Dear Reader,
Today is day seven of my hunger strike, and it also happens to be Thanksgiving—a day devoted to gratitude, reflection, and taking stock of what we’ve survived.
I want to begin today’s update with something personal.
Despite the hardship of this moment, and the hunger strike I am undertaking, I am deeply grateful—grateful for the things that shaped me, even the things that broke me. Because they also built me.
Grateful for the Trauma That Built a Survivor
My childhood trauma was not small.
My ACE score is 9—a number that, statistically, predicts outcomes like:
early death
drug addiction
chronic illness
incarceration
suicide
Statistically, with an ACE score that high, I shouldn’t be here.
But I am.
And because I am here, I intend to use every year beyond those statistics to fight for something better—for myself, for my community, and for every person who never got the chance.
I am grateful that the system failed me so completely that I had no choice but to become my own advocate.
I am grateful that surviving forced me to grow into a person who refuses to sit silently while others are being harmed.
Grateful for the People Who Showed Me How to Be the Change
I am grateful for my grandparents—who taught me the most important lesson of my life:
“You don’t ask permission to create change.
You become the change.”
Those words have guided every hard moment.
They guide this hunger strike.
They guide the work ahead.
I am grateful for my Schwenkfelder faith, a lineage built on dissent, moral courage, and quiet but unbreakable conviction.
I am grateful to have outlived my mother, who died at 36. 12 year old me was the last person to talk to my mother. She was morbidly obese, unable to walk, legally blind and diabetic. Her food made her sick, her diet caused her slow death.
Her story ended early.
Mine did not.
And I will not waste the extra years I’ve been given.
Grateful for the Things That Make Me Different
I am grateful for my autism—especially the parts people misunderstand:
the moral rigidity that refuses to let me back down when something is wrong
the neurological wiring that makes me unable to feel pain in the same way as others
the sensory profile that makes me unable to feel hunger, allowing me to push far into this strike without the suffering most would expect
What others see as limitations have become the abilities allowing me to do this work.
They are the reason I can sustain this hunger strike.
They are the reason I can keep showing up.
I am grateful for who I am, exactly as I am.
Why I Continue This Hunger Strike
Even with all this gratitude, the issue remains:
Families in Valley Township are struggling.
Food insecurity is rising.
Grocery costs are up 30% since 2015.
School meal funding was stripped away.
Coatesville was a food desert until last year.
And instead of supporting local food production, our Township is punishing it.
So I continue—not out of bitterness, but out of gratitude for survival and the responsibility that comes with it.
Keep Speaking Up
Please continue sharing these updates.
Please keep signing and sharing the petition.
Please keep contacting Township officials.
Every call matters. Every email matters. Every voice matters.
Petition:
👉 https://www.change.org/p/valley-township-needs-new-chicken-laws
Township Contacts
You can reach any Township office through the main number: 610-384-5751
Janis A. Rambo – Township Manager/Secretary, Right-to-Know Officer
610-384-5751 ext. 101 | jrambo@valleytownship.org
Code Enforcement Department
Codesofficer@valleytownship.org | 610-384-5751 ext. 402
Kyle Bendler – Building/Codes Officer – 302-266-9057
Joy Hurst – Codes Coordinator – 610-384-5751 ext. 401
Dave Porter – Zoning Officer – 610-356-9550 x217
Township Solicitors
Andrew D.H. Rau, Esq. – arau@utbf.com | 610-692-1371
Amanda J. Sundquist, Esq. – asundquist@utbf.com | 610-692-1371
Unruh Turner Burke & Frees, 17 W. Gay Street, West Chester, PA 19380
Supervisors / Officials
Linda Baugher – 610-384-5751 ext. 505 – lbaugher@valleytownship.org
Casey Max Leidy – 610-384-5751 ext. 503 – cleidy@valleytownship.org
Kris Lenhart – 610-384-5751 ext. 201 – klenhart@valleytownship.org
LeRoy Goldsmith – 610-384-5751 – lgoldsmith@valleytownship.org
Sharon Yates – 610-384-5751 ext. 504 – syates@valleytownship.org
Thank you for standing with me on Thanksgiving.
Thank you for helping amplify this message.
Thank you for believing in a future where neighbors are allowed to feed themselves and each other.
Gratitude is my fuel today.
Conviction will carry me through tomorrow.
I’ll be over here with my turkey bone broth and cranberry juice ready for the next day.
I will continue to be grateful for the community I see rallying against the township. And since people have asked, there are plans for a protest at the township building.
Sincerely,
Stephanie N. Shermer