Maplewood Resident Creates Positive Change For Kids, Earns Award

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — Maplewood's Liz Accles, executive director at Community Food Advocates, was recently named as a “Newmanitarian” for “creating positive change for children who face adversity.”

The Newman's Own Foundation – the private grantmaking foundation started by Paul Newman – named Accles as its June awardee.

According to a statement from the foundation, here’s why Accles earned a nod last month:

“Liz knows firsthand that it takes all of us—parents, students, unions, educators, public health practitioners, and policy-makers—to create positive change for children who face adversity. With a 30-year career in pursuit of social and economic justice, Liz built Community Food Advocates’ ‘Lunch 4 Learning’ campaign that successfully advocated for free school meals for New York City in 2017. And Community Food Advocates co-led the The New York Healthy School Meals for All Coalition, as New York fully funded universal free school meals in May 2025—a monumental win for 2.7 million students and their families across the state.”

According to Accles, here’s Community Food Advocates’ “recipe for change”:

• Articulate your impact and vision to get people excited about your mission.
• Stay laser-focused on what you do.
• Coalition-building: bringing folks together who are not normally at the same table.
• Address the subtext: what are critics really saying? Then flip it on its head.

The foundation shared a list of other insights and suggestions from Accles for other people who are seeking to create change in their communities, which can be seen here.

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