After months of making do with far fewer volunteer resources during the pandemic, hunger relief organizations are getting creative as they work to reinvigorate their volunteer ranks. Some are finding value in relying on clients as volunteers. Others are finding ways to engage highly skilled workers for special projects. And a growing number are using software to help recruit and manage volunteers (see chart below), replacing manual tasks with more streamlined processes.

BOSTON – Massachusetts continues to wait patiently for the bill to address the issues of low wages and the lack of an overtime pay system for farmworkers in the state. The Fairness for Farmworkers Act (S.1205/H.1979) sits currently with the Legislature’s Committee on Labor and Workforce Development, awaiting a report before the May 13 deadline. Under the current law, farmworkers can be paid a sub-minimum wage of $8 per hour. This contrasts with the state’s minimum wage which has grown from $11

It took a global pandemic to highlight that the homelessness crisis in Massachusetts is not just limited to cities like Boston. In the aftermath of the pandemic, more people are on the streets, housing costs continue to soar and local communities are collaborating and prodding lawmakers for solutions.

Daniel Lamontagne, 61, kept his auto body business in Williamsburg afloat for 30 years and six months before he was forced to shut it down last September. In its last two functioning years, Lamontagne was the sole employee at White Lightning Auto Body. The primary reason for closure, he said, was that he could not work 50 to 60 hours alone and run the shop. The supply ch

BOSTON – Climate change will become the existential threat to Massachusetts post-pandemic, requiring the state to commit federal dollars to the problem, according to state Sen. Jo Comerford. “We are coming out of a pandemic that has disproportionately affected communities. And we now face an existential threat of climate change,” said Comerford, D-Northampton. “With federal dollars coming in, we have not only a moral but a pragmatic and fiscal responsibility to take action at this time.” Comer

On a chilly November morning, in front of a coffee shop on Commonwealth Avenue, Frank Huntley introduced passers-by to a sculpture made entirely of opioid medication bottles. To anyone who stopped and stared, he explained: “That is Pill Man. That was me for 15 years. Every bottle has my name on it.” I was among the onlookers. Standing by, he handed me a business card that had his email, social media handles, and the following: “Pill Man. Enough is Enough. One man’s fight to stop opiate addic

Marathon devotees spilling into Copley Square for the Boston Marathon Expo were greeted with a sight never seen before in any past pre-marathon festivities. Behind the John Singleton Copley statue, stationed in a modest area of grass, stood a wide banner with the words “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” painted on it.

Praful Patel, the newly-appointed administrator for Lakshadweep, India’s smallest union territory, seems to have missed the memo on the impending climate crisis. Since February 2021, Patel has introduced a series of new laws that are in utter conflict with the region’s cultural as well as ecological past, present and future. The Draft Lakshadweep Development Authority Regulation, for instance, allows for the removal or relocation of people from their own property for land or resource acquisitio