ON A BREAK

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POST ON COMPOST

Urban Composting: A New Can of Worms

By MIREYA NAVARRO

ON a recent Saturday afternoon, Stephanie Stern and her husband poured 1,000 wriggling red worms from a brown bag into a plastic bin outside their bathroom, looked down and hoped for the best.

If things went well, the worms, already burrowing into their bed of shredded newspapers, would soon be eating three pounds of food scraps a week, reducing the couple’s trash and producing fertilizer for their plants.

If not, the bin would stink up their one-bedroom apartment in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, and attract clouds of fruit flies.

“I’m a little nervous because I’ve heard the stories,” said Ms. Stern, 32, a museum educator.

Composting in New York City is not for the faint of heart. It requires commitment, space and sharing tight quarters with rotting matter and two-inch-long wiggler worms that look like pulsing vermicelli.

But an increasing number of New Yorkers have been taking up the challenge, turning their fruit skins and eggshells into nutritious crumbly soil in an effort they regard as the natural next step to recycling paper, bottles and cans. Food accounts for about 13 percent of the nation’s trash — it is the third largest component after paper and yard trimmings — and about 16 percent of New York’s.

“There’s a growing awareness of its value,” said Elizabeth Royte, the author of “Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash.” “We had a recycling revolution, now we need a composting revolution.”

Nationwide surveys by BioCycle, a monthly magazine that advocates the recycling of organic waste, have found that large-scale food composting projects among municipalities, colleges and farms nearly doubled between 2000 and 2007, to 267 from 138. Individual efforts are harder to measure, but appear to be on the rise, particularly in areas like New York City, where municipal programs are rare or nonexistent. Although some cities, like San Francisco and Seattle, offer residents regular curbside collection of food waste, large-scale composting presents challenges that may make it hard to catch on, waste-management experts say. The City of New York, which runs two compost facilities for backyard waste, has no similar program for food.

That leaves food-waste composting up to community programs and gardens that accept donations of food scraps, and to people like Ms. Stern and her husband, Chris De Pasquale, 34.

Ms. Stern had plenty of company, a few hours before the couple welcomed their 1,000 new roommates, at a workshop run by the Lower East Side Ecology Center at a library in the West Village, where a capacity crowd of about 70 people listened raptly to descriptions of how to set up and feed a “worm condo.”

The workshop covered the indoor composting method known as vermicomposting, in which worms are enlisted to speed up the decomposition of organic material, eating through scraps of it and excreting the “castings” that make up compost. (There are also commercial composters like the NatureMill, shown in the article below.) The “condo” where this should take place is a 16 1/2-inch-wide, one-foot-tall bin with air holes in which shredded newspaper sits atop green trash like the ends of carrots. Despite the enthusiasm of the audience, particularly the children, as containers of compost and worms were passed around, some of its members seemed to have misgivings. “Will the compost bin attract roaches?” one asked. (Not if you don’t let the covered bin get smelly, he was told.) “What happens when you go on vacation?” (The bin can stay unattended for up to three weeks.)

A few were trying again after unhappy first experiences.

“Everything got disgusting in there,” said Rachel Franz, 25, who tried composting in Ithaca, N.Y., in 2006, following instructions from friends. “The worms started dying, and it got really moldy,” she said. “When I opened it, the worms were trying to escape.”

If the worms want out, said Carey Pulverman, the workshop’s instructor and the project manager at the Lower East Side Ecology Center, “something is wrong.”

Happy worms eat about half their body weight in a day, and the compost is ready for harvesting in about four and half months, Ms. Pulverman said.

But if the paper is too wet, she continued, seepage or smell ensues. Certain food and organic matter is bad for indoor bins because it smells while decomposing (meat and dairy), attracts mold (bread) or may introduce insects to the bin (dry leaves).

None of this deterred Ms. Franz, the failed composter, who this time around planned to set up her bin under the kitchen sink of her father’s three-bedroom apartment in Chelsea, where she lives part of the time. Her father, she said, was resisting.

“He thinks it’s going to be a lot of work for him,” said Ms. Franz, who studied environmental science and is currently looking for work.

Experienced composters said that saving food scraps soon becomes part of a daily routine, and that the payoff is worth the extra work.

“To be actually able to reuse your food is amazing,” said Ben Stein, 30, a computer programmer who, along with his wife, Arin Kramer, 29, a nurse practitioner, composted for six years in their apartment on the Lower East Side before they moved to a brownstone in Brooklyn last year.

In Manhattan, they kept the bin under the bed, which Mr. Stein said led friends to think, “it’s disgusting, and you’re absolutely crazy.” In Boerum Hill, they can compost in their backyard (where microbial activity and decomposition slow down or stop in the winter, but pick up in the spring).

One friend recently surprised the couple by taking them up on their offer to compost his “veggie waste” for him.

“He delivered a bag of cuttings and scraps that took up half his freezer,” Mr. Stein said.

Is all this effort doing the planet good?

Composting does not have as big an environmental effect as recycling, Environmental Protection Agency figures show: recycling one ton of mixed paper is four times as effective in reducing greenhouse gas emissions as producing the same amount of compost.

But keeping food discards out of landfills does more than twice the good of keeping mixed paper out, E.P.A. officials said, because decomposing food that is buried and cut off from air releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas, at higher rates than paper. (The ventilation in composting prevents methane creation.)

The real environmental benefits, of course, come when composting is done on a large scale. Robert Lange, the recycling director at New York’s Department of Sanitation, said the city investigated this route a few years ago, testing food scrap collection in some neighborhoods but finding it a tougher sell than recycling.

“Most people will not store food waste in their apartment,” Mr. Lange said, adding that many worried about odors and vermin.

Still, groups that operate food scrap collection services say they have seen a marked jump in participation over the last year. The Lower East Side Ecology Center, which collects scraps at two Manhattan locations and runs its own food composting facility at East River Park, said that Saturday drop-offs to its Union Square Greenmarket location have nearly doubled, to almost 500 gallons.

But reducing the amount of trash produced in the first place should be the highest priority, experts say. And some note people would also do better to consider what they eat and to switch away from foods like beef, the production of which is associated with high emissions of carbon dioxide, another greenhouse gas.

Still, Mr. De Pasquale and Ms. Stern — who also get renewable power from ConEdison Solutions, a subsidiary of Con Edison that provides wind energy — are convinced they are making a difference with their at-home composting.

And after more than three weeks, the couple’s worms seemed to be doing well in their dark corner near the bathroom. So far there have been no escapes and only a slight smell that Ms. Stern said she fixed with some dry newspaper.

They plan to use the compost for their house plants and share any leftovers.

“I think it’d be a great holiday gift,” Ms. Stern said.

Her husband agreed. “We can send it out to my parents in California.”

copyright New York Times

EXTRA SERVINGS

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January 26, 2009

Editorial

The Moment for National Service

President Obama used his Inaugural Address to summon the nation to “a new era of responsibility” and personal engagement to solve the nation’s problems. He set an example by spending part of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday painting walls and furniture at a shelter for homeless teenagers.

As Mr. Obama recognizes, there are certain tasks that cannot be accomplished by volunteers showing up occasionally or contributing a few hours a week. Worthy service programs, like Teach for America, have too few slots to accommodate the rising number of applicants.

Now is the moment for the new president and Congress to harness the sense of idealism and unity evident amid the huge crowds that massed in the nation’s capital by greatly expanding the opportunities for sustained and productive national and community service.

A smart blueprint for doing exactly that was just introduced in the Senate by Edward Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat, and Orrin Hatch, Republican of Utah. Building on the ongoing success of AmeriCorps, Bill Clinton’s signature domestic service program, and relying on its administrative framework, their Serve America Act would rapidly expand the number of full-time and part-time national service volunteers eligible for minimal living expenses and a modest educational stipend at the end of an intensive year of work by 175,000 from the current level of 75,000.

The new positions would be devoted to meeting challenges in a handful of targeted areas: tackling the dropout crisis, strengthening schools, improving health care and economic opportunity in low-income communities, cleaning up parks, aiding efforts to boost energy efficiency, and responding to disasters and emergencies.

The Serve America Act is structured to invite participation by people of all income levels and ages, including retirees. It would offer tax incentives for employers who allow employees to take paid leave for full-time service, and permit older individuals to transfer their education awards to a child or grandchild. A new Volunteer Generation Fund would help nonprofit groups recruit and manage an expanding pool of volunteers.

Much as President Franklin Roosevelt created the Civilian Conservation Corps during the early days of his first term in 1933, Mr. Obama should tell Congress he considers the Serve America Act a top priority.

Truly, there is no reason for delay. The measure largely fleshes out ideas that Mr. Obama promoted on the campaign trail and that are currently posted on his White House Web site. In his previous job representing Illinois in the Senate, Mr. Obama co-sponsored the bill when it was proposed at the end of the last Congress.

Understandably, Mr. Obama is now concentrating on gaining quick passage of a $825 billion stimulus package aimed at creating new jobs and aiding the nation’s ailing economy. At a price tag of about $5 billion over five years, the Serve America Act is an apt companion piece.

Its prompt approval would create tens of thousands of meaningful new positions for people ready to work hard for the public good, making tangible the “spirit of service” Mr. Obama spoke of in his Inaugural Address.

THE MEANING OF CHANGE

We know tollbooths are becoming things of the past—what with electronic devices on our windshields that somehow extract money from our credit card….or however that works…but tollbooths still do exist—and while they do—the Can-Do has an idea to make them perform double duty!

Your state department of transportation knows how much money its tollbooths take in on an average day. What if every Tuesday was advertised as “Spare Change Tuesday”—and a state-certified charitable group was selected as the recipient of all the receipts above and beyond that average.

Breaking it down—
It’s Tuesday/morning rush hour on the tollway
You’re doing some mad carpool karaoke. Or not
Driver slows down at the flashing screen announcing “pay toll ahead.”

Same screen announces the group who will benefit on this “Spare Change Day”—Let’s say…Breast Cancer Research or Muscular Dystrophy Association…

You have some extra quarters in the car and it sounds like a good cause, so you toss in fifty cents more than the required toll. Maybe a few of your passengers also contribute. Doesn’t sound like much, but if 50,000 cars across the state matched your fifty extra cents, that’s an extra $25,000 at the end of the day donated to a good cause.

So before toll booths become a thing of the past, how about making drive through donations a thing of the present?

EASY AS ABC

We don’t often quote Ronald Reagan here, but one sentiment he expressed bears repeating after watching Congress's partisan posturing last week. By all accounts the former president often said that it was fine for elected officials to have different opinions, but they should disagree agreeably.

Anyone who has ever watched a State of the Union address, knows that the congressional seating chart does not encourage agreeable disagreement. Democrats sit on one side of the aisle, and Republicans sit on the other.

It’s too bad CSPAN wasn’t around in 1838, when Representative Abram Maury and Representative William Campbell came to blows behind the Speaker's chair on the House floor. Campbell beat Maury bloody. And then there was the time a Republican congressman from California and a Democrat congressman from Virginia got into a shoving match at the rear of the House chamber. The fight spilled out into the hall, and nearby Capitol Hill police officers had to break it up. Oh wait, that one was in 1995.

Another president, Abraham Lincoln said, “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” Hmm. So what could we do to promote civility in the Capitol? Is there some way to change the seating arrangement, eliminate the great divide between the two parties, and encourage the bi-partisanship that President Obama seeks?

Would boy girl boy girl work, for example? Nah. Not enough girls. How about smoking and non-smoking? Nah. That would set a bad example, and besides it would make things too easy for the tobacco lobby.

Here’s something Congress can do. Why not seat its members alphabetically instead of by party. Democrat Abercrombie next to Republican Aderholt, all the way to Democrat Yarmuth next to Republican Young.

Making conversation with your next-seat neighbor makes a lot more sense than making faces across the aisle—might even promote civil discourse instead of civil disobedience as the country deals with a host of crises.

A BLANKET PROPOSAL

If you watch television, you probably have seen the ads for the Snuggie, the "blanket with sleeves." By all accounts, this is one of the hottest items around. Confession: Last December the Can-Do succumbed and took advantage of the 2-for-1 plus two booklights offer. What does this have to do with making the community better, you ask?

Well, we read in the Chicago Tribune that two local twentysomethings, David Barnes and Dan Kuthy, are organizing a Snuggie Pub Crawl. The date: April 18th. "We thought, imagine the vision of 1,000 people walking down Clark Street wearing Snuggies—this is what we wanted to make happen," said Kuthy. What does this have to do with making the community better, you ask again?

According to the duo's website, www.snuggiepubcrawl.com: "The SnuggiePubCrawl.com team is donating proceeds from the event to the AC-Orphanage in Arusha, Tanzania. AC-Orphanage rescues orphans from the streets of Tanzania whose parents have been victims of HIV and TB. Your donations will go directly to providing food, clean water, clothing and schooling for these children."

As there is no reason to believe anyone has anything up their sleeves--this could be a template for Can-Do fundraising. Plan a fun event and add a charitable component.

Makes you feel warm all over.

LINE 'EM UP

Here’s an idea how to raise money for your favorite charity.

Before every game, each Major League Baseball team tapes a lineup card to the dugout wall. It shows the starting batting order and positions and lists the remaining players on the bench. That way the manager can keep track of who’s coming up to the plate, who’s available to pinch hit, and who’s available as a relief pitcher.

We took an unscientific sample of some little leaguers the other day and all agreed it would be pretty cool if they could get a marked up major league lineup card fresh from their favorite team’s dugout. And it would be even cooler if the manager or some of the players signed it.

We’re guessing some loving grandparents, parents or friends might be willing to pay a pretty penny to for one of these cards and give it as a gift.

So here’s our idea. If you’re on the board of some charitable organization or school why not approach the major league team in your area and ask if you could have the lineup cards from one, ten, or all of their games. Then offer them at a silent auction or raffle at your next benefit.

Whether it’s a silent auction or a raffle, people will be lining up for these keepsakes.

VARIATION ON A THEME

Brother Tom from Connecticut has a simple, but smart idea for the Can-Do:

How about Habitat for Sustainability? Like Habitat for Humanity, this group would organize volunteer construction projects, but focused on weatherizing homes, libraries, etc., building solar energy and wind power systems, etc.

SWEET DREAMS

At his confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate, earlier this year, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan noted that before becoming Superintendent of the Chicago Public Schools, he (along with his sister and other volunteers) ran an “I Have a Dream Program” for six years. They took 40 sixth graders and worked with them all the way through high school—“tutoring them, mentoring them every day, working with their families to give them the opportunity to be successful.” The astounding result? 87% of the Dreamers graduated on time and 65% went on to college.

You can imagine (or dream) how working with the same group of committed students every day for six formative years can make a difference. You probably do not have the time to do this, but here’s what you can do—make a donation, or sponsor a program in a local school, or volunteer in an existing “I Have a Dream” school. Here’s more about the program from the website: www.ihaveadreamfoundation.org/html/

We are working to ensure that all children in this nation have the opportunity to pursue higher education and to fully capitalize on their talents, aspirations, and leadership to have fulfilling careers and create a better world. Our approach is unique in that we sponsor entire grade levels of 50-100 students in under-resourced public schools or housing developments, and work with these "Dreamers" from early elementary school all the way through high school. Upon high school graduation, each Dreamer receives guaranteed tuition assistance for higher education.

While each "I Have A Dream" program is localized to meet the specific needs of its Dreamers, all of our programs share common elements and take two basic forms, school-based and housing-based. There are several factors that make "I Have A Dream" unique. We are in the process of developing a five-year plan to significantly increase our impact of both performance and scale. As part of this effort, we are updating our program model to dramatically strengthen our student outcomes, ensure greater consistency across affiliates, and ultimately, produce many more college graduates.

Currently 4,000 Dreamers are on the way to college in 17 states, Washington, D.C., and New Zealand, following some 11,000 Dreamers who came before them.

A FOUNDATION FOR COLLABORATION

The Can-Do awoke this morning to find this email from Matt from Illinois. This is exactly what we are hoping to do with this blog: create a site where people can share ideas and introduce us to worthy programs that need assistance or can be replicated. Thanks, Matt.

You asked for suggestions of worthy organizations that are contributing to making the world a better place, which I take to mean their immediate community. (Scalability is key in order to have impact, I think.) My wife and I live in Oak Park, IL, and are supporters of the Oak Park Education Foundation. Check out site at oakparkeducationfoundation.org. Here's their brief description:

“The Oak Park Education Foundation believes in the power of collaboration between community and school to spark new interests, ignite innovative ideas, and engage children in new ways of perceiving and interacting with the world. Founded in 1989 by a coalition of parents, educators and community leaders, the Oak Park Education Foundation is a privately-funded, non-profit organization working in close partnership with District 97. Currently, the Oak Park Education Foundation implements 5 programs: science-based Global Village, Art Start, technology-based Vex Robotics, Architecture Adventure, and our newest endeavor, Geared Up. Our professional partners share their passion for learning while conducting hands-on projects with more than 3,000 students every year.”

In a low-key but high-impact way, OPEF's programs, which bring subject matter experts (engineers, artists, architects, scientists, etc.) into the classroom to collaborate with teachers on projects with the students, enrich the educational lives of many kids in the Oak Park public schools, grades K-8. It is often through these projects that the teachers and volunteer experts are able to get through to a particular student who might not be responding to conventional classroom teaching, but suddenly finds a very comfortable new home with the robotics class, or the architecture project, and gets inspired. OPEF is a true partnership between parents, volunteers, teachers, and the school district. It deepens the way children approach learning, as part of the world around them. OPEF is a model organization that could easily be replicated (and probably already is, for all I know) in many communities throughout the country. Feel free to post this message to your site (I don't know how -- not a frequent visitor to blog-doms), and if any of your readers would like to know more, the OPEF website has a more specific description of its programs, organization, and also contact information.

IN THE HABIT

Can-Do contributor Civus Fius again offers excellent counsel:

Think small, think possible. Doesn't mean you shouldn't also urge the
bigger changes that require time, consensus and collective action. Do
that, too, and tell your friends to get on those bandwagons. But, in
the meantime, form the habit of doing the small, seemingly
inconsequential things that may reshape your own attitudes and those
of others, and may do some good in the short term. You'll start
thinking of your own examples. Here is one:

There are existing outlets that need volunteer help on an ongoing
basis. Find them. Don't wait for the "service days" at your office,
church or school where, with massive administrative efforts, dozens or
hundreds of folks paint houses or community centers while
photographers from the local paper snap the photo for the human
interest story praising the project's sponsors. There is probably a
church or temple in your city that does some regularly scheduled
service work at a homeless shelter or food bank or an after school
program. You don't need to be a member of that church. They probably
need new volunteers to fill in for that second-Wednesday-every-month
where they send folks to help out in the food line or basketball court
or whatever. These routine charitable services are not as glamorous
as the publicized big service days and they rely on small "regulars"
to meet their commitment for helping out, and the "regular" volunteers
probably need an extra hand some days. And when you go there to do
your service work, talk to the clients, not just to your fellow
volunteers.

NET PROFIT

Here’s a way to use the net to make a difference. Literally. It’s a great opportunity for a family, group of friends, office, school, kids sports team, you name it, to band together and raise funds for a worthy cause. From the website: www.nothingbutnets.net

Nothing But Nets is a grassroots campaign to save lives by preventing malaria, a leading killer of children in Africa. While the UN Foundation has been working with the UN to fight malaria for years, it was a column that Rick Reilly wrote about malaria in Sports Illustrated, challenging each of his readers to donate at least $10 for the purchase of an anti-malaria bed nets -- and the incredible response from thousands of Americans across the country -- that led to the creation of the Nothing But Nets campaign.

The reaction to Reilly's 815 words made clear that thousands of people were ready to help the million children dying unnecessarily each year of malaria. Within a few short months, Nothing But Nets raised over 1 million dollars. And so Nothing But Nets was born. The UN Foundation has now partnered with groups as diverse as National Basketball Association’s NBA Cares, The People of the United Methodist Church and Sports Illustrated to bring Nothing But Nets to the American public. These Founding Partners are joined by corporate, multi-media and financial partners to make a significant impact by raising awareness and funds to purchase and distribute bed nets and save lives.

Now, we're asking you to help spread the word about Nothing But Nets, and how easy it is to protect children from malaria with bed nets. You can save a family. Your church, school, or team can save a village. Together, we can cover Africa with life-saving bed nets. Nothing But Nets is powered by your passion; it works because you do! Create a community for your church, school, team, or family and friends. Together, you can spread the word, raise funds, and share your stories.

With the money you raise, the UN Foundation and its partners work with the Measles Initiative – one of the most successful vaccination efforts ever undertaken – to purchase bed nets and distribute them in countries and communities in greatest need. Using its proven distribution system – which in just five years has vaccinated nearly a quarter billion children – the Measles Initiative will distribute bed nets along with measles vaccinations and other medicines to at-risk countries. It’s an effective and cost-efficient way to get the nets to the people who need them.

For more information stay on the net and visit the website.

A SUPER MODEL?

Have you seen Etsy? Not Betsy, Etsy? This is a terrific website that describes itself as follows:
"Etsy is an online marketplace for buying & selling all things handmade. Our mission is to enable people to make a living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyers. Our vision is to build a new economy and present a better choice: Since our launch in June, 2005, over 100,000 sellers from around the world have opened up Etsy shops (online)." See: www.etsy.com

Virtually anyone can join this community and open up a virtual shop to show and sell their handmade wares. And virtually anyone can visit these shops to buy what they want or need. Payment is facilitated by Paypal, credit card, or check.

Not a bad idea, eh? Would it work in the not for profit/volunteer sector, too? Could someone set up an Etsy-like website where thousands of not for profits had their own "shops" under the same "roof?" Where you could type in keywords ("Neighborhood beautification" "Transportation for Seniors," etc.) and find not for profits who describe what they do and what they need? Where you could contribute online or arrange to volunteer? One stop Can-Do shopping. Why not?

A FULLER LIFE

From time to time, the Can-Do will recognize the passing of inspirational men and women. Millard Fuller was just such a man. Here is a portion of his obituary from today's New York Times.

Millard Fuller, who at 29 walked away from his life as a successful businessman to devote himself to the poor, eventually starting Habitat for Humanity International, which spread what he called “the theology of the hammer” by building more than 300,000 homes worldwide, died Tuesday near Americus, Ga. He was 74.

Propelled by his strong Christian principles, Millard Fuller used Habitat to develop a system of using donated money and material, and voluntary labor, to build homes for low-income families. The homes are sold without profit and buyers pay no interest. Buyers are required to help build their houses, contributing what Mr. Fuller called sweat equity.

More than a million people live in the homes, which are in more than 100 countries. There are 180 in New York City, including some that former President Jimmy Carter, a longtime Habitat supporter and volunteer, personally helped construct. Mr. Carter said of him on Tuesday that “he was an inspiration to me, other members of our family, and an untold number of volunteers who worked side by side under his leadership.”

Mr. Fuller liked to tell and re-tell the stories of his earliest houses. One man had moved from a leaky shack into a new house. “When it rains, I love to sit by the window and see it raining outside,” one new homeowner said, “and it ain’t raining on me!”

Another new resident saw his new home as a literal resurrection. “Being in this house is like we were dead and buried, and got dug up!” she said.

Millard Dean Fuller was born on Jan. 3, 1935, in Lanett, Ala., then a small cotton-mill town. His mother died when he was 3, and his father remarried. Millard’s business career began at 6 when his father gave him a pig. He fattened it up and sold it for $11. Soon he was buying and selling more pigs, then rabbits and chickens as well. He dabbled in selling worms and minnows to fishermen.

When he was 10, his father acquired 400 acres of farmland, and Mr. Fuller sold his small animals to raise cattle. He remembered helping his father repair a tiny, ramshackle shack that an elderly couple had inhabited on the property. He was thrilled to see their joy when the work was complete.

Mr. Fuller went to Auburn University, running unsuccessfully for student body president, and in 1956 was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He graduated from Auburn with a degree in economics in 1957 and entered the University of Alabama School of Law. He and Morris S. Dees Jr., another law student, decided to go into business together while in the law school. They set a goal: get rich.

They built a successful direct-mail operation, published student directories and set up a service to send cakes to students on their birthdays. They also bought dilapidated real estate and refurbished it themselves. They graduated and went into law practice together after Mr. Fuller briefly served in the Army as a lieutenant.

As law partners, they continued to make money. Selling 65,000 locally produced tractor cushions to the Future Farmers of America made $75,000. Producing cookbooks for the Future Homemakers of America did even better, and they became one of the nation’s largest cookbook publishers. By 1964, they were millionaires. Mr. Dees went on to help found the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Mr. Fuller’s life changed completely after his wife, the former Linda Caldwell, whom he had married in 1959, threatened to leave him. She was frustrated that her busy husband was almost never around, and she had had an affair, their friend Bettie B. Youngs wrote in “The House That Love Built” (2007), a joint biography. For the rest of his career, he talked openly about repairing the marriage.

There was much soul-searching. Finally, the two agreed to start their life anew on Christian principles. Eschewing material things was the first step. Gone were the speedboat, the lakeside cabin, the fancy cars.

The Fullers went to Koinonia Farm, a Christian community in Georgia, where they planned their future with Clarence Jordan, a Bible scholar and leader there. In 1968, they began building houses for poor people nearby, then went to Zaire in 1973 to start a project that ultimately built 114 houses.

In 1976, a group met in a converted chicken barn at Koinonia Farm and started Habitat for Humanity International. Participants agreed the organization would work through local chapters. They decided to accept government money only for infrastructure improvements like streets and sidewalks.

Handwritten notes from the meeting stated the group’s grand ambition: to build housing for a million low-income people. That goal was reached in August 2005, when home number 200,000 was built. Each home houses an average of five people.

Mr. Fuller (had recently) started a new organization called the Fuller Center for Housing. It is active in 24 states and 14 foreign countries.

The farm announced plans for a simple public burial service for Mr. Fuller on Wednesday.

THE LISTENING POST

Our friend Civis Fius offers some wisdom for the day. After you read it,
please share your thoughts about dealing with homeless people on the street.

"Talk to one of those homeless guys that habituate the bridges and
doorways near downtown, and that you pass everyday--no, not the really
scary ones, who may be too crazy to be helped. But lots of those guys
are just down on their luck, and are starved for some dignity and some
contact with "regular" people.

"Just one time, listen to their stories (sometimes fanciful, sometimes true).
Tell them about a shelter or foodbank in the area or some clinic that may
give them a decent pair of glasses (yeah, they probably know about
these service outlets already, and have some reason they don't
want to go there, or are ineligible, but mention them.)

"If the moment is right, give them a
few bucks, quickly and don't make a deal of it. Yeah, they may not
spend it on food, and this is no long term solution to fixing their
lives; there may be no long term solution. But a moment of contact
with an "outsider', a shard of dignity, that can sustain them
temporarily. They are not all crazies, some of them are just down on
their luck or have some flaw that makes them unreliable as workers or
family members. Don't congratulate yourself on your way home: spend
that time thinking of how you might do something more helpful the next
time."

What think?

CLOTHES CALL

Last night we watched Super Bowl commercials for cars, colas, and chips. Imagine if all those financial and creative resources had been harnessed to "sell" volunteerism and public service. (Actually there was one clever ad touting pet adoption; consider it a model.) The reality is, however, that we're not going to see too many plugs for volunteer initiatives, particularly local ones. Enter The Can-Do. We don't have the reach of television (yet!), but we are happy to help you to spread the word about initiatives in your community...and we'll do it for free. So let us know what kind of assistance you require and we'll post it here. For instance:

Our friend Joan, a tireless activist and a columnist for opednews.com, has been volunteering at a soup kitchen in Evanston, Illinois, and could use your help. She writes: "Over the past weeks, it has become apparent that the people who come to the soup kitchen are in dire, dire straits. This last week I've been collecting winterwear - coats, scarves, hats, gloves, blankets, sweaters, boots. I filled my car trunk with stuff and brought it over today. It went literally within minutes. I could use more. In fact, the more the better. In particular, I could use men's items. At least at our soup kitchen, the Methodist Church on Church at Hinman, the clientele is disproportionately male and I couldn't stand the disappointed look on their faces when they come up and see only women's clothing available. I'd like to redress that balance, if I can.

"I'll happily fill my car as many times as it takes, every Thursday 'til spring, if people will clean out their closets and pass on no longer needed items. Again, I'll take anything, but I'm particularly interested in men's items. Someone donated some polarfleece blankets and those went in five seconds flat. Thank you in advance, everyone, for your help. You will earn double brownie points for cleaning out your closets and passing things on to someone who can really use it. People with stuff should arrange to contact me for a drop off. I'm in Skokie. Email me at rafijoan@gmail.com."

And read Joan's thoughtful columns at: http://www.opednews.com/author/author79.html