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“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” --T.S. Elliot
Hello everyone! In one of our stories this week, a restaurant owner in New York named his restaurant after his grandmother and then hired grandmothers from all over the world to cook their own favorite family recipes! Doing this has taken down barriers and helped people engage with new cultures. The risk of starting the restaurant 16 years ago has blossomed into a gathering site of nurturing, new experiences, and inclusion. May this week's stories offer you inspiration and be a reminder of the power of courage, risk and creativity. Wishing you well!
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Enoteca Maria | Facebook
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Grandma's cooking is what you'll get at Enoteca Maria. The Staten Island, New York, restaurant invites and employs real grandmothers from countries around the globe to cook their family recipes. When he began the restaurant 16 years ago, naming it in honor of his late mother, Joe Scaravella shared the culinary skills of Italian "nonnas," like his own. He has since expanded to feature other cultures, including recipes from Puerto Rico, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, Greece, and Hong Kong. "Coming off a very divisive period in history, it really helps to bring down those barriers in the same way music and art does," he said. "It helps you engage with another culture without even realizing it, so that your personal biases, whatever they may be, are not in the forefront anymore." Anyone can submit a family recipe to the virtual "Nonnas of the World Book," made up of entries from the public.
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Visit Mesa
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Mesa, Arizona's third-largest city, is the world's first Autism Certified City. And it is largely due to Marc Garcia's 2018 family vacation in California. Garcia, president and CEO of Visit Mesa, was bothered by comments from hospitality professionals about his youngest son's meltdowns. He found IBCCES (the International Board of Credentialing and Continuing Education Standards), which was training employees at big tourist attractions to supportively engage with visitors who have cognitive disorders. Mesa had an enthusiastic response to the training offer. Many hotels, restaurants and attractions now offer noise-canceling headphones or a quiet room with weighted blankets. Some hotels and restaurants direct visitors to a person who can adjust lighting or sound. All of Mesa's parks, recreation and community facilities and museums are autism certified. Nearly a dozen other cities, from Palm Springs in California to Dubai in the UAE, have enrolled in programs towards increasing certified autism-friendly businesses
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Tadd and Debbie Ottman | Wikimedia
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Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 66% last month compared to July 2022 and is now at its lowest rate in six years, according to preliminary data released by Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE). Nearly 500 square kilometers (193 square miles) of rainforest were cleared in July, significantly down from 1,487 square kilometers (574 square miles) last July. Brazil's environment minister, Marina Silva, said government policies, including increasing surveillance and fining perpetrators, has played a big role. "It is the end of the expectation of impunity," said Silva. The preliminary data, which should be confirmed in the next few days, comes as the countries which contain parts of the Amazon prepared to meet on August 8 and 9 in the Brazilian city of Belem, for a summit aimed at increasing protection of the rainforest.
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United Airlines
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United Airlines has become the first US airline to start adding Braille markings to the interior of its planes. So far, about a dozen planes have been equipped with the signage, which conveys information about rows, seat numbers and lavatories. The rest of the United-operated fleet, which doesn't include regional jets, are expected to be updated by the end of 2026. For now, Braille is being added to planes that are being retrofitted as part of a major expansion and retrofit of United's fleet but it will be included with new planes as the Federal Aviation Administration certifies the signage for those aircraft. The airline is also considering other ways to help those with vision loss who don't read Braille, such as adding raised lettering on different areas of the planes. About 6 million Americans have vision loss and 1 million are blind.
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Carter Atkinson, USGS | Wikimedia
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The wildfires on Maui came to the doorstep of a bird center that houses some of the world's rarest birds but all the birds are safe. Early Tuesday morning, when wildlife care supervisor Jennifer Pribble and a neighbor saw the fire, they grabbed fire extinguishers to put out the flames before they spread to barns with critically endangered birds and used a hose to douse the flames before firefighters arrived. Run by the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, the Maui Bird Conservation Center is home to critically endangered honeycreepers unique to the tropical islands, with melodic names like the palila, kiwikiu and 'akikiki. In the wild, the songbird species are succumbing to an avian form of malaria brought by invasive mosquitoes that are creeping up the islands' slopes as the climate warms. There are thought to be only five 'akikiki left in the wild. At the center, the birds are kept behind mosquito nets. The center also houses some of the last remaining 'alalā, or Hawaiian crows, now completely extinct in the wild.
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