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Beverly Graham, Change Agent.
Photo by Adam Hyla |
Beverly Graham proves the adage that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
More than 20 years ago, the singer-songwriter had a near-death experience that doctors thought was a stroke. It turned out to be multiple sclerosis, and she was told she’d never walk again. But Graham, a feisty spitfire who had competed as a body builder, decided nope, that wasn’t for her.
As soon as she could walk with a cane, she drove to a spot and handed out food: an act that would evolve into Seattle’s Operation Sack Lunch. Today, the program serves three organic meals a day, seven days a week. Lunch is at a site that Graham and a group she helped spearhead, the Meals Partnership Coalition, got the city to establish for outdoor meal providers at Sixth and Columbia.
Nutrition, she says, was critical to her own recovery and in the work she does today. “If you nourish people correctly, their other problems are easier to address,” she says. “For us, that’s what it’s all about.” |
