Partnership creates beer with a Latino flair
Limited-edition Las Pilas part of Hispanic/latino Heritage Month
The plantain is like the Latin American potato. That is what Dominican artist Ariel Peguero and members of the Ohio Hispanic Coalition want to convey with a new beer they helped bring to life. The Las Pilas Mexican Dark Lager with Plantains was produced in collaboration with Land-grant Brewing Company.
“In Latino homes, you’re going to find more plantains than potatoes,” said Peguero, 28, of Milo-grogan. “And there’s just more uses that we’ve created from it.”
The label plays off the common image of a light bulb being illuminated by a potato, except Peguero’s design has substituted a plantain. The team also said the image represents ingenuity.
“Latinos aren’t just artists and musicians,” Peguero said. “We’re also engineers and builders. And I think (the label) is funny, too. People want to laugh while they’re drinking.”
Customers will be able to enjoy the limited-edition beer at the Franklinton brewery on Friday, from 5-10 p.m. The release party also is a celebration of Hispanic/latino Heritage Month, which runs from Sept. 15 to Oct. 15. Music will be provided by DJ Chris Bell, owner of Cap City Salsa, and the Ohio Hispanic Coalition will have a table with information about the organization.
The partnership with Land-grant is a way to bring visibility to the work of the Ohio Hispanic Coalition, which has headquarters on the Northwest
State Teachers Retirement System said Ohio’s pension reforms of 2012 and investment returns of more than 29% in the fiscal year that ended June 30 have bolstered the system.
“We added $17.7 billion to our asset base last fiscal year – even after paying more than $7 billion in benefits. We’ll hear from the system’s actuary next month to learn the impact this had on our funded ratio and funding period. It is certain to be an improvement,” said STRS spokesman Nick Treneff.
Despite the good news, Pew warned that the robust returns won’t last forever and pensions should dial back their expected rates of returns to a more modest 6% annually over the next 20 years.
On Wednesday, Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, the largest retirement fund in the state, voted 5-4 to lower the expected rate of return to 6.9%, down from 7.2%.
Ohio’s other public pension systems’ expected rates of return range from 7% at State Teachers Retirement System and School Employees Retirement System to 8% Ohio Police & Fire Pension Fund.
The five systems combined had assets of $218 billion as of Jan. 1, 2020. The funds serve 675,000 government employees, 1.1 million inactive members and 485,000 beneficiaries.
Ohio’s government workers do not contribute to Social Security so the public pension systems are their main retirement program. Benefits, contribution rates and other rules are established by state law and in some cases fund trustees.
Laura Bischoff is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.