City and state officials and the Puerto Rican communtiy gather at the Puerto Rican Veteran's Memorial. Mayor Michelle Wu's Acquisition Opportunity Program (AOP) is celebrated. Girl Scouts join the Greater Boston Food Bank to fight hunger during the holidays. Boston students help shape the future of BPS Eats and the food served at Boston Public Schools. In honor of National Family Literacy Month, author Jessie Janowitz talks about her new book All The Ways To Go.
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(upbeat music) - Good evening Boston, welcome to BNN News. It's Friday, November 15th, 2024. I'm Natalie Candler, thanks for tuning in. A heartfelt ceremony at the Veterans Memorial honored generations of servicemen and women of Puerto Rican heritage whose bravery and sacrifice have shaped our nation. - In celebration of Veterans Day, city and state leaders joined the Puerto Rican community at the Puerto Rican Veterans Memorial to honor fallen soldiers who gave their lives for our nation. - We know by the numbers that Puerto Ricans are twice as likely to serve in the armed forces as a general population. Twice as likely to say goodbye to friends and family, to serve overseas, twice as likely to risk their lives in the line of duty to keep the rest of us safe. This community has stepped up generation after generation to fight for the best version of who we are. - We thank our veterans for being justice seekers, for being resilient movement builders, and as so many brave servicemen and women have shown fears that they have been fierce defenders of democracy and freedom. They have been American patriots. What has fueled them and everything that they have done has been a love of country. Your contributions and sacrifices have strengthened our communities and fortified the very foundation of this nation. - Puerto Ricans proudly claim their American identity as well as their vibrant culture. It's this pride that has led so many brave Puerto Ricans to join the US military and dedicate their lives to serving and protecting. - Puerto Rican men and women have served in all branches of the armed forces, participating in conflicts from Vietnam to Afghanistan to have brought honor and distinction to their communities embodying values of loyalty and sacrifice. Today, Puerto Rican veterans represent the rich diversity and unity that strengthens our city and these United States. Their contributions have helped shape our nation's history and their legacy of service continues to inspire future generations. - Today was a special day, veterans day for all veterans, not only Puerto Rican veterans, but we are proud to be Puerto Rican. We serve the nation and we are serving both men and women that serve the United States of America. And I think that the important thing is that we respect, that we honor all the service that has been provided by men and women in this country. - Over 200,000 brave service men and women from the island of Puerto Rico have served in the United States military since 1899, and not including Puerto Ricans, who reside in the continental U.S. - Boston is making strides in affordable housing with a new milestone aimed at protecting renters and stabilizing the neighborhoods of East Boston, Dorchester, and Chinatown. - Mayor Michelle Wu's Acquisition Opportunity Program or AOP, has now secured 1,000 housing units for long-term affordability across the city, keeping residents in place and maintaining stable rents. - There are many investors looking to purchase buildings in Boston, and these purchases, as we all know, we know too well, often have very, very sad endings, with residents being displaced by unreasonable rent increases or condo conversions. The acquisitions being celebrated today have stopped the speculation, and the converted buildings will become community assets for decades to come. Not only will these acquisitions provide stability for our families and neighborhoods, they will convert at-risk rental properties into permanent affordable housing that will serve generations of Boston renters. - The Acquisition Opportunity Program launched in 2016 with a goal preserving 1,000 rental units by 2030. Thanks to Accelerated Investment, Boston hit that target five years ahead of schedule. - Me and my neighbor and our family can be able to live without having to worry, not having to go outside and be like, "Oh my God, you know, "the landlord's there again, he's gonna sell it." All that is over. We're able to raise our family, and we pray that this helps others, because it's very, very important that others in their family that can't afford housing is able to be stable, because when you're stable, you raise a stable family. - City officials and community organizers join residents to celebrate AOP's milestone, emphasizing the program's importance in keeping Boston affordable for long-time residents. - What we have today here at this celebration is a collaborative effort between tenants, the mayor's office, organizers on the ground, working with tenants to resist moving out, resisting notices to quit, being able to have their home purchased by a non-profit Boston neighborhood community land trust that is gonna keep them in their homes forever. And they'll never have to worry about another notice to quit, they'll never have to worry about rising evictions. - We believe so deeply and so strongly in the acquisition opportunity program, because we know that it is easier to prevent, to preserve housing, to prevent displacement than it is to create that new unit of housing. So the more that we can do, the more that we can do to keep people in their homes and in their houses and to prevent that displacement and to prevent the gentrification that comes with that displacement, the better off we all are. - So many people want to live in this great city, but I think it's so important to make sure that the individuals, the communities, I mean the people that live inside the communities already have the ability to stay in the community, and that's what AOP gives up the opportunity to do, to stabilize communities, stabilize rents, and stabilize individuals in the city that they love. - With plans to add another 350 affordable units by 2026, Boston's acquisition opportunity program continues to set a model for cities nationwide, in combating displacement and keeping communities intact. - This week, BNN News learned how a group of Girl Scouts turned cookies into a lifeline for families in need, joining Greater Boston Food Bank's holiday mission to fight hunger across Massachusetts. - The Greater Boston Food Bank is renowned for serving residents all year long by providing nutritious food for those in need, but each holiday season, the Greater Boston Food Bank, gathers hundreds of people to distribute over 1200 turkeys. - The Greater Boston Food Bank kicked off their 19th chain of giving today, and why is it important? We believe that food is right for everyone, and today we kick off the holiday season while it brings attention to the fact that one in three people are hungry in our state. We want to make sure that people are aware that it's a matter of importance all year long. And now, they've added a refrigeration room that will allow them to store and distribute ain't to 10 million more pounds of produce, dairy, and eggs. - Our core competency is to distribute healthy meals to that 1.9 million residents in the Commonwealth. We need to make sure they don't go to bed hungry, we need to make sure they don't wake up hungry, and together we can end hunger here. - With one in three people food insecurity Massachusetts, it's now more important than ever to team up and provide residents with holiday meals so every family has the chance to celebrate. - Nearly 43% of Boston adults face food insecurity at some point in the last calendar year. And we know that families of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and families with children are much more likely to experience food insecurity than their neighbors. Having food in your fridge and on the table should not be a privilege. It should be a basic guarantee, a basic human necessity. - We are making a meaningful difference in that one out of three families, 30% of families in Massachusetts, and it's higher when it comes to communities of color, where we are experiencing kids going to bed sometimes not with a full belly or waking up and not necessarily having a nutritious meal. That's the work that all of you are doing here by supporting this amazing organization. - In a display of generosity and kindness, after learning about food insecurity in Massachusetts, Girl Scout troop 64049 donated all of their 2024 cookie sales to the greater Boston food bank, prompting them to receive the Narrowing Award for fighting hunger in the commonwealth. - Knowing that some people go to sleep with an empty stomach makes it's really sad because they should go to sleep with a full stomach so that they are healthy and nice. And some people who don't have that much food aren't healthy and they should be healthy. - The generosity of everyone involved, served as a reminder that we all have the ability to combat hunger, whether through donations, advocacy, volunteering, or even selling cookies. (cheering) - In a push to improve school meals, Boston students are helping shape the future of BPS eats, which is serving locally sourced nutritious food to support both their health and academic success. - Last Thursday, the quality of lunches being served to students by the BPS Food and Nutrition Service was evaluated for its efficiency. - When students eat high fat sugar laden foods, they're not able to focus and learn. And when they eat healthy whole foods, particularly fresh ones, and in a Boston who looks schools, they're fresh, healthy, and local, we know that they're ready for the school day. They can be focused and learn and take what they're learning and apply it in their lives. - Mayor Michelle Wu and BPS Superintendent Mary Skipper joined students at the Ellison Park's Early Education School to discuss the progress being made by BPS Eats in providing their students with nutritious, locally sourced food. - The fact that we're developing a global menu to make sure students that are exposed to different kinds of food and they develop taste for it, and that it's coming from Farmer Joe and other farmers as locally grown, sustained, important to the economy and protecting those farms, this is really the village coming together. And our students in BPS are benefiting from that. - In Boston Public Schools, our lunches and our meals aren't just checking the box on the various rules and regulations, but they really are what our students want to eat and are healthy and nutritious and exciting, representing the full diversity of the cultures and communities and backgrounds that all of our students bring to this amazing city. - And students had a voice at this round table discussion about the importance of quality school meals being served in their institutions. - BPS, it is healthy because it has very nice nutrition and it doesn't have too much sugar and it doesn't give you a sugar rush, but so much junk can make you very tired, but the BPS eat gives you more energy and more nutrition for your body. - Boston Public Schools and local food providers are committed to continuing to serve students with the best nutrition they can. - It's just such a joy to see that kids are getting incredibly high quality food, featuring the freshest local ingredients and to know that the dollar spent on that food are staying here in our local economy. It's really, as Joe said, a win for our kids, a win for farmers and a win for our communities. - In the age of social media, reading aloud as a family seems to have faded into the background, but studies show that reading as a family teaches children empathy, critical thinking skills and creates tighter bonds in the family unit. In honor of National Family Literacy Month, we invited author Jesse Janowitz, whose new book All the Ways to Go is a perfect read for families who want to incorporate reading into the home. Enjoy the interview. Let's start by talking about the book All the Ways to Go. What is it and what inspired you to write it? - So All the Ways to Go is a story about a kid named Milo who was a chest prodigy and he loved playing chess more than anything in the world and his mother gave him all the support and one day he woke up and he didn't love it the way he always did. And so the book isn't really about chess or any particular passion, but about that moment that so many kids and even adults feel where, I mean, especially for kids growing up, I think suddenly you're not the person you were the day before and it's so confusing. And then to add to that the pressure of then having to tell someone you love that maybe the thing that you think made them so proud of you you no longer want to do anymore, which I feel like is a really universal theme. So because he tells this lie because he can't tell his mother the truth, he ends up in a summer of nothing going his way in these hysterical situations until he finally learns to come clean. - Awesome, well, I mean, that's a very relatable story. From, like you said, people of all ages that really I feel like strikes with younger people, middle school, college, high school age where you're trying to figure it out, you think you know one thing and then you wake up and you know nothing. You know, lately technology and everything has taken over. Why do you think it's important to have these types of media to give something to kids that relate to that isn't just TikTok or YouTube or whatever, something that they can read and have their own interpretation of what do you think that's important in a day like today? - Real connection, I think requires engagement. When you are looking at your phone, I know myself, you're not, your brain isn't engaging because there's, it's not requiring you to do anything. What's amazing about when you connect with a book is that you're engaging your imagination. It's active. And so I think that's why research has shown that reading 10 pages, only 10 pages of fiction a day really increases people's mental health because it's this cathartic moment, it's a real break from other things. If you're multitasking, you're not actually connected to anything. You're kind of in this just kind of like zoned out period. And I think we feel when we have this moment of connection with a book, not only are we able to engage in some complicated issues, but we're also exercising our imaginations and our brains and learning how to be more empathetic because we're putting ourselves in a character's state of mind. - Absolutely, and November is National Family Literacy Month. We see studies saying literacy is going down amongst all age groups, especially younger kids. Why is it important to promote specifically literacy in the family? - So all the ways to go and my new book and my other books, The Donut Fix and The Donut King, I wrote not only specifically with kids in mind to connect with them, I write in the first person because I feel like a first person narrative feeling like a character is really reaching out to you, makes it easier for both adults and kids to connect with books, but I specifically write them with a lot of humor and as a family read aloud. I think it's so, so important to be able to connect through books. I think I'm a huge fan of audio books. I think when you're in a car, some of my favorite moments with my kids are ones where we were all laughing together. I have memories of us pulling in some place to a restaurant or wherever we were going and the kids saying, "Wait, don't turn it off. "Let's just sit in the car and listen to the end "of the chapter." And that moment creating those moments together also becomes a gateway to discussion about whether it's all the ways to go and how to have difficult conversations with your parents to, in my book The Donut Fix, there's one character who's really good at school and her brother isn't and how to have those conversations about you just need to find your own passion, don't need to be good at everything. I think those are so, so important that we have those moments to connect with our kids through books. One of my favorite emails was I got it during COVID and it was from a mom who said, who was thanking me for my first book, The Donut Fix and she said her kids were on Zoom, her husband was working from home, the kids were completely unfocused in the morning, they only had Zoom school in the morning, she had three kids and every afternoon she would read them a chapter of the book. And she said not only was it great because they were all connecting together but she said her husband who was supposed to be working in the next room was giggling along with them. So I just love that and I think it's a really great example about how even in the most difficult moments books and stories can connect us all. - Absolutely and I even have similar stories. I remember sitting in the car with my mom listening to children's books on audio and being able to create that story in my mind and close my eyes and see it all right there and that's so much special, so much more special, excuse me, than watching a movie or seeing the TV adaptation, which are great and fine but we need to find a way to create a, find a way to create something in our brains without the exterior media, right? - Absolutely and one thing that was always so fascinating to me was sometimes my kids would bring something up and I said I would say well how do you know that? And they'd say oh it was in the tales of the fourth grade, nothing or it was in some book that we listened to, it also my kids language, their ability to use language was really impacted by reading aloud to them by audio books. I think that not only are your kids going to accumulate vocabulary faster, they're going to become more persuasive storytellers and if we're being 100% honest every job in the world requires you to be a persuasive storyteller and when I go into schools in particular when I'm talking to eighth graders who are kind of jaded and they say why should I care, there's chat GPT, why is being able to connect with a book important to me and I love that challenge and what I say to them is look, even if you're not going to become a writer, every job from being a lawyer to making arguments in a courtroom to being a climatologist and trying to explain to a room full of donors what polar bears are experiencing, you need to write in your college essays, you need to be able to tell a persuasive story, what's a persuasive story, a persuasive story is one that makes you care. Well, how do you figure out how to tell a story that makes you care? You have to figure it out from the perspective of a reader first, so if you don't understand what about a story makes you care, you're not going to be able to flip it around and become the storyteller who's telling stories that make other people care. - Right, it's about creating that connection between your mind and how you want other people to say. - Absolutely. - So you're making me so excited about this book, could you read a small excerpt for it? - Sure, sure, I'd love to show it to you. - So I'm going to read apart from chapter three, this is from, so Milo, my main character has purposefully lost this chess match, which means that he has lost his scholarship to chess camp, he has no idea what he's going to do for the summer, and he's home waiting for a pizza with his mom, and this girl shows up, who he's never seen before, knocks on his door. Are you Milo, the girl with no pizza asked? Yeah, it came out as a question because what I was really saying was, where's my pizza? Maybe I should have been curious about who this kid was from the start, like, how'd she know my name and what did she want? But right then, the only question about this girl, my brain wanted answered was, why isn't she a pepperoni pizza? The girl with me up and down with her huge eyes then pointed at my bare feet. You have really long pinky toes, she wasn't wrong. I do have freakishly long pinky toes, but still, who just comes out and says that? She looked younger than me, but not young enough not to know that you don't go around pointing at people's body parts and saying stuff about them. This had to be some kind of joke. Did Henry put you up to this? She looked about the same age as Henry's sister Hazel and Henry's always razzing me about my toes, but Henry's allowed because I can always razz him back about his shark teeth and because Henry's my best friend and not a stranger who was supposed to be a pepperoni pizza. So I chose that part just because I think it showcases two things that I think are really important in middle grade fiction, which is what this is, technically for eight to 12 year olds, dialogue. Dialogue is so key. It gives you your eyes a rest on the page. And even though I don't think technology should be taking over our ability to read, we have to keep in mind that our eyes are tired from looking at screens. And so it becomes a more relaxing experience when there's more white space. Also, humor is an amazing opportunity for, sorry, dialogue's an amazing opportunity for humor. And I'm all about the humor. - I love it. - I'm all about the humor. - That was so funny. I love the pepperoni pizza bit, that's great. - Thank you. - Thank you for watching Boston. That's our broadcast for tonight. As a reminder, you can stream or watch the news on demand@bnnmedia.org. Each episode will be rebroadcast at 9.30pm and 11pm on an XFINITY CHANNEL 9, a STOWN CHANNEL 15, and FiOS CHANNEL 2161. And make sure to check out our BNN HD XFINITY CHANNEL 1072. You can also hear us on the radio Fridays at 7.30 and 9pm and Monday through Thursday at 9pm. And now you can watch BNN News on the go with the cable cast app. For BNN News, I'm Natalie Candler. I'll see you next Friday. [BLANK_AUDIO]