Goodr Grocery Store Helps Reduce Student Absence At Georgia Elementary School
Goodr is an Atlanta-based food waste management organization founded by Jasmine Crowe-Houston.
A free grocery store inside a Georgia elementary school is helping families access food while school officials report a significant decrease in student absences.
C.J. Hicks Elementary School in Conyers launched the on-campus grocery store in fall 2025 in partnership with Goodr and Kaiser Permanente. According to FOX 5 Atlanta, school records show total absent days dropped 43%, from 1,286 to 733, after the store opened.
How does Goodr initiative impact education?
The initiative is particularly significant for the school’s predominantly Black student population. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, Black students accounted for approximately 71% of enrollment during the 2024-25 school year.
Federal education data also show that 837 of the school’s 878 students were eligible for free school lunches, highlighting the importance of accessible food assistance for families in the school community.
By providing groceries at no cost, the program offers additional support outside the classroom. The initiative also helps families obtain food without adding to their grocery expenses.
The store provides fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy products, frozen foods, breakfast items, juice, and snacks. Families can shop on Tuesdays and Thursdays after signing in at the school’s front office.
Additional assistance is available through food distributions on Fridays. FOX 5 Atlanta reported that 80 families receive groceries to take home each week.
School officials have reported improvements in multiple attendance measures. Daily absences declined 33%, while unexcused absence days decreased 42%. The number of days students were present increased 26%.
What exactly is Goodr?
Goodr, an Atlanta-based food waste management organization founded by Jasmine Crowe-Houston, has established similar grocery stores in schools and community facilities across the country.
According to AfroTech, the organization has opened locations at Atlanta’s McNair Middle School and the Fairmount Heights Branch Library in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
The school’s reported attendance improvements suggest that addressing families’ basic needs has helped support student participation.
Belmont, North Carolina, USA - October 4, 2014: World War II Veterans give their attention to North Carolina Governor, Pat McCrory during a speech dedicating of a statue to honor the Veterans of World War II.
A New Guide Launches To Spotlight Veteran-Owned Businesses
The initiative is the third installment in Decide DeKalb's business guide series, following the DeKalb Black Business Guide in 2024.
Decide DeKalb is launching a new initiative to increase visibility and economic opportunities for veteran-owned businesses in Georgia‘s DeKalb County, where more than 31,900 military veterans reside, according to a new press release.
The county’s economic development organization announced Oct. 7 that it is accepting submissions for its DeKalb Veteran-Owned Business Guide, which will connect local entrepreneurs with residents, companies, and community partners. The guide is scheduled for publication on Nov. 9, ahead of Veterans Day on Nov. 11.
The initiative is the third installment in Decide DeKalb’s business guide series, following the DeKalb Black Business Guide in 2024 and the DeKalb Women-Owned Business Guide in May 2026.
According to U.S. Census Bureau data cited by the organization, DeKalb County has 541 businesses with at least one paid employee that are at least 51% veteran-owned. The initiative aims to strengthen the local economy by encouraging residents and businesses to support veteran entrepreneurs.
“Veterans bring leadership, discipline, and a commitment to service to everything they do, and many of them are putting those strengths to work building businesses right here in DeKalb,” said Terra Washington, Decide DeKalb’s vice president of marketing and communications.
“This guide makes it easier for residents, companies, and partners to find those businesses and choose them. Every dollar spent with a veteran-owned business strengthens our local economy and the neighborhoods these individuals call home,” Washington added.
The guide will feature businesses across several industries, including professional services, retail, food and beverage, technology, construction, marketing, and health and wellness.
Decide DeKalb’s previous guides have collectively featured more than 230 businesses, with participating entrepreneurs gaining exposure through the organization’s website, social media channels, and events.
Brittany Smith, co-owner of The Book Bird, an independent bookstore in Avondale Estates, said the women-owned business guide helped her store attract new customers.
“The Women-Owned Business Guide came out right as we were settling into our new space at The Dale, and it brought in neighbors who hadn’t found us yet,” Smith said.
Eligible veteran-owned businesses have until Oct. 9 to submit their information, including business and owner names, contact details, an address, a business category, and a brief description. Decide DeKalb will review submissions before publishing the guide.
Trump Administration Targets Wells Fargo $60 Billion Pledge To Boost Black Homeownership
Wells Fargo is under a federal investigation over its pledged to help more Black Americans become homeowners.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is investigating Wells Fargo over programs designed to expand homeownership among Black Americans. The probe comes as the Trump administration has moved to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in government and the private sector.
HUD Secretary Scott Turner announced the investigation on Wednesday, saying the agency is examining whether Wells Fargo’s mortgage initiatives violated the Fair Housing Act by offering different mortgage products or terms based on race. The inquiry centers on programs and commitments the bank made over nearly a decade to increase Black homeownership.
“Even if Wells Fargo did not violate the law, its practice of dividing Americans based on race is immoral, unethical and un-American,” Turner said in a statement. The secretary added that “Wells Fargo and all of its employees” involved in race-based decision-making “should be ashamed of themselves.”
“The Fair Housing Act forbids racial discrimination in housing. It does not say: discriminate, so long as the discrimination is called a ‘special purpose credit program’ and justified as advancing ‘racial equity in homeownership,’” added Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity Craig Trainor.
Wells Fargo launched the initiative in 2017 to help Black Americans build generational wealth and close the racial wealth gap through homeownership. The bank pledged to provide $60 billion in loans to help create at least 250,000 Black homeowners by 2027. According to Reuters, the bank later introduced additional initiatives intended to support minority homeowners and racial equity in housing. The bank had reached about 40% of its original $60 billion lending commitment and helped refinance about 5,100 customers when it commissioned a racial-equity assessment in 2023, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Wells Fargo did not immediately comment on the reported investigation.
For now, the probe underscores a growing tension for corporate America: how banks can address persistent racial gaps in access to capital while navigating an increasingly restrictive regulatory environment around race-based financial programs.
“Federal regulators, HUD included, put in writing that these programs were legal,” National Fair Housing Alliance Executive Vice President Nikitra Bailey told Scotsman Guide, citing reporting in the investigation.
That debate is likely to continue as regulators, banks, and civil rights advocates confront a changing fair-lending landscape—and as Black families continue to navigate the nation’s persistent homeownership gap.
The federal lawsuit, filed Oct. 7 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, seeks nearly $550 million in damages and a court order requiring Missouri to provide equitable funding to Lincoln, a historically Black 1890 land-grant university. At the center of the case is a $361.6 million funding disparity federal officials identified for fiscal years 1987 through 2020. The plaintiffs argue that Missouri treated Lincoln differently from the University of Missouri, the state’s predominantly white 1862 land-grant institution.
Between 2000 and 2016, Lincoln diverted $43.5 million from its core operating budget to support agricultural programs after the state failed to provide the required matching funds for federal grants, according to the lawsuit. From 2000 through 2007, the state provided no funding for Lincoln’s land-grant programs, while from 2008 through 2021, it provided between 11% and 51% of the required match. That diversion came at a cost to the institution’s broader operations.
“Missouri’s failure to appropriate the required state match did not merely leave a gap in Lincoln University’s funding,” attorneys wrote in the complaint, according to Missouri Independent. “It forced Lincoln to cannibalize its own core institutional operating budget to survive.”
Students also say they felt the impact personally. Former Lincoln student Makhi Joseph Berinyuy Jaff documented deteriorating conditions in Perry Hall, including a plumbing failure that he said left fecal matter exposed.
“Perry smelled disgusting, and they still left this dormitory open,” Jaff wrote in a presentation cited as evidence in the lawsuit.
Current student Jaydan Monee Ware said she noticed visibly dirty ventilation in her dorm and experienced respiratory and allergy symptoms. She also compared Lincoln’s resources with those available to a cousin attending the University of Missouri.
“I can see how much more funding they have than us,” Ware told her attorneys.
The lawsuit also challenges Missouri’s performance-based funding formula for higher education, alleging that Lincoln faces funding conditions that are not imposed on the University of Missouri in the same way.
The case is the first brought by the 1890 Project, an initiative focused on addressing funding disparities affecting historically Black land-grant universities. The organization has said Missouri is the first in a broader legal effort involving other states.
For Lincoln, the lawsuit places a decades-old funding dispute squarely in federal court with potentially significant implications for the institution’s finances, infrastructure, and ability to compete for students and research opportunities.
U.S. Home Repossessions Jump 42% As Homeowners Face Financial Pressure And Foreclosures
Lenders repossessed 5,794 properties through completed foreclosures in August.
U.S. homeowners face growing financial pressure as the number of properties lenders repossessed jumped 42% year over year in August, signaling increased strain among some borrowers facing foreclosure, Realtor.com reports.
Lenders repossessed 5,794 properties through completed foreclosures in August, up 22% from July and 42% from August 2025, according to real estate data firm ATTOM. Overall, 40,277 U.S. properties received a foreclosure filing, including default notices, scheduled auctions, and bank repossessions. That was up 1% from July and 13% from a year earlier.
Texas recorded the most completed foreclosures, with 1,835, followed by California with 589, North Carolina with 356, Arizona with 296, and Alabama with 286. Among major metropolitan areas, Houston led the nation with 448 completed foreclosures, followed by Dallas with 402 and San Antonio with 256.
South Carolina had the nation’s highest foreclosure rate, with one in every 1,547 housing units receiving a filing. Nevada followed at one in 1,920, while Florida ranked third at one in 2,397. Nationwide, one in every 3,569 housing units received a foreclosure filing in August.
Foreclosure proceedings were initiated on 25,894 properties, down 3% from July but up 7% from August 2025. Florida recorded the most foreclosure starts with 3,189, followed by Texas with 3,126 and California with 2,565.
ATTOM CEO Rob Barber said homeowners continue to contend with financial pressures, including higher insurance and borrowing costs and elevated everyday expenses. Despite the increases, the data does not necessarily signal a return to the widespread housing distress seen during the Great Recession.
Foreclosure activity remains below pre-pandemic levels, according to ATTOM, with Barber describing the current market as experiencing pockets of financial strain rather than widespread distress.
Still, the August figures extend a broader upward trend in 2026. During the first half of the year, 227,548 U.S. properties received foreclosure filings, up 21% from the same period in 2025. Completed foreclosures increased 33%, while foreclosure starts rose 18%, underscoring the mounting financial challenges facing some homeowners even as overall foreclosure activity remains historically contained.
Jessica Watkins Makes History As 1st Black Woman To Lead Crew Into Orbit
Her latest mission also makes Watkins the first NASA astronaut to launch twice aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
NASA astronaut Jessica Watkins has made history as the first Black woman to command a crew into orbit, adding another milestone to her groundbreaking career in space exploration, The Guardian reports.
Watkins commanded NASA’s SpaceX Crew-13 mission, which launched Oct. 1 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft. The mission marks Watkins’ second trip to the International Space Station.
The four-person crew includes NASA astronaut Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov. The astronauts joined the space station’s Expedition 75 crew for a long-duration science mission.
The flight builds on Watkins’ history-making achievements at NASA. In 2022, she became the first Black woman to complete a long-duration mission aboard the International Space Station while serving as a mission specialist on NASA’s SpaceX Crew-4. Watkins spent 170 days in space during that mission and orbited Earth 2,720 times.
Her latest mission also makes Watkins the first NASA astronaut to launch twice aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.
“We are so excited to be here. This is truly a special place,” Watkins said after arriving at the space station, according to the outlet.
“It’s amazing and kind of ironic to think that it’s such a short trip to get here because the journey to get here has been long.”
Watkins’ journey to commanding a space mission is rooted in science. She earned a bachelor’s degree in geological and environmental sciences from Stanford University and a doctorate in geology from UCLA. Her previous work includes studying Mars’ surface and contributing to the science team for NASA’s Curiosity rover.
During Crew-13, Watkins and her crewmates will conduct research focused on areas including human health, disease modeling, and crop production in microgravity. The research could help scientists improve life on Earth while advancing preparations for future missions to the Moon and Mars.
NASA selected Watkins as an astronaut in 2017. Her latest mission further cements her place in spaceflight history while expanding Black women’s representation in an industry where they have long been underrepresented.
Freddie Jackson Dies At 69, ’80s R&B Classics Is His Legacy
Jackson's distinctive voice will not be forgotten.
The music industry experienced a loss Oct. 5, when R&B singer Freddie Jackson died. His family shared the official news of Jackson’s passing on his Instagram page.
“It is with profound sadness and heavy hearts that we share the passing of our beloved Freddie Jackson, who went home to rest last night,” the caption read.
“Freddie was more than a legendary voice. He was a kind, generous soul who loved his fans, his family, his friends, and his music with everything he had. For decades he gave us the songs that became the soundtrack to our love stories, our celebrations, and our most treasured memories.
That gift will live on forever …”
The legendary crooner just turned 69 Oct. 2. In 2024, the balladeer took to social media and disclosed he was diagnosed with kidney disease. However, Jackson’s cause of death remains unknown.
What is known is that Jackson had the R&B scene in a chokehold when his debut album Rock Me Tonight dropped April 28, 1985. The album’s first single by the same name was an infectious hit that dominated the airwaves and could be heard bumping from car stereos and Black Americans’ homes. “Rock Me Tonight” was followed by several other strong cuts, including “You Are My Lady” and “Have You Ever Loved Somebody.” In 1986, the album earned Jackson a well-deserved Grammy nomination for Best New Artist; however, he lost to recording artist Sade.
Jackson’s distinctive voice and exemplary music catalog will not be forgotten. It stands the test of time and will remain one of his greatest legacies. Check out seven of Freddie Jackson’s greatest R&B hits.
BlackDoctor Launches Medical Advisory Board With 8 Physicians
The Black-owned health platform is adding clinical oversight as it expands services for more than 30 million users.
BlackDoctor is backing its digital health ambitions with more clinical expertise.
The health and wellness platform announced last week that it has launched its first Medical Advisory Board, bringing together eight physicians representing specialties including oncology, psychiatry, cardiology, ophthalmology, dermatology, orthodontics, and pediatric nephrology. The move comes as BlackDoctor expands beyond its roots as a health media platform into a broader digital health business. The company says it reaches more than 30 million people annually and maintains a database of more than 30,000 Black and culturally sensitive healthcare practitioners.
The new advisory board will help shape the company’s clinical strategy, product development, and health content. Members will also conduct medical reviews, contribute to BlackDoctor.com and BlackDoctor.pro, represent the company at industry events, and help develop relationships across the healthcare ecosystem.
“Our Medical Advisory Board reflects who we are as a company — built by and for the community we serve, with real clinicians in the room,” Akinwole Garrett, BlackDoctor’s CEO, said in a press release. “These eight physicians will help shape every part of BlackDoctor, from the products we build to the content our readers trust every day.”
The board includes Dr. Craig Emmitt Cole, Dr. Chikelue Oragwu, Dr. Nicole Christian-Brathwaite, Dr. Yele Aluko, Dr. Kristen Harris Nwanyanwu, Dr. Adam Friedman, Dr. Beatrice Williams, and Dr. Keisha L. Gibson.
The advisory board also connects its clinical expertise to a growing technology strategy. The company has launched AI-powered tools including WellBot, which uses simulated patient interactions to train providers, and Health on Point, designed to help patients prepare for medical visits. Dr. Craig Emmitt Cole, an oncology and hematology specialist and advisory board member, said his experience treating Black patients with multiple myeloma helped inform his work on the company’s technology.
“We’re not just adding another AI product to the market — we’re building something that actually understands who it’s talking to,” Cole said.
BlackDoctor said the advisory board will serve as the “clinical front door” to its provider network as the company develops future partnerships, products, and initiatives. The launch is part of a broader rebrand and push into health services, positioning BlackDoctor at the intersection of culturally informed health information, technology, and professional healthcare networks.
Social Security Administration To Nix Alternative Work Schedules In November
The change will eliminate schedules that allow employees to complete their required hours in fewer than five workdays
The Social Security Administration (SSA) will end alternative work schedules beginning Nov. 16, requiring workers to transition to a standard five-day workweek, the Federal News Network reports.
The change will eliminate schedules that allow employees to complete their required hours in fewer than five workdays, including four 10-hour days and the 5/4/9 schedule, in which employees work nine-hour days for nine days and receive the 10th day off.
Florence Felix-Lawson, SSA’s chief human capital officer, informed employees of the decision in an Oct. 5 email. Employees currently using alternative schedules can continue doing so through Nov. 13.
Felix-Lawson said the agency believes a consistent five-day schedule will improve staffing and ensure employees are available to serve the public throughout the workweek.
“The American people depend on SSA to deliver on its mission every day, and that mission depends on a workforce that is present and available throughout the week,” Felix-Lawson wrote.
The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents about 35,000 SSA workers, is challenging the decision. Rich Couture, a spokesperson for AFGE’s general committee for SSA, told Federal News Network that the union filed a national grievance over the change.
AFGE argues that alternative work schedules have been part of negotiated labor agreements for decades, including its 2019 national agreement with SSA. The union also disputes the agency’s claim that the schedules have affected its ability to serve the public, noting that only a small portion of the workforce uses them.
The dispute comes as SSA continues to grapple with staffing and service challenges. AFGE has called for Congress to provide an additional $3 billion in funding and proposed hiring 20,000 employees to address workforce shortages and service delays.
It also follows a separate dispute over telework. Earlier this year, an arbitrator found that SSA violated its collective bargaining agreement when it ended telework for certain union employees beginning in March 2025. SSA appealed the decision to the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
Under federal guidelines, alternative work schedules can allow employees to complete their required biweekly hours in fewer than 10 workdays. For bargaining unit employees, those arrangements can be subject to negotiated agreements between federal agencies and unions.
Pixabay.com royalty-free image #8499928, 'woman, engineer, tech, electronics, wires, technology, lab, science, tech, technology, technology, technology, technology, technology, science' uploaded by user This_is_Engineering, retrieved from https://pixabay.com/photos/woman-engineer-tech-electronics-8499928/ on July 7th, 2026. License details available at https://pixabay.com/en/service/terms/#usage - image is licensed under Creative Commons CC0 license
This is not a niche concern. According to Fortune Business Insights, hair extensions are a roughly U.S. $3 billion global market, and more than 70% of Black women say they have worn them in the past year. But look closer at who owns that economy. The Black community is overwhelmingly always just the consumer. We are far less often the manufacturers, formulators, brand owners, or investors deciding what goes into the product. That imbalance matters. When the people most exposed to a product are not the people making it, testing it, regulating it, or profiting from it, safety can become someone else’s afterthought.
Asbestos was once a miracle material. Lead was once in our paint. Every generation seems to discover, too late, that something it trusted was quietly harming it. This poses a question for our community: will we always be the ones who find out last? Or can we start asking, earlier and louder, what our products are made of?
That question is at the center of how I think about the future of manufacturing. Today, the conversation is almost entirely about location: reshoring, tariffs, where the factory sits. Those things matter. But as a licensed professional engineer and chemical engineer, I believe we are missing the more important question: not only where products are made, but what they’re made from.
Most of what surrounds us begins as petroleum: the foam in your mattress and sofa, the coatings on your walls, parts of your car, even the personal care products you use on your most intimate skin. Those same materials can start with plants. At COROL, the company I founded, renewable plant oils become bio-based polyols, the building blocks behind the foams, coatings, and adhesives found in everyday life.
The International Energy Agency projects that petrochemicals will drive more than a third of global oil demand growth through 2030, ahead of cars, trucks, and planes. We can build every factory across the country and still be tied to volatile oil markets and the geopolitics that come with them.
That is a supply-security problem and a carbon problem. Every oil price shock flows straight into the cost of the materials manufacturers rely on, and the carbon footprint of what we buy grows as petrochemical demand rises. Renewable, locally sourced inputs won’t solve every problem inside a product, but they can make the supply chains behind it more secure and far less carbon-intensive.
Here is what leaders are overlooking. North America already produces renewable resources that can become a new generation of materials. Plant oils, including soybean and canola oil, can be converted into polyols and other building blocks that replace petroleum-derived inputs in foams, coatings, adhesives and more.
Turning more of these resources into high-value materials at home would keep value in rural economies, shorten supply chains, cut carbon, and reduce our demand for petrochemicals.
Policymakers on both sides of the border should treat renewable, bio-based feedstocks as strategic manufacturing resources and fund the pilot-scale infrastructure that moves new materials from lab to market.
Manufacturers should ask suppliers what is in their inputs and where they come from, and start piloting bio-based alternatives now. Investors should back hard-tech founders, including Black scientists and engineers, with the patient capital industrial innovation requires. And our community should demand better from the start, not only after the damage is done.
For me, this is about legacy. I want our children to be the scientists, engineers, and founders who build the world they want to live in. At COROL, we are turning plant oils into bio-based polyols for foams, coatings, adhesives, and other everyday products. Our communities should not only consume products; we should help create them, test them, own them, and set the standards they must meet.
Cynthia Ene is founder and CEO of COROL, a sustainable chemistry company that develops high-performance, plant-derived bio-polyols to replace petroleum-based chemicals and reduce industrial carbon footprints.
