Michelle Chen wrote the original version of this story for Yes! Magazine.Broadcast version by Mark Moran for California News Service reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Service Collaboration With the holidays here, the pace has picked up in ethnic grocery stores across the country, as immigrants shop for the foods and spices that remind them of family and home. For many immigrants, the first place they feel welcome and accepted is not necessarily where they live, but the place they buy the ingredients for their first home-cooked meal, reunite with people from their culture, and revisit their grandmother s cooking or their favorite childhood street food. .
The growing number of asylum-seekers in Maine has spurred cities and towns to join forces and build more transitional housing for families in need. The Safe in Maine coalition aims to raise $2 million of the $43 million it hopes to receive in state and federal funding for some 200 modular housing units. Belinda Ray, director of strategic partnerships for the Greater Portland Council of Governments, said the temporary homes would help the approximately 1,000 people currently residing in emergency shelters and hotels throughout the region. .
People rallied outside of Bellingham City Hall on Thursday to show support for a city-funded immigrant resource center. It s a response to a City Council vote of 4-3 earlier this week against including the center in the city s budget for the next two years. Council members did vote in favor of hiring a facilitator to collect more data and create plans for a center in the future. .