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I mention a few inspiring ways to think about local gift giving this season in today's Cream City Digest. Short and sweet - and maybe it'll get you into the holiday spirit and even excited to give this year.

MKE Women Notes & Coupon Book
What's your Love Language?
Buy Nothing Project
Courtney Martin's Gift Guide on her Substack, The Examined Family
Mark Nepo and Laurie Wagner in Conversation

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Today on the podcast, another incredible Milwaukee woman! Today meet Lisa Kingery, CEO and Founder of FoodRight - an organization empowering youth to choose foods that sustain life-long health. Listen as we talk about what FoodRight is doing to change the landscape of the Milwaukee school food scene and how they are making changes both systemically AND one-student-at-a-time. 

Locals and Links we love! 

Website: https://www.foodright.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FoodRightInc/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foodrightinc
Bombay Bhel popcorn HERE

If you loved this show, you’ll definitely want to listen to last week’s episode with Nalani Moesch of Teens Grow Greens. There are SO many women working to empower our youth in this city!  Find it HERE or wherever you get your podcasts. 

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If you haven’t already, be sure to follow Cream City Dreams on Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for the newsletter HERE.  And I’d LOVE it if you rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts. If you’re feeling especially generous, you can always Buy me a Coffee to help keep the lights on!

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Happy Day-After-Thanksgiving! Hope you are sufficiently stuffed today and haven't spent too much $$ in the sales yet! Today, a short and sweet episode with a special request for friends of the podcast. Support local. Support storytelling. Support women. Support local women storytellers! And yep, I'm asking for it: please support THIS PODCAST! Find out how many hours I've spent on this labor of love and if you love it too, this week I'm asking you to buy me a coffee.

Click here to inject the caffeine! 

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Another week, another inspiring Milwaukee woman. 

You may know Teens Grow Greens from their delightful collection of summer herbs and vegetables over at Weber’s Greenhouse (and if you don’t, you should!) But did you know that MORE than just greens, this organization is growing the next generation of leaders in our city. Through their internship and apprenticeship programs, Teens Grow Greens gives these young leaders the opportunity to try their hand in the garden and the greenhouse, as well as in roles that nurture their business acumen, marketing and entrepreneurial skills. 

Today on the pod, I talk with Nalani Moesch, the greenhouse lead and apprentice mentor with Teens Grow Greens about their offerings beyond what we can look forward to next spring when the annuals and perennials are ready for our planting beds! 

Locals and Links we love! 

Website: https://www.teensgrowgreens.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teensgrowgreens
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teensgrowgreens/

Nalani’s music on Spotify click HERE
Nalani on IG HERE

If you loved this show on organizations working to inspire our next generation of leaders, you’ll definitely want to listen to this episode with Jasmine Deacon of PEARLS for Teen Girls. Find it HERE or wherever you get your podcasts.

Show your love for Cream City Dreams

If you haven’t already, be sure to follow Cream City Dreams on Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for the newsletter HERE.  And I’d LOVE it if you rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts. If you’re feeling especially generous, you can always Buy me a Coffee to help keep the lights on!

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➡ CLICK HERE to send me a text, I'd love to hear what you thought about this episode! Leave your name in the text so I know who it's from!

Short and sweet Digest on the things that inspired me this week! And BIG NEWS: Cream City Dreams reached 100 episodes and 10,000 downloads! 🎉💯🎉.
 
 Inspirations I mention include:
Dancing for Coffee
Kinship Community Café
Caitlin Cullen Interview on Cream City Dreams (secret to her fried chicken)
Beech Trees changing color!

AND if you want to celebrate right along with me, happy dance your way over to Buy Me A Coffee and make a donation to keep the lights on over here at Cream City Dreams! 

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Can you even begin to imagine what half a million pounds of food looks like? Today’s guest, Sarah Bressler, can tell you exactly. That’s because she and her team of farmers at Hunger Task Force in Franklin are growing and harvesting THAT MANY fruits and vegetables for local food pantries, shelters and families around greater Milwaukee. Listen as we talk about how she got into farming and why she stays. AND if you’re feeling inspired, there are several ways you can get involved in the supply chain from Farm-to-Table at the Hunger Task Force. Website links included below on how to get in touch and get your hands in the dirty! 

Locals and Links for Cream City Dreamers!

Website: https://www.hungertaskforce.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hungertaskforce.mke
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hungertaskforce/

If you loved this show, you’ll definitely want to listen to this episode with Caitlin Cullen of Kinship Community Food Center. Find it HERE or wherever you get your podcasts. 

Show your love for Cream City Dreams

If you haven’t already, be sure to follow Cream City Dreams on Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for the newsletter HERE.  And I’d LOVE it if you rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts. If you’re feeling especially generous, you can always Buy me a Coffee to help keep the lights on!

Support the show

➡ CLICK HERE to send me a text, I'd love to hear what you thought about this episode! Leave your name in the text so I know who it's from!

I had a 'peppier' episode recorded ... with all the things I thought were inspiring me this week. And it was true. But it wasn't as true as it could be. So I went for a walk, and re-recorded this episode to reflect what's REALLY keeping me going this week. Turns out, it's more chocolate and bread than I'd like to admit. But I will anyway.

Here are the links to other things I mention this week:
Heather Cox Richardson Letters from an American Substack.
Balance Meditation App
Wild Writing with Laurie Wagner
Heavenly Hunks (seriously delicious)

And get a set of my Grounded in Gratitude cards HERE!

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The election is over, we’re on the other side. But this week, I’m not talking about the election or reflecting on what could have gone differently (I’ll leave that to other news outlets). Nope, I’m rolling up my sleeves and getting back to work highlighting another incredible Milwaukee woman. There is still work to be done, and there are women out there who are still doing it! 

Women like this week’s guest, Bojana Zorić Martinez. Bojana is the Director of the Bureau of Refugee Programs with the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, as well as the Wisconsin State Refugee Coordinator. And more personally, she was a refugee herself. But as she says in this episode, "Once a refugee always a refugee." Listen as we talk about the refugee experience in Wisconsin and the ways in which her own experience shaped her leadership around refugee resettlement in this state. 

Want more after listening? More links here: 

🕊️ How you can get involved and help the refugee community

• Firstly, understand the experience even more by watching this video with Bojana!
• Find an organization near you on this list of resources and contact them for ways to volunteer! 
• Watch for the next Tables Across Borders meal and support and enjoy delicious food made by refugees in Milwaukee. 
• Hanan Refugee Relief Group is another organization working with refugees in MKE. 
• Watch for special events at Lynden Sculpture Garden that celebrate refugees in our community. 

If you love this conversation, you'll definitely want to go back and listen to the conversation with Christie Melby-Gibbons of Tricklebee Cafe who also lives by the values of generosity, dignity, grace and abundance. (and who happens to host some of the refugee dinners listed below!) 

Show your love for Cream City Dreams

If you haven’t already, be sure to follow Cream City Dreams on Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for the newsletter HERE.  And I’d LOVE it if you rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts. If you’re feeling especially generous, you can always Buy me a Coffee to help keep the lights on!

Support the show

➡ CLICK HERE to send me a text, I'd love to hear what you thought about this episode! Leave your name in the text so I know who it's from!

This week - a Digest from the other side of the election. It's been a week. I'll share the Milwaukee women who are inspiring me in the aftermath of the election, and two poems by a new favorite, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. Short and (bitter)sweet this week. But we have to get up and keep moving forward. 

Venice William's poem in full: 

You are awakening to the 
same country you fell asleep to.
The very same country.
Pull yourself together.
And, 
when you see me, 
do not ask me
"What do we do now?
How do we get through the next four years?"
Some of my Ancestors dealt with 
at least 400 years of this 
under worse conditions.
Continue to do the good work.
Continue to build bridges not walls.
Continue to lead with compassion.
Continue the demanding work 
of liberation for all.
Continue to dismantle broken systems, 
large and small.
Continue to set the best example 
for the children.
Continue to be a vessel of nourishing joy.
Continue right where you are.
Right where you live into your days.
Do so in the name of 
The Creator who expects 
nothing less from each of us.
And if you are not "continuing" 
ALL of the above, 
in community, partnership, collaboration?
What is it you have been doing?
What is it you are waiting for?

And if you want to hear more about Venice Williams, go back and listen to the episode from Season 2 when Shelly and I talked with Venice about where she got her start and what inspires her to keep going. A timeless conversation about dreaming in Milwaukee. 

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The day we’ve been talking about for weeks and months has come and gone. It’s the day after the election and who KNOWS where we’ll be today. So I’m doing something different for this Cream City Dreams episode. 

It’s just me on the microphone. 

I’m exhausted, I’m tired, and sometimes I just need a reminder to breathe. Maybe you do, too? So today there is no guest. Just me, some music, and an invitation to pause and breathe. 

If meditation is not your thing, I hope you find a way to do what you need to do today to stay in as much equilibrium and balance as you can muster. 

I’m rooting for you. I’m rooting for all of us. Because we really are in this together. 

Namaste

Show your love for Cream City Dreams

If you haven’t already, be sure to follow Cream City Dreams on Facebook and Instagram. Sign up for the newsletter HERE.  And I’d LOVE it if you rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts. If you’re feeling especially generous, you can always Buy me a Coffee to help keep the lights on!

Support the show