Oakland Food Policy Council

The Oakland Food Policy Council’s first official event took place on March 23 from 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm at the James Irvine Foundation Conference Center on Frank H. Ogawa Plaza. Judith Bell, President of PolicyLink, was the keynote speaker.

Additional speakers included representatives from the City of Oakland and the Alameda County Public Health Department; the co-authors of the Oakland Food System Assessment; the Food First Executive Director; and representatives of the HOPE Collaborative, City Slicker Farms, People’s Grocery, PUEBLO, Community Alliance with Family Farms, Inner City Advisors, BACS Culinary Social Enterprise, Revolution Foods, Leo Cotella & Co., Nomad Café, Kaiser Permanente, and StopWaste.Org. Each sector of the food system was represented by at least one speaker.

Many of the speakers also brought informational materials from their organizations to display at the event. In order to showcase local food and agriculture efforts, catering was provided by the BACS Culinary Social Enterprise, and herb bundles and vegetable seedlings from City Slicker Farms were available as take-homes.

Over 80 people attended the event, and the excitement in the air was palpable. Many of the people who were instrumental in making the OFPC possible were in attendance, and expressed their ongoing commitment to launching a successful council. There was a strong feeling that now is the perfect time to be convening the OFPC, with the food systems work gaining momentum here and across the country, and with the inequalities in our current system becoming more glaringly obvious with each passing month. Each of the speakers expressed their commitment to creating an equitable and sustainable food system, either through their personal work or in their professional role.

In addition to the speakers and their colleagues, attendees included Councilmember Jean Quan; a policy analyst from Councilmember Nancy Nadel’s office; Margot Lederer Prado from Oakland CEDA; Vince Reyes from the Alameda County Social Services Agency; Susan Hayes-Smith from the Mayor’s Office; all HOPE Collaborative staff members and several Action Team members; additional staff from the City of Oakland and Alameda County; and representatives of many non-profits, businesses, and community based organizations engaged in food systems work in Oakland. The event was filmed by East Bay Pictures International, the production company filming the Edible City documentary.

This event built a lot of momentum for the OFPC, and should give a great boost to promotion of the recruitment meeting that will be held later this spring!

Peace, joy, and good food,

Alethea