Photo by Win Henderson / FEMA photo. Wikimedia Commons
WHEN: Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
WHERE: Unitarian Universalist Churchm 10 Putnam Street, Roxbury
***Bring your laptops***

Hi SPJNErs and prospective SPJNE members,

Please join me and other journalism veterans and journalism students as we embark on a project to help the not-for-profit, Boston-based food rescue organization Fair Foods create a closer relationship between its 40 managers and 400 volunteers and the customers they serve. Fair Foods distributes fresh produce and quality building supplies to low income communities throughout New England.

The objective of this project is to create a simple, three to four paragraph profile that can be included in the $2 bag of fresh produce sold every day in the affluent parts of our city. Each SPJNE volunteer will interview as many Fair Foods volunteers and shoot a photo of the volunteer in action. They’ll then edit both to create a brief profile. Questions will include the obvious (what is your name, where are you from, how did you get involved) to the illustrative (what do you like to do in your free time, tell me a little bit about yourself).

We’ll start with the 20 or so volunteers or managers who work Saturdays from 10am-3pm at the Unitarian Universalist Church site at 10 Putnam Street, in Roxbury. Journalism students will collect questions on each volunteer and take a photo. After the shift is done, veterans will help our j-school student edit what we’ve got. We’ll then provide the proofs to Fair Foods for them to print up and/or post on their site.

Those who want to get more deeply involved will help facilitate the translation of these brief biographies into the target languages of the customers: Spanish, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Chinese, Cape Verde dialect, Creole, and Somali. Our immediate objective will be English. We’ll worry about the translations later.

If you think you’re up to this OR if you think you can help edit this effort please contact me, Bill Marcus, SPJNE Vice President at this email bill@billmarcus.com or by phone at 518-364-2356 or Jordan Frias, SPJNE President at jfirasspj@gmail.com or 401-965-1452.

For helping, you’ll be able to take home a bag of fresh produce, free.

Thanks!
Bill Marcus
Vice President, New England Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists