Forget cash. Forget banks that take a bite out of your dollars every time you head to an ATM machine. What about helping each other, getting something in return? No money needed. So it is with time banks and hour exchanges…Julie Fagan, a Rutgers University professor, recently launched time banks in several states, including Pennsylvania, she said. One is Monroe County PA Strong, a time bank anyone from the area can join. Members will help other members by using their skills, bank their hours and get services in return based on how many hours they invest. “It’s a sharing of talents and skills. We don’t place monetary value on services. Every man is created equal,” she said. “Someone can pull weeds or give an elderly person a ride to a doctor’s appointment. The hard part is figuring out what you want to receive in return. It requires reciprocity to work. You have to be able to accept a gift in return.”
NJ Farmers Graduate from Rutgers Annie’s Project Course Focused on Greenhouse Production
Over the course of several weeks in January and February, Rutgers Cooperative Extension held a new farm business management program focusing on greenhouse production, Annie’s Project New Jersey for Greenhouse Growers, which featured a combination of classroom instruction and webinars. A total of 35 greenhouse growers participated in the program, the first of its kind […]
It’s not too late to resolve to fix your finances
If new year’s resolutions were ever so easily accomplished, then there would be little need for the psychological uplift attached to Jan. 1. If they were so easy to stick with, the same resolutions would not appear year after year on our lists. And so,…
Housing Advocate Claims Sandy Recovery Grants Racially Biased
Black and Latino applicants for Sandy aid in New Jersey are more likely to be rejected for recovery grants than white applicants, according to data released Thursday by a New Jersey housing advocate. The rejection rate for whites who applied for New Je…
Is growth for cities always a good thing?
The receptivity to innovation has rescued yesterday’s post-industrial city. Can the same spirit build a bridge to a more sustainable tomorrow? His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, visited Pittsburgh in 1988 to chair the first Remaking Cities event….
Farmers sorting out impact of health care
For pork producer Jim Fisher, providing health care insurance for his employees is a way to make sure he gets good workers. He farms in Northeast Missouri’s Pike County with his brother, David. The family has 2,600 sows and markets about 65,000 pigs an…
New Jersey Wine Industry Gets Rutgers Education
The winemakers’ art relies on the cultivation of select varieties of well-adapted grapes that thrive under sets of conditions unique to every site. The French have a single vocabulary word, “terroir”, to describe this broad set of interacting factors that includes the soils, their orientation, grape variety, farming practices, climate, local microclimate, wine making culture […]
What’s in Season from the Garden State: Orange is the New Black Friday
VonThun Farms of Monmouth Junction, NJ, is a regular vendor at the Highland Park Community Farmer’s Market every season. As the days grow crisp and fall is in the air, VonThun’s end their participation in the community market, even though the market is open for many more weeks. Did they run out of produce and […]
Fighting Empty Pantries and Calories: More Local Healthy Food in New Brunswick
New Brunswick Mayor Cahill Visits Community Farm Market’s Latest Location Downtown It’s lunchtime on Wednesday in downtown New Brunswick. There are plenty of establishments to grab a bite to eat – fast food places, cafes, coffee and frozen yogurt shops, but now there’s something else you can grab while downtown – all the fixings for […]
8 Things Recent Grads Waste Money On
Kasey Trenum purchased six bottles of laundry detergent, four bottles of fabric softener and two boxes of dryer sheets-all for less than $8. "Everybody needs laundry detergent, and that’s one thing that can blow your budget," she says…Rutgers…





