Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP finds inflation limiting access to Indigenous foods

differentiated AP’s inflation coverage from that of other news organizations, telling the real-world stories of an underrepresented population — urban Native Americans — to vividly illustrate the financial burden of rising food prices on minority communities.Deeply sourced and richly told in the voices of their subjects, the trio’s all-formats story takes readers into a community struggling to maintain access to traditional Indigenous foods that are often unavailable or too expensive for Native families in urban areas, already faced with financial, medical and cultural concerns. The recent inflation spike has priced such foods even further out of reach.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

As refugee children die, Nigeria probes theft of food aid

for exposing how government officials are being accused of diverting food aid from camps for people who fled Boko Haram extremists, leading to a high number of starving children.

http://bit.ly/2ccmvfH

http://apne.ws/2bzjfit

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP explains what gene-edited food means for you

for a complete, all-formats explanation of what gene-edited food is and what it means for people who eat food (i.e. everyone), farmers and animals.https://bit.ly/2B5LWyMhttps://bit.ly/2QcdkTZ

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

While Venezuelans go hungry, military makes money from food

for showing that even as Venezuelans go hungry, the military charged with food distribution is making money from it instead; they dug up documents and talked to more than 60 people, including five retired generals, got into Venezuela's main port, which is closed to the media, and found out exclusively about a U.S. Congress probe into food trafficking in Venezuela. http://apne.ws/2i1qXUs

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Trump administration may allow drug testing for food stamp recipients

for an exclusive report about a Trump administration proposal under consideration to permit mandatory drug testing of certain food stamp recipients. https://bit.ly/2HCNiW0

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP sources: Ukrainian grain shipments won’t solve food crisis

combined on-the-ground reporting, key analysis from experts and their own subject expertise to shed light on the real-world impact and limitations of renewed Ukrainian grain exports on the global food crisis.The team’s reporting reveals how everyone from Lebanese farmers and Syrian refugees to African aid groups don’t expect the much-publicized initial shipments to solve food insecurity as millions go hungry. The story builds on months of AP coverage showing how the Russia-Ukraine war has worsened the effects of drought, inflation, conflict and other factors in countries gripped by hunger.Read more

Best of the Week — First Winner

AP analysis and reporting: Millions of hungry Americans turn to food banks for 1st time

Long lines of people and traffic seemed to indicate that dependency on food banks was on the rise in the U.S. as the COVID-19 pandemic hit home. But a team of AP journalists set out to know the facts and tell the stories of those relying on handouts — many accepting the aid for the first time.

Merging exclusive data analysis with in-depth personal reporting, the team delivered an accurate, powerful picture of food insecurity and economic distress in the U.S. AP’s analysis found a significant increase in food bank distribution during the pandemic, while all-formats AP journalists across the country reported from food lines and the homes of those relying on food aid.

For telling data analysis and on-the-ground coverage that harnessed AP’s national footprint to reveal the consequences of the pandemic economy, this AP team wins Best of the Week honors.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Global AP team captures impact of overfishing on traditional food dishes

were a cross-format team on three continents who captured how overfishing has wiped out species from areas where they once thrived, taking off the table beloved culturally important dishes and undermining the diets and livelihoods of millions.Read more.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP investigation sheds light on the suffering of millions of Ethiopians because of food aid theft

worked together to follow up on their earlier newsbreak of a massive theft of food aid allegedly orchestrated by Ethiopian officials to feed fighting forces and sell the food in markets.Read more.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

US, EU, Japan and others mount joint effort to pressure China on food import rules

for landing a scoop about an effort by a broad group including the 28-nation European Union, the United States, Japan, Australia, Argentina, Israel and four other countries to pressure China to scale back plans for intensive inspections of imports that they say would hamper access to its fast-growing market. http://on-ajc.com/2skMfTt

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Fast-food empire run by Labor secretary nominee outsourced jobs, running counter to Trump position

for their Only on AP story that showed Donald Trump’s choice for Labor secretary, Andrew Puzder, had outsourced jobs as CEO of a fast-food chain, in contrast to the president’s push to keep jobs in the U.S. http://apne.ws/2k4AQBK

Best of the States

A powerful retrospective and breaking news, 20 years after Columbine mass shooting

Twenty years have passed since the Columbine high school massacre, which was, to many people, the beginning of school shootings as we know them. In those years, life has changed: Mass shootings happen again and again, schoolchildren participate in lockdowns instead of fire drills, and many reflect on the moment in time when two young men took 13 lives with them on their suicidal quest.

AP was uniquely positioned to cover the two decades since the massacre, with journalists who were there, those who cover the Colorado community every day, and experts in polling, education and guns. Stories by Denver reporter Kathleen Foody and videojournalist Peter Banda led a deep all-formats package by dozens of journalists across the AP telling not just of the carnage but of those who survived it, their struggle, and the future.

But all the planning couldn't prepare anyone for this spot development: Early in the week, Sol Pais, a young Florida woman, prompted panic over a possible attack at Columbine, later taking her own life near the Colorado school. Miami reporter Kelli Kennedy tracked down a good friend of Pais who not only filled in personal details about her in an exclusive interview, but supplied photos of Pais and cast doubt on the official narrative about her friend.

The overarching theme of the spot and enterprise coverage focused on the short and long-term mental health issues from school shootings. The result was a unique, meaningful package that received impressive play nationally – online and in print. The video was among the top-used AP videos of the week.

For their work spearheading the package, and breaking news, Foody, Banda and Kennedy win this week’s Best of the States.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP: Vaccination help wanted, logistics a plus

delivered a widely played national story about a pandemic phenomenon no other news outlet had reported: People with strong logistics skills, including fast food managers, concert promoters and even wedding planners, were being sought and pressed into service to help with COVID-19 testing and vaccination programs.Kole, AP’s New England editor, was intrigued after learning that the Boston Marathon race director had been hired to run mass vaccination sites at Gillette Stadium and Fenway Park, and set out to find what other fields were being tapped to fight the pandemic. His story on the demand for operations and event experience was tweeted and retweeted several thousand times and played prominently across the U.S. https://bit.ly/3cFgb2I

Best of the Week — First Winner

The Protein Problem: Can we feed this growing world without starving the planet?

During one particularly bad fire season in the Amazon, as thousands of square miles of rainforest were being leveled so people around the world could eat more beef, the AP Health & Science team decided to step back and tell the larger story of the impact our food choices have on the environment — and what some people are doing about it. 

After a pandemic-related delay, the AP Health & Science team enlisted a total of 55 AP journalists from 13 different AP departments to show how farmers, researchers and scientists are trying to make sure we can continue to enjoy the food we love without destroying the planet we need. 

Developers and designers Linda Gorman, Koko Nakajima and Peter Hamlin built out a stunning immersive experience that allows the reader a host of different options including videos, photo galleries, data visualizations and even a quiz. 

Photographers, videographers, text journalists and data journalists from the Health & Science team and several other global beats and regional teams contributed, including David Goldman, Shelby Lum, Kathy Young, Laura Ungar, Christina Larson and Nicky Forster. A full list can be found here.

For extensive collaboration, planning and work that resulted in eight stories and an immersive digital experience for readers on the future of food, this team of over 50 journalists win Best of the Week — First Winner.

Best of the States

AP’s portrait of a family forced into tough choices during the pandemic

As stories with impact go, this one stands out: The lead subject of the piece, struggling to feed her family during the pandemic, was tracked down on social media and hired by a reader for a job. 

The all-formats package by reporter Luis Andres Henao and visual journalist Jessie Wardarski chronicled the struggle of Sharawn Vinson and her Brooklyn family as they coped with a shortage of food and other crises, taking readers into the lives of a family that was forced to separate to keep everyone fed. The details shared by the family give readers a better understanding of the issues confronting many of the nation’s most vulnerable during the pandemic.

For a rare, intimate look at a family on the front lines of food insecurity brought on by the coronavirus, documented with riveting photos and video, Henao and Wardarski share this week’s Best of the States award.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

AP: FDA skipped most baby formula plant inspections in 2020

turned seemingly mundane testimony of a legislative hearing into a timely scoop, breaking the news that the Food and Drug Administration had skipped nearly all its inspections of baby formula plants during the first year of COVID, likely contributing to the severe shortage of formula in the U.S. and raising questions about what the federal government could have done to prevent it.Using information he gleaned from Capitol Hill testimony by the three top baby formula manufacturers, Washington-based health writer Perrone identified the companies’ plants in the FDA’s online database and discovered the agency hadn’t inspected Abbott’s plant — responsible for a recall of formula that exacerbated the nationwide shortage — for two years between 2019 and 2021. In fact, the FDA later acknowledged only three of the nation’s 23 formula plants were inspected in the first year of the pandemic.Read more

Best of the Week — First Winner

As the world watches Ukraine, AP is the world’s eyes on besieged Mariupol

With the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol under siege by Russian forces, two courageous AP journalists, Germany-based video journalist Mstyslav Chernov and Kyiv photographer Evgeniy Maloletka, have been out in the streets, day in and day out, virtually alone in chronicling the city’s fall into chaos, despair and utter isolation, and the suffering of the civilian population.

Driving a van with windows blown out by explosions and filing their video and photos when they can establish communications, the pair has been the world’s only eyes on a key city that is suffering at the hands of the Russian offensive. Their images and words have riveted the world’s attention.

For harrowing reporting from a besieged city that would go unseen without their unflinching courage, we are honored to award the pair AP’s Best of the Week — First Winner.

Best of the Week — First Winner

Perseverance lands AP interview with Ukrainian president; team in Bucha documents evidence of war crimes

With a dedication to continuing coverage of the war in Ukraine, the AP teams in and around Kyiv landed an interview with the Ukrainian president and offered a definitive all-formats chronicle of the mass killings in Bucha.

In the capital, AP journalists relentlessly pursued an interview with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Asia-Pacific news director Adam Schreck, video journalist Mstyslav Chernov and photographer Evgeniy Maloletka eventually sat down with the president in a bunker-like government building, the dramatic setting adding to the power of the all-formats interview.

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Kyiv, reporter Cara Anna and a team of visual journalists brought the horror of life and death in Bucha to readers around the world, walking the streets and talking with witnesses to the murders and other abuses under Russian occupation of the town. The team saw at least a dozen uncollected bodies and talked with two dozen survivors and witnesses, each telling horrific stories.

The teams’ coverage received strong play and reader engagement, a sign that AP’s customers and audience are still keenly interested in accurate, definitive accounts of the war.

For shedding light on an increasingly dark era for Ukraine, we honor Adam Schreck, Mstyslav Chernov, Evgeniy Maloletka, Cara Anna, Oleksandr Stashevskyi, Rodrigo Abd, Vadim Ghirda and Felipe Dana as AP’s Best of the Week — First Winners.

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Data and on-the-ground reporting reveal toll of Somali famine

joined forces to deliver an all-formats package on the unfolding crisis in Somalia, where severe drought is driving hunger-related deaths.Until this Only on AP story, media coverage of the drought in the Horn of Africa consisted largely of aid groups’ dire warnings or isolated stories of grieving families, but little concrete information on how many people have begun to die. Nairobi-based correspondent Anna instead dug into unpublished humanitarian reports and coordinated with dedicated Mogadishu freelancers — correspondent Faruk, photographer Warsameh and video journalist Nor — producing a story that merges exclusive data on the mounting deaths with compelling personal accounts that put a human face on the crisis.Read more

Beat of the Week

(Honorable Mention)

Exclusive on royal charity examines climate-conscious investing

delivered an exclusive on the Royal Foundation, revealing that the conservation charity founded by Prince William, an outspoken environmental advocate, keeps its investments in a bank that is a major backer of fossil fuels. And more than half its investments are in a “green” fund that owns shares in multinational food companies that buy palm oil from companies linked to deforestation.Based on a tip, Davey spent months poring over the charity’s public filings. The London-based climate accountability reporter also interviewed experts on environmentally responsible investing, connected the foundation’s investments to cases of deforestation and sought comment from all the principals, ensuring that any critique of the Royal Foundation’s investment practices would be fair and accurate.No news organization came close on the widely played story — others either used the AP piece or cited AP in their own reporting.Read more