My Nonprofit Reviews

Over the years, attempting to make a better world for my family and friends, I joined and even started several organizations. For various reasons, despite the best intentions, many of these groups petered out, except for one: Food and Water Watch (FWW).

FWW works with local communities and government representatives to protect our environment and build a healthy, sustainable future. Although that is also the goal of many other organizations, FWW enjoys one particular advantage - its membership.

I have rarely had the privilege of working with such smart and dedicated and hard-working people.

Need to meet with your local, state or federal rep, virtually or otherwise? DONE.

Need constituent attendees? DONE.

Need phone callers, letters written to editors, visitors going door-to-door? DONE.

Need to support candidates who will lead the fight for infrastructure development,
public health and safety, and renewable energy? DONE.

Need to open your home to temporary FWW workers from other cities? DONE.

The energy and perseverance that the membership provides has enabled FWW to help municipalities take control of water and sewer systems from private for-profit corporations, to ban fracking and the spread of dangerous fracking waste into our waters, to stop the construction of accident-prone fossil fuel pipelines, and to promote green renewable non-polluting energy.

Food and Water Watch Forever!

I have long supported causes which I believe serve the public good, however some of the groups i joined seemed more interested in talking about change rather than working to accomplish it. Several years ago, as I was leaving a meeting in Manhasset NY, curiosity took me to another meeting taking place in an adjacent room. That is how I discovered Food and Water Action (FWA), formerly Food and Water Watch, an organization dedicated to ensuring that people's right to a clean and healthy environment supercedes corporate profit, and to holding government officials responsible for effectuating these outcomes. Upon joining this group of dedicated and hardworking members I took part in contacting and visiting legislators, attending rallies and press conferences, and writing letters to editors.

Among the issues in which I became involved, none were more urgent than banning fracking, a method by which underground oil and gas are forced to the surface by pumping huge quantities of poisonous chemically laden water deep into the earth. This water, containing toxins which are designated as hazardous waste and are known to cause environmental destruction, illness and death, is then pumped to the surface for supposedly safe disposal. Confoundingly, until recently, NY State law exempted fracking waste from its correct hazardous waste designation, thereby permitting Pennsylvania to ship toxic waste water to NY State, for uses such as de-icing roadways.

In 2015, following a moratorium, Governor Cuomo finally signed a bill banning fracking in NY State, but the fracking waste loophole remained on the books. After ten years of untiring work by various NY State representatives and organizations such as FWA, NY Governor Cuomo recently signed a law overturning the fracking waste loophole.

It is this type of dedication that FWA brings to its mission of protecting the environment for the benefit of all. I am proud to be allied with people who worked tirelessly for this remarkable achievement, and look forward to many more such endeavors. The photo shows volunteer extraordinaire Joe Varon and myself, Ruth Cohen, preparing for a meeting with Steve Englebright, NY State Assembly member and sponsor of the bill that closed the fracking waste loophole.