
9-- Go walking over your lunch break (I sometimes bring a change of clothes) or hit the gym at lunch
10-- Use stretch bands to works legs/hips while sitting (see below)
11--Replace your chair with an exercise ball--or-- heighten your desk so you can stand instead of sit
12--Prepare healthy snacks:  raw veggies and fruit, yogurt, almonds or mixed nuts, wheat crackers and peanut butter-- healthy snacks fill you up more quickly and often times provide fiber and protien for energy. 

This  helpful website shows videos of workouts you can do in your office:
http://www.sportsandfitnessideas.com/video/fitness/strength-endurance-training/exercises/tips-exercising-office

Get up and get moving!  It could save your life!



If I have to sit on my bum all day, I may as well work-it while I'm workin!  Stretch bands and yes....that's right folks, a thigh master!!!!!  LOL LOL



From Cellblock to Campus

I recently came across this article:  From Cellblock to Campus... when reading a monthly publication "The Chronicle of Higher Education" that my Director regularly passes around the office.  This particular article grabbed my attention for several reasons.... First because it makes reference to university admissions processes collecting background information on applicants and secondly because it's a common hot topic in higher education to create pathways to success and mentoring programs to increase college/university enrollment, retention, and graduation rates for minority males. 

Over the years we've heard news programs and politicians quote statistics that indicate there are more black men in prisons across the US than in colleges.  This article addresses some of those statistics which thankfully are no longer true and overviews some of the true challenges young Black and Hispanic men face today.  Of course, considering it's title, the main purpose of the article is to prove that there are many young men out there who may have committed crimes but have served time and paid their debt to society and learned from these mistakes and while they may want to move on and put this crime behind them, so many barriers prohibit them from doing so and moving on.  A great success story told in the article is that of Walter Fortson who was arresed on drug charges at the age of 25 but served his time and during his six years in prison he was fortunate to meet an associate professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey who tutors inmates and runs a re-entry program that helps felons go from prison to college.  What an awesome program!  I would love to learn more about this program and others like it that exist.  Fortson is now an honor student in his senior year at Rutgers and he aspires to attain a PhD and inspire other young men. 

Coming from the university admissions perspective, I understand the need to ask for background checks on people with criminal backgrounds.  This office and the Office of Student Conduct is responsible for the safety of all students on campus and must monitor who we are admitting. I would certainly hope, however, that they're fully evaluating the situation to be fair and provide an opportunity for a second chance to someone who has served their time and/or has been rehabilitated.  It would be wonderful if on our campus a mentorship program for incarcerated students to later enroll existed, especially considering our close proximity to a state prison. 

What I found most compelling about the article reminded me of a conversation I had with Dr. Hayes a few weeks ago about the push-out of students from school.  Yes, the high school drop out rates are high for minority males but it's because they're not receiving the support and the resources they need in school or oftenly not at home either.  They are essentially being pushed out, not dropping out.  One doctoral candidate is quoted in the article as saying that "when a suburban white boy acts out, people say 'Oh, boys will be boys...' and they are allowed to grow out of those immature behaviors like smoking weed or getting in fights but in urban areas the penalty for those infractions is quite severe.  They get expelled and the expectation of being a bad child continues."  The article talks about zero-tolrance (of bad behavior) schools having high-stakes testing which provides and incentive to push out lower-performing students to raise overall test scores.  According to the article, the ACLU found that some schools use "selective discipline" to keep low-performing students out of school on testing days.  This is absolutely appaling but I'm sure it happens!  I agree that just as the article states, these youg men are criminalized before they've done anything wrong.  When they don't do well in school there aren't many opportunities for them and these zero-tolerance policy schools seem to better prepare them for prison then for college because the policies just dispose of them.  When students can't compete in school or for jobs, the criminal justice system absorbs them. 

It's really quite an impactful article but my take-away from it is that we absolutely need to advocate for young minority men who face so much adversity.  There are an increasing amount of programs to support these young men on many levels:  personally, professionally, academically.  I believe the programs match mentors with young men will be most influential to them.  This is one organization I've heard of that seems to be amazing:  100 Black Men of America, INC:  http://www.100blackmen.org/home.aspx  they have 116 chapters in cities all across America and ar working to build relationships and mentor future leaders who are successful in all areas of life.  Donate, be a mentor, or at least follow them on Twitter....
#100BlackMen
#Collegiate100 
#100Youth