I had a conversation with a young mom who was surprised to hear some of the new guidelines for feeding infants in the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2020-2025 (www.dietaryguidelines.gov). The recommendations are updated every five years by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services.

One of the best ways to start an infant off on the path of lifelong healthy nutrition, say experts, is to feed human milk exclusively for at least the first six months of life.

Starting at about 6 months, continue breast milk or iron-fortified infant formula and begin to introduce nutrient-dense complementary foods. Especially important at 6 months are foods rich in iron and zinc, minerals needed for baby’s fast-growing nervous system and immune function. (Infants are normally born with enough stored iron to last about 6 months. That’s why they need additional sources after this time.)

Recommended iron-rich foods include iron-fortified infant cereal, meats and seafood. Foods on the zinc-rich list include zinc-fortified infant cereal, meat and beans.

Why meat? This panel of experts has recognized it as a nutrient-dense food — one that packs iron, zinc, protein and other nutrients into every bite.

Along with these foods, parents are encouraged to give baby a variety of tastes, textures and food groups, including baby-consistency fruits, veggies, eggs and yogurt.

Here’s a new recommendation: Instead of avoiding potentially allergenic foods such as peanuts, wheat, shellfish and soy, introduce them along with other foods around 6 months. Research has shown that introducing these foods in the first year of life can reduce the likelihood of an allergy. Consult your child’s pediatrician for the safest way to do this, especially if your little one is at high risk for allergies.

There are also some “don’ts” for feeding babies.

Do not introduce solid foods before four months of age. Babies must be developmentally ready to swallow by showing these signs:

— Can control their neck so the head doesn’t wobble

— Can sit up alone or with support

— Can bring objects to their mouth

— Can try to grasp small objects

— Can swallow baby-consistency food without pushing it back out

Do not feed infants any raw or cooked honey until after one year of age. Babies can get seriously ill or die if the honey contains Clostridium botulinum, the organism that causes botulism.

Do not give foods that have not been pasteurized (heat treated to kill harmful bacteria) such as unpasteurized juices, milk, yogurt or cheese.

Do not switch to regular cow’s milk from breast milk or infant formula until your child reaches 12 months. Their digestive tracts are not mature enough until then.

Do not feed foods an infant could choke on, including hot dogs, candy, nuts, raw carrots, grapes, popcorn or chunks of peanut butter.

And don’t forget to give your baby lots of love.

©2023 MediaNews Group, Inc. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The law, Act 12, was passed in 2016 and was sold as a way to put small, financially struggling water and sewer systems into the hands of private companies that could afford to fix them up and prevent environmental violations.

But instead, Wall Street — primarily American Water and Essential Utilities, known locally as Aqua — has been targeting stable, functioning public systems and offering them sky-high prices as a way to boost shareholder returns, according to public water advocates and a former state official.

The key to this trend is the unglamorous phrase “valuation,” or how “fair market value” is determined.

Law unleashes flood of sales

Before the flood of sales created by Act 12, a water or sewer system was “valued” in the usual way, with original cost less depreciation and amortization, like how a new car loses value the minute it leaves the lot. That did not make them very attractive targets for acquisition, particularly if it was a small financially unstable system with a backlog of maintenance and capital projects.

But Act 12 changed that and now the revenues earned from the rates users pay are allowed to be rolled into the valuation equation and the system allows private companies to get bigger rewards for smaller risks.

This is due, in part, to an additional “premium” above market price, envisioned as an incentive for a private company’s riskier purchase of a troubled utility. But the premium “reward” for taking this risk isn’t restricted to “riskier systems.” Instead is it just sweetening the deal because its entire cost is being foisted onto ratepayers instead of stockholders taking on the risk, as is the case with traditional investing.

As a result, “neither the buyer nor the seller has incentive to keep the price as low as possible,” Peggy Gallos, executive director of the Association of Environmental Authorities of New Jersey, explained in the organization’s October 2021 newsletter.

Ratepayers Bear Risks, Pay the Price

“The difference between risk and reward should not be on the backs of the ratepayer, it should be on the backs of the shareholders,” argued Andrew Place, a former vice chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission who consistently cast the sole vote against these system sales during his five years in office. “But it’s falling on the backs of the captive ratepayers who are not going to profit from better management and who have no choice,” he said.

“It’s not like if I don’t like Ford, I can go out and buy a Toyota. The ratepayers cannot shop around for sewer service. It’s a monopoly,” said Place.

The idea that privatization will allow market forces to keep prices down is a fallacy, said Mildred E. Warner, a professor of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University and one of the authors of a study released in March 2022 on the impact of private ownership of water systems.

The only time “market forces” come into play is when the system is up for sale and multiple companies can bid for it. Otherwise, publicly or privately owned, a water or sewer system, she said, “is the definition of a monopoly” — and a tempting one at that.

For the municipality, such sales look good on their face. The higher the price, the more money the municipality receives to use for things like debt relief, capital projects, balancing pensions, or other financial needs, all without having to raise taxes.

And for the buyer, the higher the price, the more the private company gets to charge ratepayers, to make its money back to cover the purchase costs, to the delight of its stockholders.

Over time, that is the kind of reliable built-in profit Wall Street investors like.

“There’s a lot of money to be made raising rates,” said Mary Grant, the Public Water for All Campaign Director at Food and Water Watch, a non-profit advocacy group.

“Act 12 turned traditional valuation on its head and removed any incentive to keep the costs down,” said Gallos. As a result, “the higher the price of the system, the higher the amount that ratepayers must subsequently cover,” Gallos explained

‘We’re Collegial’

So who looks out for the ratepayers? In theory, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.

The PUC has oversight over the rates private companies charge and must approve the sale of every public water and sewer system to a private company.

But there seems to be little regulatory risk here for the private companies.

“The analogy I use is if the private utility company is a lion in a cage and you put a lamb in the cage, no one should be surprised that the lamb gets eaten by the lion. That’s what lions do,” Place said.

Investor-owned utility companies “are in the business of acquiring assets and getting a return on those assets,” he said. “The answer to that is you need a robust regulatory body to counterbalance that and that’s where the problem lies, weakness in the commission.”

Since 2016, the Pennsylvania PUC has approved every single sale of a public water or sewer system, often over objections of public advocates, their own members and even administrative law judges.

Nils Hagen-Frederiksen, press secretary for the PUC confirmed that 22 sales of public water and/or sewer systems to private companies have been initiated since Act 12 was passed. There are currently two more under review. None have been rejected.

And there does not seem to be much which can convince the PUC to reject a sale.

In 2021, a panel of administrative law judges recommended against approving the $276.5 million sale of the Delaware County wastewater system known as DELCORA to Aqua.

“On March 30, 2021, the PUC vacated that recommendation and remanded the matter to the administrative law judge for further proceedings,” the Delaware County Daily Times reported.

That action by the PUC was in turn stayed by a judge. But in July 2022, the PUC acted again, lifted the stay and directed the administrative law judges to promptly schedule the hearings. Those hearings were put on hold due to a bankruptcy proceeding.

“The hierarchy is always to give deference to the utility and never to the ratepayer. For the ratepayer, it’s regulatory capture. The ratepayer is invisible” in the PUC process, Place said.

“But there’s no reason for anyone to assume corruption is at play here. It’s just that the smiling, dapper-dressed, glad-handing utility folks are the people you’re seeing every day. You’re never seeing the low-income, middle-income vulnerable customers from Altoona, Pittsburgh and Erie. Their voices aren’t in the room which always deeply troubled me,” said Place.

Why would the commissioners act this way? Place believes it’s so they can keep their jobs.

“On my first day when I started, the chairman took me out to lunch and he had a very direct message — “We’re collegial. Our first job is not to be critical, not to be oppositional,” Place said.

“It’s almost like the PUC has Stockholm syndrome,” Gallos said. “They spend so much time with the people they regulate.”

“The dirty laundry here is what the commissioners really care about is being re-nominated,” Place said. “Writing dissents, acting adversely to some interests can only work against you, you only lose face taking positions that are hard.”

Is it that good of a job?

“It’s one of the greatest jobs in the world. You make $150,000, you get a nice state pension; you have a large staff that does the leg work and you only have to work a couple of days a month. Few commissioners work full-time, you only have a couple of meetings a month and you are someone, you’re important. It’s a great gig. So you don’t want to tick off senator so-and-so and maybe not have your nomination confirmed,” said Place.

By contrast, Place did write dissents, a lot of them.

“The vote was always 4-1,” he said. “I lost all of them.”

For example, when the Limerick Township sewer system in Montgomery County was sold in 2018, Place not only voted against it but issued a dissenting opinion. He warned of the coming rate hike Limerick sewer customers would face. In 2021, three years after the system was sold, Aqua sought a 90% rate hike for Limerick customers, above even the 84% hike Place had warned might be coming.

Last year, Limerick’s sewer rates went up by 47.29%, according to township manager Dan Kerr.

As he has many times since, Place argued that Limerick’s system was well-run and there was no public benefit to selling it to a private company, which would provide essentially the same service for higher rates.

He also made the point that costs for the purchase of the Limerick system would also be borne, unwittingly, by Aqua customers across the state.

“The Aqua ratepayers in Indiana Township don’t know they are paying for the purchase of the Limerick sewer system. It’s Kafka-esque,” said Place.

At the time, Limerick Township supervisors argued that in addition to the new municipal building and new firehouse paid for by the sale of the sewer system, property taxes would also remain stable.

But higher utility rates “are just a tax under a different guise,” said Place. It’s a revenue stream borne only by customers of the sewer system and not by all taxpayers and, because municipalities pay lower interest rates than for-profit companies, it’s more expensive than it needs to be. “If you’re raising revenue by this method, you’re overpaying and you’re doing it at a higher interest rate,” Place argued.

When his term was up in 2020, Gov. Tom Wolf nominated Place for a second term, but he declined so he could return to his family and his farm outside Pittsburgh and work from home. “Besides,” he said with a chuckle, “who knows if the nomination would have been confirmed.”

‘Kind of a David and Goliath situation’

Governments continue to provide water and sewer services in most of the United States. Eighty-four percent of drinking water systems are government-owned, as are 98 percent of wastewater systems.

But that is changing across the country and Pennsylvania and New Jersey are ground zero for the effort to put public services in private hands.

Act 12 “has definitely led to a feeding frenzy in Pennsylvania and New Jersey,” said Grant. “We’ve seen a huge upswing since 2016” when Act 12 was passed, she said.

“Pennsylvania and New Jersey are the epicenter of this new trend,” Gallos agreed. “Pennsylvania is like the wild west in terms of these systems going up for sale and it’s about five years ahead of where New Jersey is headed.”

And the odds are not even.

In many cases, “you have these corporate lawyers, and this is all they do. and they’re up against the local town attorney whose expertise is about township ordinances. It’s kind of a David and Goliath situation,” Gallos said. “The learning curve is so steep, it’s hard to figure out what’s going on.”

Some towns look to consultants to help with that learning curve, but they are not always as impartial as one might wish.

When Upper Pottsgrove Township in Montgomery County hired a consultant to help decide whether to sell its sewer collection system. the consultant, Public Finance Management, offered to work for $50,000 and 1.5 percent of the sale price, should the township commissioners decide to sell.

That meant PFM would receive about $250,750 only if the township agreed to sell, and only $7,500 if the commissioners voted against the sale. In 2020, the township’s board voted 4-1 to sell the system to Pennsylvania American for $13.75 million in the wake of a series of public meetings run by PFM.

“It often seems like the outcome of the report is known before it’s even written,” Gallos quipped.

Two years later, the PUC approved a 39.1% sewer rate hike for Pennsylvania American, even more than it had sought, and Upper Pottsgrove sewer customers saw the promise of slowly rising rates evaporate.

Study: Private always costs more

Even before Act 12, data shows that water rates go up in Pennsylvania when a system is purchased by a private company.

According to 2014 charts put together by Food and Water Watch, rates in Coatesville had risen by 73% by 2014 after the system was purchased by American Water in 2001.

In West Chester, Aqua’s 1998 purchase of the municipal authority there was followed by a 145% rise in rates by 2014.

Unfortunately, given the patchwork of water and sewer systems in the Commonwealth, there is no centralized data table on the effect Act 12 has had on rates, although Food and Water Watch hopes to release information on the 10 biggest system sales in Pennsylvania within a few months.

Hagen-Frederiksen confirmed the PUC does not keep any kind of centralized database of rates for easy comparison by regulators, or the public.

“It’s done on a case-by-case basis and there is no over-arching analysis, which I agree, needs to be done,” said Place. “It’s not a good way to do business.”

Further evidence can be found in a study released last March and published in the Official Journal of the World Water Council which concluded: “among the largest 500 water systems in the US, private ownership results in higher water prices and less affordability, after controlling for all other factors.”

The authors wrote that “results show that the average annual water bill is $144 higher in the privately owned water systems than in the publicly owned water systems,” according to the report’s findings. “These results hold after controlling for other factors, namely regulatory environment, water supply, age of system and community demographics that would affect water price and affordability. All private systems in our sample are regulated. However, in NJ and PA water regulations have become more favorable to private operators than in many other states, and our model results show this leads to higher prices in those states.”

This comes as no surprise, said Warner, one of the authors of the study.

“There’s a reason it’s called a public utility,” she told MediaNews Group. “Because it represents a critical public good. People cannot live without water.”

However, “when that system is privatized the priority of that private actor is to maximize profits and the public ends up paying more for the same product,” Warner said. That’s good news for private companies and their stockholders, not so good for rate-payers. “Water is a critical public infrastructure and people will pay, they have no choice.”

One of the ways they pay is through extra fees that few customers understand, said Place.

“No one thinks a lot about the bills that have a few extra dollars here, a few extra dollars there. It’s a drip, drip, drip, like the proverbial frog in slowly heated water,” he said. “But multiply that over a few thousand people and pretty soon you’re talking about real money and eventually, the frog boils.”

“There are a lot of surcharges that get added on” to bills in the private systems, Grant added.

The ‘financialization’ of a public good

For more than 30 years, there was not much difference between public and private ownership because the technology was static, said Warner. “There was no way to squeeze more efficiencies out of providing the service.”

But what has changed is Wall Street’s entry into the picture, what Warner calls “the financialization” of these critical public utilities.

With investors to answer to and profit goals to meet, public utilities “moved from a use value, where the value is derived from their use, to their financial value, where the value is derived from what could they be sold for, how could money be made off of them,” Warner said. “Finance used to be in service to the real economy. Now the real economy exists to serve finance.”

And one of the ways Wall Street’s demands can be met, said Gallos, is to keep adding customers and the way you do that is to keep buying systems, even ones that don’t make much sense on their face.

“It’s sort of a pyramid scheme, everyone is helping to support the latest purchase,” Gallos said. “I go on shareholder calls when they’re bragging about their great performance, they always point out customer growth.”

Circling the drain

And those who get hurt the most by that growth are those who can afford it the least.

Grant said in some ways, history is reversing itself.

When most water and sewer systems were built, they were owned by private companies, “but they wouldn’t extend their systems out into the poor neighborhoods and as a result, there were cholera epidemics and these massive fires and so there was this wave of municipalities taking over these private systems,” Grant said.

Now, as that wave reverses, it is the same people living on the edge who will be most negatively affected, said Place and Warner.

According to the study Warner co-authored, “in communities with privately owned water systems, low-income households spend 1.55% more of their income on their water bills.”

Place, who was the lead author of a policy paper urging the PUC to take people’s ability to pay into account, said that needs to be part of the PUC’s equation.

“There are 1.3 million households in PA living near, at, or below the poverty line,” said Place. “That’s a lot of people living paycheck to paycheck and even a small increase like this can have them trip into poverty.”

In most cases, “people making $50,000 to $100,000 can afford, say, a 6 percent increase. But for others, if this is what puts them over, they are circling the drain. They go into arrears and in two or three years, they eventually drop off the system. They may become homeless or move out of town and hollow out communities.  And you have all of the social costs which go along with that. There is a real and absolute cost to loss of utility access,” Place said.

“In some ways, it’s doing damage to democracy,” said Gallos. “In my little township, if it seems to me like there’s too much chlorine in the water, I can go down to the town hall and complain or go to a township meeting. I don’t think I’m going to get a very satisfactory response from a corporate giant.”

To that point, since Upper Pottsgrove sold its sewer system, former customers have been showing up at the commissioners’ meetings to say their complaints to Pennsylvania American Water are going unanswered. The commissioners can only send them back to the company.

“The value in a public system is that it’s for everyone at as low a cost as possible,” Gallos said. “There’s a lot of fairness issues going on with this.”

Is Harrisburg waking up?

It seems some legislators in Harrisburg are starting to get the message.

The House Majority Policy Committee hosted a tour and roundtable on April 20 to discuss how Pennsylvania residents are negatively impacted when public water authorities are sold to for-profit companies, including rate hikes with little to no service improvements, according to a press release issued about the event.

The visit and the discussion put particular focus on the fight over the potential sale of the Chester Water Authority, which in many ways encapsulates all the issues at play in the wave of selling public utilities.

The city of Chester’s sale of CWA to Essential Utilities, which also does business as Aqua America, is currently held up in court awaiting potential arguments before the state Supreme Court. Chester City Council, which has its own financial concerns, voted unanimously in September to approve a $410 million sale to Aqua. The CWA and residents oppose the sale and filed an appeal with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

A request for comment from Essential Utilities’ press office went unanswered.

“The people of Chester and its surrounding communities have every right to question the potential sale of the Chester Water Authority,” said state Rep. Christina Sappey, D-158th District, who represents portions of Chester County. “Everyone is aware the city faces a sizable deficit, but the short-sighted move of selling a water utility to a for-profit company almost always ends poorly for residents — in the form of higher bills with no end in sight for price increases. The sale might solve the city’s problems today but create new problems down the road.”

“I have gotten more calls and emails from constituents who oppose Aqua’s attempts to buy CWA than on any other local issue,” said state Rep. Leanne Krueger, D-161st District, who represents portions of Delaware County. “I stand firmly with the ratepayers who are fighting to keep our water authority in the hands of the community.”

“The sale of this public water authority is bad news for any resident of Pennsylvania who values their ability to access clean water and open green spaces,” said state Rep. Carol Kazeem, D-159th District, who hosted the event and represents portions of Delaware County — including the city of Chester.

“For the more than 200,000 paying customers of Chester Water Authority, this sale could result in skyrocketing rate hikes. People who enjoy the outdoors can also expect access to the 2,000 acres of land currently owned by Chester Water Authority to change dramatically — including access for boaters, hikers and anglers. The bottom line is the only one who benefits from this sale is the for-profit company trying to purchase Chester Water Authority.”

I don’t know what made my parents pack up the family in 2002 and spend our summer vacation in a small Maine town we had no connections to, but I have spent every summer since convinced there is no better place to be than Maine.

One of the most rural of the United States, Maine has a prevailing sense of rugged beauty knitting together the hardworking, historic towns that dot the state’s 3,500 miles of coastline. A road trip along the coast between Portland and Acadia National Park offers no shortage of stunning views, good eats and plenty of reasons why the state has long been called Vacationland.

Starting your journey in Portland, it’s easy to see how the city’s long life as a fishing and manufacturing center has melded into the current tourist economy. Think cobblestone streets, brick factories repurposed into shops and restaurants, and historic houses turned into eclectic hotels like Blind Tiger Guest House (163 Danforth St., Portland; larkhotels.com/hotels/blind-tiger). Blind Tiger’s 15 well-appointed rooms are spread across two restored 19th century homes in the West End neighborhood. The hotel’s name is a nod to the speakeasy that once existed on the premises, now a billiards room for guests.

Leave the car keys behind for the night and stroll over to Leeward (85 Free St., Portland; leewardmaine.com), an Italian-leaning, pasta-centric joint on Free Street. Leeward is a nautical term for being sheltered from the wind, but this would still be the place to go even on the mildest of days. Co-owners Jake and Raquel Stevens had just opened the restaurant’s doors when COVID-19 restrictions forced them back closed.

Thankfully, Leeward weathered the storm and even snagged a James Beard Award nomination for Best New Restaurant in 2022. Any of the fresh pasta on the menu is worth a taste, but if the stuffed squash blossoms — lightly fried and finished with a honey vinaigrette — are available, they are a must-order.

Feeling more snacky? In the East End neighborhood, there’s a veritable treasure trove of local businesses along Washington Avenue offering the perfect picnic goods. Start at The Shop (123 Washington Ave., Portland; portland.islandcreekoysters.com), the Maine outpost for Massachusetts-based Island Creek Oysters, for some tinned fish. Nearby, Maine & Loire wine shop and The Cheese Shop of Portland have the rest of the fixings for a proper feast, best enjoyed alfresco along the city’s Eastern Promenade.

In the morning, fuel up before hitting the road at Tandem Coffee + Bakery (742 Congress St., Portland; tandemcoffee.com), a cafe from Tandem Coffee Roasters housed in a converted midcentury gas station. Don’t miss the delicious baked goods from pastry chef Briana Holt, including inventive scone flavors like grapefruit poppy seed and apple feta.

Leaving Portland, navigating is simple — Route 1 alone will get you almost all the way to Acadia. It’s a major north-south highway serving the entire East Coast, but a slower pace of life influences even the roads and the highway drops down to primarily two lanes. There’s plenty to see and there’s no hurry to see it.

In the town of Bath, nautical enthusiasts should check out the Maine Maritime Museum (243 Washington St., Bath; mainemaritimemuseum.org), where visitors can explore historic shipyard buildings standing in the shadow of Bath Iron Works, a major operational shipyard. It’s a rich visual of Maine’s long seafaring tradition.

Artists will love Rockland, Maine, home to both the Center for Maine Contemporary Art (21 Winter St., Rockland; cmcanow.org) and the Farnsworth Art Museum (16 Museum St., Rockland; farnsworthmuseum.org). The Farnsworth holds an extensive collection from the Wyeth family, including realist painter Andrew Wyeth. Rockland also hosts regular art walks where galleries and studios open their doors.

Somewhere in between, stop for a lobster roll — perhaps in Wiscasset at Red’s Eats (41 Water St., Wiscasset; redseatsmaine.com). There’s a reason lengthy lines regularly appear around this tiny roadside shack. Red’s lobster roll is a love letter to local Maine lobster, nothing is coming out mayonnaise-drenched here. Simplicity is key.

Back on the road, you’ll soon find yourself winding along the edge of Penobscot Bay. These are the views that inventor of the duplex system telegraph Joseph Barker Stearns saw from his grand estate, Norumbega, in nearby Camden. Named for a mythical New World settlement, The Norumbega (63 High St., Camden; norumbegainn.com) is now an 11-room inn. While there are no pillars of gold here like legends once suggested, guests are sure to find the space plenty luxurious after a recent, extensive interior renovation.

To get a new perspective on the ins and outs of the coastline, book a sail with Schooner Surprise (1 Bay View St., Camden; schoonersurprise.com), a 1918 yacht listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Leaving from Camden Harbor, Schooner Surprise offers everything from sunset sails with live acoustic music to birding and marine life tours. Whichever you choose, you’ll be cruising around the bay in style.

Those who prefer to remain landlubbers should instead check out Oyster River Winegrowers (31 Elm St., Camden; oysterriverwine.com), a small farm winery that has been crafting low-intervention wines and ciders since 2007. Let yourself be charmed by the beat-up beadboard walls and creaking floors as you sidle up to the no-frills Camden wine bar and order a glass of Carbonic Nation, a dry, endlessly drinkable red with the slightest bit of fizz.

Across the street, you’ll find Wolfpeach (50 Elm St., Camden; wolfpeachmaine.com). This buzzy restaurant stepped back from farm-to-table fine dining this spring, re-concepting into a pizza joint, slinging naturally leavened pies and delicious snacks to pair. Try the clam pie studded with plenty of garlic, parsley and lemon, or go classic with red sauce and locally made pepperoni. Finish the night on a sweet note with housemade ginger ice cream.

Continuing on, you’ll hit the region that Mainers refer to as “downeast” Maine — a nautical nickname for how winds would force sailors to sail downwind to travel east in warm months. Hopefully, you’ll feel no resistance as you turn off Route 1 and head southeast toward Mount Desert Island, the second-largest island on the Eastern Seaboard.

Within the town of Bar Harbor, stay at Terramor Outdoor Resort (1453 ME-102, Bar Harbor; terramoroutdoorresort.com) for a taste of the great outdoors without having to pitch your own tent. A division of Kampgrounds of America, Terramor is a far cry from roughing it. Luxury canvas tents all feature plush beds, Wi-Fi and access to private bathroom facilities. Plus, the grounds are situated just minutes from the entrance of Acadia National Park.

New England’s only national park, Acadia contains more than 150 miles of hiking trails along rocky headlands and through evergreen forests. Thrill-seekers might gravitate toward the Beehive Loop Trail, a 1.4-mile cliff hike that features steep granite stairs, iron-rung ladders and sweeping views of the Gulf of Maine.

For a post-hike treat, stop by the park’s Jordan Pond House (jordanpondhouse.com) restaurant, known for its signature warm popovers served with jam and butter. Enjoy your snack outside and admire the views of picturesque Jordan Pond. While you’re at it, order a fresh blueberry lemonade and toast Maine’s status as the largest U.S. producer of blueberries.

If you don’t mind a predawn wake-up, make the time to watch the sunrise from Cadillac Mountain. Don’t worry, no mountaineering in the dark is required — cars can take the Cadillac Summit Road with advance reservations. From there, you’ll be one of the first people in North America to see the sun rise. There are few better ways to fall for a place than to watch the sun glinting across the water’s surface, a new day beginning.

Jaclyn Jermyn is a freelance writer.

NORFOLK, Va. — Lexy Rogers hopes to teach people how to make easy, soulful meals with her debut cookbook, “Break Bread on a Budget: Ordinary Ingredients, Extraordinary Meals,” which was released April 4.

She should know since she’s a private chef, Air Force wife and mother of three living in Hampton, Virginia.

Rogers grew up in Illinois about an hour from Chicago. She fell in love with cooking at the age of 11 while watching her grandmother and aunt. She didn’t see them use recipes or measure anything. She noticed how happy family and friends were eating their food, though.

Rogers enjoys the same creative freedom with her home cooking, which she says is influenced by the South.

“One of the things my grandmother taught me was to cook with confidence,” said Rogers, who became a private chef in 2020.

In 2021, she went on Fox’s “MasterChef” Season 11, a cooking show hosted by the legendary chef Gordon Ramsay. Rogers spoke about how she fed her family of five on a $40-a-week budget. Her children were younger than 2 and ate less. She finished in the Top 9 of the competition.

People emailed and contacted her on social media with budgeting questions. She became overwhelmed and decided to write “Break Bread on a Budget.”

It features more than 60 kid-friendly recipes, such as Creole Mac and Cheese, Cinnamon Toast Crunch Donut and Not Ya Mama’s Chili, but it can also appeal to college students and anyone who wants to save money and eat delicious meals. The paperback also includes shopping lists, meal prep advice and budget-stretching techniques. She keeps it simple with easy-to-find ingredients; she shops at Walmart.

Rogers shared some of her tips:

— Purchase pasta, rice and potatoes — they’re a good way to stretch a meal.

— Buy meat, such as chicken and ground turkey, in bulk for the week.

— Go shopping in the morning. Grocery stores get their shipments then and mark down old items to make room.

— Make a menu for Monday through Friday so everyone knows what they’re eating for lunch and dinner.

— Prepare different meals with the same ingredients.

— Make a little extra for dinner and portion it out for lunch the next day.

— Get creative with what you have and stop going to the store multiple times a week.

— For picky eaters, she recommends having kids help in the kitchen when preparing the food. “If my 5-year-old son knows what’s going into the dish, he feels like it’s his meal and he’s more inclined to eat it.”

— Never shop hungry.

For the kids’ breakfast, Rogers makes oatmeal and sometimes pancakes or waffles with fresh or frozen fruit. Her husband is not big on the morning meal.

It’s not all Apron-Worthy Burgers and Mozzarella Monkey Bread; she’ll cook frozen chicken nuggets for her kids, sometimes. Snacks, such as Fruit Roll-Ups, eat up a huge part of her budget. She said she doesn’t have the time nor the patience to make them herself.

In a pinch, Rogers’ go-to meal is a one-pot chicken thighs recipe (in the book). It includes seasoned chicken, potatoes and peppers. She cooks it in a pot on the stove for about 30 minutes and serves it with rice.

“My kids love it and it goes really far,” Rogers said.

She admits it’s been difficult to stay with a $40 price point with higher food costs — and her children are older and eat more. Her budget is about $80 a week now. Rogers had a baby a day prior to our phone conversation — can someone say party of six?

She adds: Be creative, have a good balance and give yourself grace.

Details about Lexy Rogers, cheflexyrogers.com

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HOT HONEY SAUTEED CHICKEN

Prep time: 5 minutes | Cook time: 20 minutes

Serves: 3

Ingredients

4 cups water

2 cups rice

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

4 tablespoons butter (divided)

2 pounds of chicken tenders

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1/4 cup honey

3 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons white or red wine vinegar

Sesame seeds for garnish (optional)

Fresh chopped chives for garnish (optional)

Instructions

1. Bring water and rice to a boil in a saucepan over high heat.

2. Once boiling, reduce heat to low, add salt, pepper and one tablespoon of butter.

3. Cover and cook for 15 to 20 minutes or until water is absorbed and rice is fluffy when forked.

4. While rice is cooking, coat chicken in cornstarch.

5. Combine chili powder, red pepper flakes, garlic, honey, soy sauce and vinegar in a small bowl and place to the side.

6. Melt remaining butter in a skillet over medium to high heat and place chicken in the pan.

7. Cook for 3 minutes on one side, or until browned, and flip.

8. Pour sauce into the pan and continue to cook for another 3 to 4 minutes on medium to low or until the chicken is cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit.

9. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and chives, if using.

10. Serve with rice.

Budget tip: Freshen your leftovers by adding your cold, dried-out rice to a skillet with a few tablespoons of canola oil. Fry and add one to two tablespoons of soy sauce to make fried rice.

©2023 The Virginian-Pilot. Visit pilotonline.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The business, which has a more than 100-year history in South Coventry Township, changed ownership at the beginning of April.

However, its legacy as a community store serving the community continues due to the commitment of long-time co-owner Anna Magazzeni.

Anna and her husband Aldo Magazzeni bought the property in 1987 and have owned and operated the Pughtown Agway since 1988, with Anna taking the lead on day-to-day operations since 1993.

At the beginning of April, the business was sold to Gary Hoover, a lifelong Chester County farmer and owner of Hougar Farms, which supplies hay and feed to area farmers.

Anna Magazzeni’s personal history with the property goes back to when she was growing up in the area — on a farm about a mile away — visiting the business with her father from the time she was about 6 years old.

When the couple started to talk about retiring and what would come next, they talked about selling.

“Aldo and I had been talking about getting out for a while, just because we have so many demands up at our (Perkiomenville) farm, and it was just time to pass it on,” said Anna Magazzeni.

The couple has been approached about selling over the years, but Aldo said Anna was clear that she wouldn’t sell to a developer.

“Anna said ‘if the right person comes along and wants to keep it as a farm store, then I’ll know I am ready,’ and low and behold this family came to us,” he said.

The right person, according to the couple was Hoover. He first paid the Magazzenis a visit in April 2023, and according to Aldo Magazzeni, they all hit it off right from the start. Once the sale was finalized, Anna stayed on to help with the transition — first working full-time, then a couple of days a week, before winding up her time at the business.

“I am so thrilled it will continue as a feed store — a community store. I knew everybody that walked in that door and to keep it in that tradition is going to be wonderful, I think,” she said.

Under New Ownership

Hoover is the third generation of his family to farm. Hougar Farms has two locations — in Coatesville and in Gilbertsville — and is known for its hay, seed and animal feed. Pughtown Agway is located halfway between the two farms, so Hoover said it made sense to purchase the property.

“We had already been selling stuff to farms in the area,” he said, adding that the sale seemed to be the next step. “It was kind of a natural fit. We started talking. We thought it would be a good fit because it’s more of a retail presence.”

With the storefront, Hoover said that in addition to the feed, he can offer a full range of items — things like brooms, vitamin supplements for animals, and treats for animals. “It’s more of a one-stop shop.”

Purchasing the business has expanded the reach in terms of what Hougar Farms can offer, he added. It has become the retail center for the farms.

“We’re trying to make it easy for our customers,” Hoover said, adding that two strong points of Hougar Farms are customer service and knowledge.

“We are strong on the knowledge — able to set you up for success. … We want to help customers be successful,” he added.

Hoover said he wanted to keep the old-fashioned feel to the business — while providing modern convenience and service.

He said he looks to make more hay available at the Agway and is increasing the feed for sale from three lines to seven. In addition, he plans to bring in additional things — like pasture seeds — that the store hasn’t carried.

Making the Transition

Hoover brought his manager from the Gilbertsville location — Kenny Casey — to be the day-to-day manager at the Pughtown Agway. He added that most of the part-time employees have been brought on as full-time employees. He has also hired two additional employees for the garden center.

The transition, he said, has gone well.

And — he appreciates Anna Magazzeni’s involvement throughout the transition.

“If you step back and look at it — it’s kind of ironic or meant to be. What are the odds of finding someone passionate about farming and wanting to keep it alive and has the knowledge,” he said. “She carried the torch for a long time.”

A Lifetime of Involvement

Anna Magazzeni’s history with the business goes back to the late 1950s.

“My dad and I used to go in there. We had sheep, chickens and horses when I was a kid growing up and my dad would take me to the Agway for our feed,” she said. When she and Aldo got married in 1973, they moved onto her family farm where they had some animals, and continued shopping at the Agway.

“It has been my lifelong place of first shopping and then working.”

History

The historic property has been in operation since the 1880s, originally a functioning mill. It then began supplying animal feed in the early 1900s and served as a farm bureau. Later, it became an Agway store.

In 1987, the Magazzenis bought the property from long-time owners Jack and Dorothy Sharp, while Agway continued to own the business. A year later, the couple bought the franchise from Agway, and hired managers to run the business. After buying a vacant piece of land next door in 1990, they began to develop the garden center.

Anna Magazzeni said she never really thought of working at the store until “years” after their daughter Elizabeth was born in 1977.

In about 1993, Anna became more involved and decided she would manage the business.

The rest, they say, is history.

Anna Magazzeni plans to spend time on her own farm and spend more time with her granddaughters Ella,11 and Ava, 9. Her daughter Elizabeth Rinehart is an art therapist, and didn’t want to take over the business, Aldo Magazzeni said. However, her husband, Mark Rinehart, works for the company.

As Hoover begins to write the next chapter of the historic property, he wants people to know he is passionate about agriculture and the future of farming.

“I would love to help others succeed in that pursuit. With the community store here, I am hoping it will be a place of knowledge and good quality products to help others,” he said, adding he looks forward to growing the business.

Pughtown Agway is located at 819 Pughtown Road in South Coventry Township. For information visit Pughtown Agway’s Facebook page.

Relationships thrive when love is present, and become stale and eventually die when it is not.

Love is not just a feeling between individuals, though it is an emotional attachment that draws people together. Deeper and longer relationships take commitments of time and energy.

We usually think of love in terms of individuals, but the concept can also be applied to whole societies. A loving society is one in which people are encouraged to grow and be treated fairly.

In fact, in some ways love can be seen as justice. A loving society believes every member has worth and dignity and should be treated equally.

There are three ways to view the dimensions of love. Egoism is love that only seeks to feed itself. Friendship binds people into community. And self-giving love treats the other with respect.

You can understand those who claim to be leaders by using these three categories. Some only serve to feed their own needs for power. Others serve to help others. And the few great leaders serve a greater vision of what has been called the “beloved community” in which justice rules.

Love more, hate less should be the new golden rule for individuals and societies.

John C. Morgan writes and teaches about ethics. 

“It is completely unacceptable for a child to start the day hungry,” Wolf announced in a statement on Sept. 9.

“I’m taking hunger off the table for Pennsylvania kids by creating the Universal Free Breakfast Program. Regardless of whether or not they qualify for free or reduced meals normally, every student enrolled in public or private schools will have the opportunity to feed their belly before they feed their mind this school year,” he said.

According to Wolf’s office, the Universal Free Breakfast Program will go into effect on October 1, 2022 and run through the end of the 2022-23 school year. More than 1.7 million Pennsylvania children enrolled in public schools, intermediate units, charter schools, career and technology schools, and child care institutions that participate in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs will benefit from this state-funded program.

And, a North Penn School District employee was involved in making this happen, district officials said this week.

According to the district, Melissa Froehlich, North Penn School District’s Coordinator of School Nutrition Services and School Nutrition Association of Pennsylvania Communications Chair, and Nicole Melia, Food Service Supervisor of the Great Valley School District, were instrumental in advocating for the Universal Free Breakfast Program.

Froehlich and Melia, along with the School Nutrition Association ofPennsylvania, worked with Wolf to establish the program following the expiration of waivers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture that covered universal free meals for all students.

“We commend Governor Wolf and the Administration for their dedication to a hunger-free Pennsylvania. Universal free school breakfast across Pennsylvania helps to ensure every student will start their day with a healthy, nutritious meal,” said Froehlich.

North Penn and their SNS department had provided free meals to students starting with the onset of COVID-19 in March 2020, in numbers totaling more than two million total meals by fall 2021 and over one million more during 2021-22, and in May Froehlich and the school board warned that federal waivers to continue that program were set to expire, presenting several scenarios in a special finance committee meeting on May 24.

North Penn had already made plans to cover universal free breakfast for the 2022-2023 school year, as well as free lunch for students who qualify for both free and reduced price meals, according to a district statement. The reduced category has been eliminated and those students will also receive lunch at no cost. Funding for this program will now be covered by the Pennsylvania government’s Universal Free Breakfast Program which goes into effect October 1, 2022 and will run through the end of the 2023 school year. More than 1.7 million students across Pennsylvania will benefit from this state-funded program.

“Research supports that a well-nourished child who starts the day with breakfast is more likely to be at school, has improved concentration, and is more willing to participate in the classroom,” Froehlich said.

“Universal free breakfast for all students in Pennsylvania will strengthen child nutrition programs and address equity and stigma around school breakfast so that more children will have access to nutritional meals and set our students up for success in the classroom,” she said.

North Penn families are encouraged to apply for free/reduced meals for the 2022-2023 school year. Any student who qualifies for reduced price lunch will receive free meals during the 2022-2023 school year, in addition to the universal free breakfast. For moreinformation and to apply, visit the SNS department’s website. Applications are available online in six languages, as well as paper copies that can be found in all school main offices and at the district Educational Services Center, 401 E Hancock Street in Lansdale; families must reapply each year, and last year’s status expires on October 14, 2022.

Swift, a Berks County native, opened her concert tour in March donating to the Arizona Food Bank Network and the Three Square Food Bank of Las Vegas.

Both food banks posted news of her donation on Instagram. The Arizona Food Bank Network said, “We are incredibly grateful to Taylor for this gift, and for caring about people who are struggling to put food on the table.”

Swift has donated to more food banks as the tour has continued including the Tarrant Area Food Bank in Texas. Feeding Tampa Bay also received a donation from the singer-songwriter and posted on Instagram: “Thank you @taylorswift for being a HERO and supporting Feeding Tampa Bay’s mission to end hunger by 2025! Your generosity will place over 125,000 meals on tables!”

Swift has a history of donating to food banks even prior to this tour, including a large gift to the Houston Food Bank in 2017. She made another in this tour.

Taking action to feed the hungry shows that you care, just like Swift does. This can encourage others to get involved in feeding the hungry.

The crisis of hunger is often a silent one and does not get much attention in the media. Donations by celebrities such as Swift help put the spotlight on hunger and how food banks need our help. Food banks in America are struggling to provide for those in need, especially with high food prices and the expiration of pandemic benefits like expanded SNAP (foods stamps).

It’s also vital that global hunger get attention with many nations at risk of famine. Global hunger relief programs are short on funding.

The UN World Food Program warns, “The scale of the current global hunger and malnutrition crisis is enormous, with an expected 345.2 million people projected to be food insecure — more than double the number in 2020.”

Drought caused by climate change has plunged Somalia into severe food shortages. People there walk for days hoping to find any little bit of food and water. Ethiopia and Kenya are other nations in the Horn of Africa reeling from the prolonged drought.

In war-torn Yemen there are 17 million people suffering in hunger. In the Democratic Republic of Congo there are 26 million people needing food aid, with around 10 million in the most severe levels of hunger. In Syria and Turkey the recent earthquakes has increased hunger for those already impacted by conflict. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has escalated hunger worldwide increasing food prices and threatening a major source of food. Sudan is seeing worsening hunger because of violence.

What the hungry everywhere need are advocates. You can follow Swift’s example by donating to feed the hungry, hosting a fundraiser at your school or holding a letter writing session to ask members of Congress to support food aid.

Your potential impact is even greater than you realize. For every time attention is given to the hunger crisis, it makes more people aware of what is happening and that can generate action.

Keep in mind that if just eight to 12 people write a letter to their elected officials in Congress, that can make an issue like hunger a priority.

Get involved like Taylor Swift does, and we can defeat hunger.

William Lambers is an author who partnered with the UN World Food Program on the book “Ending World Hunger.”

What does this mean?  I’ll try to be as clear as I can about this somewhat cryptic guidance.

Light and darkness are the twin, universal symbols of many world traditions. They are not necessarily opposites but complementary — held in tension, like the Taoist yin/yang symbol, each feeding off the other.

In the scientific world light is seen aselectromagnetic radiation visible to the human eye, traveling at nearly 200,000 miles per second.

Conversely, the ultimate scientific images of darkness are black holes where there is no light. These black holes comprise most of the known universe.

In creation myths the original force is light, not the so-called big bang. “Let there be light” is the first command, not “let there be noise.”

We are, therefore, creatures of the light, spun from the initial energy and carried through time and space by forces we don’t completely understand.

If light is the symbol of creativity and potential good, then leaning into it might be the best as opposed to leaning into the destructive energy of darkness. And if each one of us still retains some of that original force, then reaching deep within we can rediscover our ancient connection.

It doesn’t take an expert to understand what light and darkness are in ethical ways. Light implies such terms as compassion, empathy, fairness, love.  Darkness implies lack of empathy or compassion, injustice, hate.

By leaning into the light, we learn that ethically speaking love yields a better world than hate, even though sometimes the forces of darkness seem to be winning. In the long run evil feeds off itself and is consumed by its own self-destructive energy.Whenever I get discouraged when the forces of darkness seem in control, when lies rule and truth seems broken, I return to the lyrics and music of Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem” for hope:

“Ring the bells that still can ring.                Forget your perfect offering.                There’s a crack in everything.                That’s how the light gets in.”

 John C. Morgan is a writer and teacher whose columns appear weekly at readingeagle.com 

In the mid-1800s Sarah Josepha Hale took up the cause of making a national Thanksgiving holiday to unite the country. Previously there had been sporadic Thanksgiving celebrations but not the national, consistent holiday we enjoy today.

Sarah started writing about Thanksgiving a lot — in magazines and through letters. In 1863 she wrote to President Abraham Lincoln, “You may have observed that, for some years past, there has been an increasing interest felt in our land to have the Thanksgiving held on the same day, in all the States; it now needs National recognition and authoritive fixation, only, to become permanently, an American custom and institution.”

Sarah encouraged Lincoln to use his influence to make Thanksgiving happen ”by the noble example and action of the President of the United States, the permanency and unity of our Great American Festival of Thanksgiving would be forever secured.”

Lincoln did just that issuing a Thanksgiving Day proclamation in October 1863. This was during the Civil War, and Thanksgiving was seen as a day to pray for peace, unity and healing.

The president proclaimed on Oct. 3, 1863: “I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. … and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.”

Thanksgiving is one of the great holidays we enjoy thanks largely to one person’s idea and willingness to take action. Let’s honor her spirit by each of us writing a letter to the president and Congress about feeding the world’s hungry.

After all, Thanksgiving is a day where we enjoy great food and turkey dinners. But many people on this day are starving like in war-torn Sudan, Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia, Gaza, Haiti, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso and many others. Some countries are in the midst of a civil war like we were when Sarah Hale was writing Abraham Lincoln about starting Thanksgiving. They long for their own Thanksgiving Day of unity and food for all.

You could write to your elected officials about the importance of food aid to save lives and help nations build stability.

Gen. Dwight Eisenhower did this on Thanksgiving Day in 1945 with a written statement and testimony to Congress about feeding war-torn Europe.

As president, Eisenhower proclaimed on Thanksgiving Day 1960, “I urge my fellow Americans to support and assist the efforts which we as a nation, working individually and in cooperation with other nations, are directing toward the solution of the world-food problem.”

You could do this using your pen on Thanksgiving Day, writing to your elected officials about supporting the UN World Food Program and other hunger relief agencies. They are short on funding right now with so many hunger emergencies across the globe.

So take a few moments on Thanksgiving Day to write, in honor of Sarah Josepha Hale, a letter about feeding the world’s hungry. Your words can lead to food for those who desperately need it and may someday help a nation enjoy their own Thanksgiving Day celebration.

William Lambers is an author who partnered with the UN World Food Program on the book “Ending World Hunger.”