Good DAY!
A quarterly publication of the National Grange Vol. 4, Issue 3 l Fall 2020
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Delivered? One of the signature causes of the Grange in its early years was championing Rural Free Delivery. Today, the Postal Service woes captured our attention once again. Photo by someone, Grange affiliation here
Grange Membership
BENEFITS Below is an overview of some of the benefits that are available to Grange members across the country. A full, detailed list can be viewed on the National Grange’s website: www.nationalgrange.org/benefits
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SHOP
We have partnered with Office Depot/Office Max and The Azigo CashBack Shopping Mall. When you shop at these locations or use these services, you are giving back to the National Grange and receiving special deals in the process.
FINANCE
The National Grange has partnered with TSYS Merchant Solutions, which has been serving merchants for more than 30 years and offers a payment processing program tailored to your business needs. If you have a small business, this advantage could help you.
TRAVEL
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With discounts from Choice Hotels, Wyndham Hotels, Hertz, Dollar Car, and Thrifty rental car services, as well as other hotel and rental car businesses, and RV accommodations with Harvest Hosts, these exclusive Grange benefits are sure to help you when planning your next vacation.
HEALTH
Our partnerships with Comfort Keepers, one of the top companies in the eldercare industry, Life Line, and the Medical Air Services Association, the oldest prepaid emergency transportation and screening organization, are sure to give you peace of mind about your health.
PHARMACY
We have multiple partnerships to help Grange members obtain discount pharmacy cards. CVS Caremark offers the RxSavings Plus Card. The U.S. Pharmacy Card is a free discount prescription card available to Grangers. Last offer excludes members in NC. Also a partnership with National Affinity Services allows access to the public subsidized government marketplace.
INSURANCE
We have partnerships with United of Omaha Life Insurance Company and MetLife Home and Auto Insurance to give our members discounts on insurance rates and deals. We are proud to announce a new benefit partner, Clouse Insurance Agency. State-based and property-based restrictions apply. Contact agency directly. Excludes Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, and North Carolina.
... and many more plus new ones added regularly. Check our website for all active benefits. www.nationalgrange.org/benefits
Good DAY!
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JUNIOR GRANGE
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MEMBERSHIP NEWS & RECOGNITION
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GRANGE YOUTH
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GRASSROOTS
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HOBBIES & LIFESTYLE
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FOUNDATION
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FOOD & RECIPES
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LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS
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LAST WORD
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NATIONAL NEWS & VIEWS
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PERSPECTIVE: The woes of the USPS are far from new, but 2020 has amplified the issue
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Cover Photo
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Rural residents have been especially interested in the developing saga of the United States Postal Service over the years because rural free delivery by USPS is one of the most reliable, affordable and well-liked government services, especially for those in remote areas. As massive social change thanks to the pandemic and a leadership change at USPS converged, headlines about financing of the postal service, reform and security have splashed across newspapers. Grange members have been atuned and active in advocating for the need of a strong and solvent USPS.
Photo credit: Amanda Brozana Rios, National Grange Communications Director Good Day! Magazine is a quarterly publication of the National Grange. located at 1616 H St. NW, Washington, DC 20006. ISSN: 2688-6030. | All comments and questions can be directed to communications@nationalgrange.org Reproduction or distribution of any part of this magazine is prohibited by anyone other than a Grange member or a chartered Grange without written permission from the National Grange Communications Department.
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Census woes expose deep digital divide, reinforce paper option need By Jim Haigh Keep Me Posted, North America Census 2020 is not going well. Nor is it going as planned. This critical distinction has been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, which again exposes the depth and breadth of the digital divide in America. Popular narratives about the digital divide that separates our nation are too often anchored narrowly on the mere availability of broadband in a community. And now, emerging narratives about Census 2020 self-reporting issues routinely fail to look beyond the pandemic disruptions. Long before the launch of this decade’s Constitutionally mandated count of the country’s resident population, planners at the Census Bureau smartly decided to embrace modern technology and create an online platform for responding to the critically important questionnaire. But then they made a giant leap of faith. Instead of allowing every household to choose whether to participate online, by phone or by mail, the Bureau took the additional unprecedented step of deciding for them. Physical paper Census forms had been the traditional means of survey and reply, and the expectation for generations of respondents. But the Bureau made the calculation this year that 78.2% of households should want to, would be able to — and simply would just jump online to self-report crucial information. (Keep in mind: the final mail response rate was 74% in the 2010 Census.) So nearly 8 in 10 residential addresses were not sent a paper form to complete at the launch of Census 2020 — which could have easily included directions for other options to reply. Instead, they were mailed “invitations to participate” online (or phone) — in envelopes identical in size and external message as those sent to the 21.8% who received a physical form to fill out. And then, when most of them failed to go online (or call), they were mailed reminder after reminder — to go online. Only after the fourth or fifth mailing, depending on local delivery, did the forced-digital group finally get a paper Census. But for whatever reason, the envelope was identical to the previous mailings with with no external wording to announce that there was finally a physical survey inside, making it easier to again dismiss by those weary of the web. From before the launch and throughout the Census 2020 campaign, the Census Bureau invested heavily — as it obviously should — to promote participation and describe the vital civic importance of response. The continuously evolving multimedia campaigns on broadcast, cable, print, online and social media shared a universal theme throughout: Reply Online!
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As of mid-August, the means, mechanics and force used to push response online for Census 2020 has been unprecedented yet, the National Internet Self-Response Rate is still barely above 50 percent — and time is running out. The pandemic didn’t help Census 2020 efforts. Nor did it create the digital divide. Instead, it compounded the multiple dynamics that make it so wide and deep. And it would seem now that the final Bureau plan ignored the variety of reasons why Americans so often choose not to opt-in to electronic communications when given the choice of paper — especially when they consider the correspondence to be sensitive, personal or important. The digital divide is far more complex than not having the availability of broadband infrastructure where one lives or works. Mere availability is a significant yet separate problem from personal affordability of broadband. Which is distinct from actual adoption and practical use of the expensive, fee-for-service communications infrastructure. All of which also require additional, expensive tools including fairly new hardware and very recent software, and a place where they are available. Clearly, we have a long way to go to eliminate the challenges that will enable everyone to more fully embrace and participate in all things digital — including Census 2020. This is why consumer advocates including Keep Me Posted relentlessly explain to policymakers and companies that digitalonly communications are not for everyone. Printed and digital options are necessary for full inclusion and broader participation in commerce and community. Collectively, we need to appreciate that so many of our neighbors report difficulties in accessing online technologies, have security concerns about online fraud, or require paper communications for practical reasons. The digital divide is not limited to older adults, low-income households without computers or broadband service, people in rural areas where unreliable internet access is common, minority populations in urban areas with theoretical availability but not affordable access, and the one in four people living with a disability of some kind that are three times more likely to say that they never go online. The future of a vibrant, inclusive and fully counted America needs an accurate Census 2020 that is not irreparably damaged by unwavering plans and artificial deadlines. Our country cannot afford a lack of will to learn and adapt under urgent circumstances — and must take the additional steps with extended timelines to assure fully representative results. KMP urges Congress to immediately pass legislation to extend the legal deadline for Census 2020 — and implores the Census Bureau to send a paper form to all nonresponsive residences in an envelope clearly marked “Final Notice: Paper Form Enclosed — Postage Paid” along with robust and safe in-person measures to count communities historically known to be a challenge to include as required by our Nation’s founding document.
GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE www.nationalgrange.org
Granges urged to think of rail as part of climate solution By Bill Moyer Solutionary Rail Do you think of yourself as a problem solver? I certainly do. I don’t have a great deal of patience for complaints that are not accompanied by a proposal. I‘d like to share a little of each, hopefully in a measured way. Some years ago, I was quite critical of using the Puget Sound and the Pacific Northwest where I live as a fossil fuel corridor to Asia. At the end of a community forum, I approached a railroad labor leader named Mike Elliott who had spoken on the panel along side BNSF and Peabody Coal. Mike was advocating for the handful of jobs a coal port would bring. I asked him, “Do you truly believe that shipping coal to China through this precious and delicate place is the very best use of the railroad you work on?” In a followup conversation, Mike gave me a paper he had worked on a few years before about Modernizing the Northern Transcon. At the time, I didn’t know that ‘Northern Transcon’ was how people referred to the rail corridor from Chicago to the Pacific Northwest. With the paper, Mike issued me this challenge: “See if you and your people can ‘green this.’ And thus, the Solutionary Rail project was born. In 2013, I really didn’t know anything about railroads. I thought bullet trains looked cool but like most people these days, I never really thought about freight rail. With only my comically short “King of the Road” train-hopping moment that took me from Ashland to Medford, Oregon, when I was 19, I had never considered the critical role freight rail plays in our society. I was so naive that when I first looked at a map of the “Class 1” railroads, I was shocked to realize that such a massive
piece of our infrastructure - comparable to the Interstate Highway system - was privately owned, more accountable to Wall Street than ‘main street’ or Washington, DC. Thanks to Mike’s challenge to “green” their modernization I began a steep and continuing learning curve - helped along by many, many people from all walks of life, some of who have forgotten more than I can remember. Perhaps this project has captured me so completely these last eight years because of the way that railroads literally and figuratively connect us all. Almost everyone has a family story that involves the railroads. The railroad was the only way in and out of the lumber camp where my grandfather was born. During a fire in the camp, his family used the rail to retreat to Mount Vernon and since they had rushed out of the bunkhouse, all he had for his 3-year-old feet were his older sister’s shoes. The poor little kid tripped on the tracks and broke his nose - the first of many breaks through his rough and tumble youth. Many, if not most towns in this country’s heartland and mountain west wouldn’t exist
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were it not for a railroad. Our indigenous brothers and sisters have less fond associations with railroads as they were a tool of settler colonialism and war. General Sheridan urged the Texas Legislature not to outlaw the Buffalo hunting from trains as the massacre was robbing his perceived enemy of their food supply. The Grange has an important and powerful story related to the railroads. The Patrons of Husbandry famously stood up for farmers whose livelihoods depended on getting their crops to markets, but were overcharged and discriminated against by the railroad companies that even at that time preferred long hauls to short ones and gouged or denied service to farmers. Railroads provided free passes to keep elected officials in their pocket. It was the Grange that helped organize the collective storage of marketing of crops through their network of lecturers. And it was the Patrons of Husbandry that brought about state laws referred to as “Granger laws” to counter the monopolistic practices of the railroads. Without the work and struggle of your predecessors, the US courts and ultimately
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GRANGE ADVOCACY ADVERTORIAL
PERSPECTIVE
A cause we know too well
By Amanda Brozana Rios
National Grange Communications & Development Director
As the COVID-19 pandemic began unfolding in spring
part of the conversation on how this democracy in a presidential
2020, it seemed as if every part of American life was coming
election year would function, and a new Postmaster was
under attack from this unseen invader.
installed with a long history of business experience but none
Even the most common and crucial parts of daily life were
related to the USPS.
changed, and reports of failures in various sectors, public
Members of all political persuasions began to feel as if the
and private, were steadily becoming a normal part of media
fabric of our America was being pulled apart at the seams, and
coverage.
reporters lined up to get the perspective of the nation’s oldest
So, while it was no surprise that the postal service was part of that growing list of agencies feeling pressure from
rural advocacy organization with a long history of engagement with postal service concerns.
the crisis, Grangers specifically were alarmed with the initial
“The current crisis involving USPS and its solvency is not new
announcement by Postal Service officials that the agency, if
in 2020, though the pandemic has exacerbated the problem,
staying the current course, was set to run out of funds before
as it has with so many other facets of American life,” National
the end of the year.
Grange President Betsy Huber said.
Fast forward a few months: mail-in voting had become a key
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As you’re reading today, inevitably the conversation has
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Squash family satisfies through seasons By Ann Olson Bercher President, Minnesota State Grange Certified Culinary Specialist In Autumn, the iconic displays of pumpkins and squashes in the garden centers, grocery stores and farmer’s markets are spectacular! In the mid 1850’s, Oliver Kelley, a founder of the Grange, grew a number of squashes and pumpkins on his farm in Minnesota for various purposes. Summer Crooknecks and White Bush Scallop squash were prepared and eaten immediately after harvesting. Connecticut Field Pumpkins and King of Mammoths Pumpkins were grown for feeding livestock. Cheese Pumpkins, Green Hubbard and Boston Marrow Squashes were grown for making pies, puddings, and stews. That glorious Connecticut Field pumpkin is still grown today across the country and is the classic pumpkin you find at your local garden center and grocery store for making our favorite Halloween decoration, the Jack-o-Lantern. Sadly, they make an extremely poor pie. If you truly want to prepare a memorable “pumpkin pie,” do not use pumpkin at all. Use a Boston Marrow Squash, a Hubbard Squash, or if you can find it, a Large Cheese Pumpkin. I know, I just said, do not use pumpkin. Here is the distinction. All pumpkins are squashes, but not all squashes are pumpkins. Squash and pumpkins all belong to the same botanical family, Cucurbitacea, which includes cucumbers, melons and squashes. Exploring the Cucurbita line of the family, we find Curcurbita pepo: summer and acorn squash, zucchini, pumpkin (including Connecticut Field and King of Mammoths), spaghetti squash, and delicta; Cucurbita moshata: butternut, cheese, and kabocha; and Cucurbita maxima: hubbard, turban, banana, kabocha, and Boston Marrow. What this all means is that C. pepos do not keep very well.
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Often referred to as summer squash, they have thinner skins, and are best consumed shortly after harvesting. The best keepers, those that can be kept cool and dry for several months are the C. moshata. I have kept a Large Cheese Pumpkin for over a year, and Butternut Squashes can keep for several months. The next best keeper is the C. maxima. Now, of course all of this is immaterial if you wish to process your squash and store it pickled, dried or frozen. I admit, I have never dried squash. But I have pickled summer squash, that would be anything in the C. pepo group, and I have frozen squash in the C. maxima and C. moshata groups. The members of these two groups are considered winter squash. Winter squashes are rich in betacarotene and other carotenoids as well as starch – and versatile. The flesh of most varieties is firm enough to sauté or stew in chunks but once cooked it also can be mashed or pureed to an exceptionally fine consistency. The moderate sweetness of most squashes makes them suitable for both savory and sweet preparations, from soups or side dishes to pies and custards. Their dry skin and hollow structure encourage their use as edible containers;
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they can be filled with sweet or savory liquids, then baked and eaten along with their contents. Winter squashes can be stored for months and many are available year-round, but they are at their prime shortly after harvest in late fall. They keep best at temperatures around 55 degrees and relatively dry conditions (50-70 percent humidity). There are several ways to prepare pumpkin and winter squash. Boiling Carefully peel off the skin and cut the squash into smaller chunks discarding the seeds. Place in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer until tender. Timing will vary depending on the toughness of the squash you choose. When it pierces easily with a fork, drain it and it is ready to use or freeze. Steaming Again, peel off the skin and cut into smaller chunks discarding the seeds. Place chunks in a steamer basket above boiling water and cook until tender. Roasting Option 1: Carefully cut the squash in half through the stem. Scrape out the seeds inside. Oil a baking sheet with olive oil or butter. Place the squash cut side down on the baking sheet and roast at 400 degrees
for 30 – 45 minutes. You will know it is done when the skin has become brown and slightly blistered, and the flesh is soft and can be pierced easily with a fork. Option 2: You may also wish to place the squash halves, cut side up. Oil or butter the cut sides and roast until caramelized and fork tender. Once roasted and cooled a bit, scoop the flesh out of the skins and mash or puree to the texture you desire. Option 3: Peel and cut the squash into smaller pieces, discarding the seeds, and lightly coat with olive oil. Roast at 400 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring up the squash pieces halfway through to prevent burning. (These bits are great tossed into a salad!) Microwaving If you are pinched for time, you may prepare squash by slicing it in half down the center, removing the seeds and microwave for 7 minutes per pound. Once cooked, you can use it in several recipes, or mash it, and store it in freezer containers up to 6 months. Freeze in 1 to 2 cup portions. (Most cans of pumpkin are just short of 2 cups.) While this may sound like a lot of work, you will definitely notice the flavor and texture difference if you prepare your own squash from scratch. And the aroma of roasting squash is a heavenly autumn treat to have come wafting out of the kitchen! Everyone has their favorite pumpkin pie recipe. I suggest you try preparing a winter squash and using it the next time you make that pie! Here are some additional recipes to try using winter squash and pumpkins in some new ways.
Rolls
Winter Squash
1 ½ c cubed winter squash (your choice!) 1 c scalded milk 2 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast ½ c warm water 6 c all-purpose flour ½ c white sugar 2 tsp salt ½ c butter, softened
In small saucepan, cover squash with water, bring to a boil, and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain and cool. In small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Combine 5 cup flour, sugar and salt. Stir in the yeast mixture, milk and butter. Mix well. Stir in the remaining flour ½ cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. Turn onto a lightly floured board and knead until smooth and supple, about 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 hour. Divide dough into 12 portions. Form each portion into a round. Place the rounds into a lightly greased 13 X 9 inch pan. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake rolls for 10 – 15 minutes until golden brown.
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Butternut Squash & Spinach
Lasagna
2 tsp canola oil 1 ½ c sliced red onion 1 ½ Tbsp sliced garlic 6 oz. baby spinach ¾ c plain, fat free Greek yogurt 1/3 c 1% milk 3 oz. sliced provolone cheese, torn into small
pieces 1 ½ Tbsp all-purpose flour 1 tsp kosher salt 2 large eggs 1 20-oz. butternut squash Cooking spray 1 c part-skim ricotta cheese 1 ½ oz. Gruyere cheese, grated
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat oil in large skillet; add onion and garlic. Sauté 4 minutes. Add spinach; sauté until wilted. Remove from heat. Place yogurt, milk, and provolone in a blender; blend 20 seconds. Add flour, salt and eggs. Blend one more minute. Cut neck from bulb of butternut squash and peel skin off neck. Cut neck into 24 1/8-inch-thick slices using a knife or mandolin. Place squash slices in an 8-inch square microwave safe glass baking dish; loosely cover and microwave until tender, about 4 minutes. Remove squash from dish, then coat dish with cooking spray. Spread ½ cup yogurt mixture in bottom of dish. Shingle 1/3 (8 slices) of squash over yogurt mixture. Top with 1/3 of ricotta cheese, 1/3 of spinach mixture and 1/3 of remaining yogurt mixture. Repeat procedure 2 more times, ending with yogurt mixture. Sprinkle with grated Gruyere cheese. Cover dish with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 50 minutes.Remove foil and broil 8 inches from broiler for 4 minutes. Loosely cover and let stand 20 minutes before serving.
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