When you leave jail, there isn't much you take with you, so to receive a backpack filled with shampoo, conditioner, socks, female hygiene items, snacks, water, and other items can feel, as one formerly incarcerated individual, like Christmas.  Most ideas to help less fortunate, others, have the commonality of being hatched at a kitchen table, and LOVE In A Backpack is no different. When St. John’s Episcopal Church member, Susan Todd’s daughter, Nell, was assessing the needs of those leaving incarceration, a backpack filled with necessary items and a personalized letter of encouragement, seemed to fill the bill. Since its inception, LOVE In A Backpack has supplied over 600 backpacks to incarcerated women, leaving jail, in Western Massachusetts.  According to Jenny Wildermuth, Outreach Coordinator at St. John’s, there is ALWAYS a need for more backpacks and backpack-filling events.  They also encourage other churches and congregations across the US to replicate their mission of LOVE and HOPE.

The Hustler Files Ep. 86- LOVE In A Backpack Is Like A Warm Hug

Gloria Matlock Founder and Executive Director 
Debbie Shriver Chair of the BOD
Michael Kane BOD Member
Shino
Jemanae
Jayleigh
Rose
www.twice-as-smart.org

Founded in 2016 in Gloria's home, Twice As Smart was begun on the principle that some kids need extra help. Because Gloria saw a need and because she is a fixer, she wanted to help fix a learning deficiency in Franklin County. What bean with 7 kids in her living room quickly rose to 17 before she realized she needed a bigger space. The program now sees 32 students in the basement of the Second Congregational Church in Greenfield. Gloria grew up in Ohio and began teaching other children at age 11. She saw the value of education and the need to help others when possible. Debbie and she met over singing and have been friends ever since. There is a strong music component to TAS and the kids overlap with the Musica Franklin curriculum in Greenfield as well. Join us to learn why you should support this amazing non-profit in the 413. A special song by the children was the highlight of the interview. Thanks for listening. Happy New Year.

Seg 3 -- Twice As Smart

1/3/25: MTA Pres Max Page: change K-12 funding & other 2025  priorities. Bill & Buz: the meaning of the oath that Congress takes today. Donnabelle Casis w/ New England Visionary Artists Museum Co-directors Michael Tillyer & Susan Foley. Community Action's Claire Higgins on Housing. Human Rights Attorney Laura Pitter: the issue is genocide.

Community Action's Claire Higgins on Housing

Donnabelle Casis w/ New England Visionary Artists Museum Co-directors Michael Tillyer & Susan Foley

Bill & Buz: the meaning of the oath that Congress takes today

Human Rights Attorney Laura Pitter: the issue is genocide.

MTA Pres Max Page: change K-12 funding & other 2025  priorities

1/6/25: Sen Jo Comerford: bracing for Trump, newly passed bills, & 2025 priorities. Hamp Mayor GL Sciarra: municipal money, capital Improvements -- SEXY! & the Main St. Project. Daniel Yalowitz, Recorder columnist & former Chair, Gfld Human Rts Comm: surviving dark times well. Megan Zinn w/ romance novel legend Loretta Chase: “My Inconvenient Duke.”

Megan Zinn w/ romance novel legend Loretta Chase: “My Inconvenient Duke.”

Daniel Yalowitz, Recorder columnist & former Chair, Gfld Human Rts Comm: surviving dark times well

Sen Jo Comerford: bracing for Trump, newly passed bills, & 2025 priorities

Hamp Mayor GL Sciarra: municipal money, capital Improvements -- SEXY! & the Main St. Project

Podcasts from all of the local show on WHMP Radio in Northampton, MA. including Talk the Talk with Bill Newman and Buz Eisenberg, The Hustler Files, The Western Mass Business Show, and Panorama.