When Bottom Dollar Food left Youngstown in 2014, the city became a food desert, meaning there were now no full service grocery stores located within the city limits. Instead of standing by, A.C.T.I.O.N. (Alliance for Congregational Change Influencing Our Neighborhoods) set out to make sure residents had access to fresh, healthy fruit, vegetables, and other grocery items. This is only one of many initiatives undertaken by the organization to ensure residents are protected and safe.
A.C.T.I.O.N. is a non-profit membership-based organization comprised of 30 institutions. In 1999, a group of pastors approached the Gamaliel Foundation to seek direction and support to build a powerful grass roots community organization. From that, A.C.T.I.O.N. was born several years later.
Executive Director Rose Carter and Pastor Jeffrey Stanford, board member, shared the many accomplishments and mission of A.C.T.I.O.N. during the 22 years they have been in existence, and the list is quite extensive.
Predatory lending was one of the first initiatives undertaken by A.C.T.I.O.N. The organization took on Vision Properties, taking 75 people by bus to South Carolina to protest the company’s unscrupulous lending practices at Vision headquarters and the CEO’s home. On February 6, 2023, their efforts came to fruition when the largest crowd in recent memory gathered at a Youngstown City Council meeting to see council members unanimously vote to end predatory land-installment contracts.
When the mayor of Youngstown declared the city a food desert in 2019, A.C.T.IO.N. declared its intention to assist others in combatting regional food insecurities, organizing twenty-one pop-up markets with local farmers. Along with Flying High, A.C.T.I.O.N. launched the Mahoning Valley Mobile Market in the spring of 2022. Over $500,000 was raised to purchase and outfit the truck, of which Rotary Club of Youngstown provided $3,000 for media to get the word out about the market. A mobile market that will serve Trumbull County is now in the works, and funds are being raised to support it.
Other key initiatives of A.C.T.IO.N. are Vote Your Faith, a get out the vote effort and Dress to Succeed, which provides clothing to those in need. Combatting racial injustice also a core value of A.C.T.I.O.N., and seeks to educate, inform, and increase awareness with an understanding how structural racism is based on white privilege deeply rooted in societal practices.
Pastor Jeff shared a story about the power of dreaming big: once upon a time, a woman was running through a field filled with daisies and grass, and ends up running into a forest. All of a sudden, her beautiful dream became a nightmare when she encountered a bear. The bear captures her, and she asks him “are you going to eat me?” To which the bear responds “This is your dream. You tell me.”
Whiskey Club Proceeds Benefit YoRo
The Youngstown Whisk(e)y Club, formed to bring whiskey lovers together to taste and share, donated the proceeds from their February raffles to Rotary Club of Youngstown. That month, $640 was raised.
The March meeting will be held on Thursday, March 30, at Prima in downtown Youngstown. Money raised will be donated to Boys and Girls Club of Youngstown.
Why are there parentheses around the “e” in whiskey? According to the club, there is some difference in the spelling – is it whiskey or whisky? But any way it’s spelled, they are willing to try it!
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