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Susan Larson
Susan Larson
Host of The Reading Life
Fred Kasten
Fred Kasten
Announcer & Producer
Eve Troeh
Eve Troeh
News Director
Eileen Fleming
Eileen Fleming
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Ryan Bordenave
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Notes from New Orleans
2:05 pm
Fri April 13, 2012

City Park's Fundraising Strategist

Bob Becker, CEO of City Park
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City Park, a former plantation in the heart of New Orleans, hosts a collection of fine art, 600 year-old live oaks, music festivals, and over eleven million visitors each year. And since Hurricane Katrina the park has generated some serious revenue. On this week's Notes from New Orleans, we'll listen to Bob Becker, CEO of City Park, for this story of revitalization.

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News
6:43 pm
Tue April 10, 2012

Tulsa Shootings Reopen Old Wounds

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Credit Tulsa Historical Society / AP
Black detainees are led to the Convention Hall following a race riot in Tulsa, Okla, June 1, 1921. The National Guard rounded up blacks by the thousands and took them to the fairgrounds, the Convention Hall and a baseball stadium where they were given food and water. By day's end, many thriving black businesses in a 35-block area had been torched.
Credit John Clanton / AP
Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan (center) speaks as City Councilor Jack Henderson (right) and FBI agent James Finchother listen during a news conference on Sunday in Tulsa, Okla.
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At a press conference in Tulsa, Okla., following the targeted shootings of five African-Americans last week, the optics were as important as the substance of the news.

The mayor and police chief pleaded for the public's help in capturing the suspects, while behind those two white men stood a pair of Tulsa's most influential black leaders — the lone African-American member of the City Council and the president of the local NAACP.

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The Listening Room
2:46 pm
Tue April 10, 2012

Rosanne Cash: Live from Zone C

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Rosanne Cash.
Rosanne Cash.
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Rosanne Cash and her husband, John Leventhal, invite you into their NYC home (aka "Zone C") for an hour of live music built by audience engagement through social media.

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The Two-Way
1:59 pm
Sat April 7, 2012

Ploompf!! Pillow Fights Erupt Across The Globe

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Credit Olivia Harris / Reuters /Landov
A pillow fight in London's Trafalgar Square in London, April 7, 2012.
Credit Adam Berry / AP
Germans fought in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
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Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 9:53 am

If it's not already marked on your calendar, here's your warning: Today is International Pillow Fight Day. Cities around the world are taking the holiday seriously — as serious as a pillow fight can be, anyway.

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The Salt
3:12 pm
Fri April 6, 2012

Indian Engineers Build A Stronger Society With School Lunch Program

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Credit Ryan Lobo for NPR
The Akshaya Patra Foundation, a nonprofit based in Bangalore, partners with the government to make close to 1.3 million nutritious meals a day for schoolchildren throughout India.
Credit Ryan Lobo for NPR
One of Akshaya Patra's kitchens, just outside Bangalore, churns out an average of 17,000 pounds of rice and 4,500 gallons of lentil soup every school day. A kitchen overseer checks in on the food preparation in the early morning.
Credit Ryan Lobo for NPR
The giant kitchen is designed and run by engineers, who are passionate about efficiency and hygiene.
Credit Ryan Lobo for NPR
Rice falls down a chute (top left) and is packed into sterilized stainless steel vessels for delivery to schools. Over time, Akshaya Patra has learned what children like in different regions and has customized the kitchen according to the local palate.
Credit Ryan Lobo for NPR
A workman holds a fuel briquette made from sugarcane waste, seed waste and peanuts. The briquette powers the kitchen's boilers.
Credit Ryan Lobo for NPR
Freshly cooked food is packed in stainless steel containers before being transported to various schools in custom-built vehicles.
Credit Ryan Lobo for NPR
A workman closes the door of an Akshaya Patra truck filled with fresh school lunches. Some 34 trucks head out from this kitchen every school day, providing lunch for nearly 150,000 children in the Bangalore area.
Credit Ryan Lobo for NPR
Many malnourished students have benefitted from the Akshaya Patra school lunch program. Bangalore middle school student K. Suchitra (center), 13, often comes to school with an empty stomach, but she knows she'll eat at school and can have as many servings as she wants.
Credit Ryan Lobo for NPR
The school lunch program customizes the menu in different parts of the country to local preferences. At this middle school in Bangalore, lunch often consists of a South Indian meal of rice and vegetable-lentil soup.
Credit Ryan Lobo for NPR
Akshaya Patra's daily meals keep dropout rates low and provide many parents, who cannot afford to feed their kids adequately, a reason to send them to school, the foundation's executive director, Shridhar Venkat, says.
Credit Ryan Lobo for NPR
On days she comes to school hungry, K. Suchitra (center) knows she can eat at school.
Credit Ryan Lobo for NPR
Shridhar Venkat is the director of the Akshaya Patra Foundation, which runs one of the largest school lunch programs in the world in India.
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Originally published on Wed May 23, 2012 9:54 am

At a government-run public middle school in Bangalore, the blackboard's cracking, the textbooks are tattered and most of the students are barefoot.

But with all those challenges, the biggest obstacle that teachers face in keeping kids in school is hunger. Many students show up at school having had nothing to eat for breakfast.

On mornings one student comes to school hungry, the thought of school makes her break down, she says.

"When I had to get on the bus, I would start crying," says K. Suchitra, 13.

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