Oakland Food Policy Council - Latest Blog Entries

OUSD Fresh School Markets

Thu, 22 Jul 2010 18:04:00 -0500

School may be out, but this fall, fresh produce will be in. A total of 12 Oakland schools will be hosting weekly produce markets to begin at the start of the school year. These are open to students, parents, and local community members who want to stock up on fruits and vegetables delivered from area farmers.

What started as a pilot program run by EBAYC in just two of their after school programs has expanded through collaboration with several organizations, including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and OUSD Nutrition Services. According to program coordinator, Christine Cherdboonmuang, the idea of running these produce markets grew out of a community food assessment and survey conducted by EBAYC youth interns in the San Antonio neighborhood. The results showed that many residents were traveling outside of the community to purchase healthy foods. With the goal of addressing this issue and increasing local, healthy food access, the school produce markets were started at two area schools. After showing how these markets could attract a growing crowd of customers and were becoming an important part of their host schools, there were requests for placing markets at more Oakland schools. A new partnership with OUSD Nutrition Services and support from the Robert Wood Johnson Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities Initiative allowed the project to scale-up last year.

Putting on these weekly produce markets requires the time and energy of many players to operate successfully. Each market is staffed by a manager hired by the school, who in many cases is the parent of a child at the school. Volunteer students and parents are responsible for setting up and breaking down the produce stands as well as assisting with the actual sales. Each school also has a designated market liaison. This staff member is responsible for promoting the program to faculty members and students, encouraging them to purchase produce and use the market as a site for creative lessons outside of the classroom. The most important part of the market is, of course, the produce. Food is delivered by farmers to a central OUSD location and then sorted for distribution to the different school markets. Some farmers make a special trip to deliver for the school markets, while others build in an extra stop on the days they are selling at area farmers’ markets.

Gehry Oatey, teacher and market manager at Melrose Leadership Academy, has enjoyed being part of this movement towards healthy foods for the students and their surrounding community. When he began working at the school five years ago, he incorporated a garden and cooking lessons into his activities with the children. Since then, the school has worked up to coordinating a thriving school produce market program. Running on Wednesday afternoons, the Melrose Leadership market bring in upwards of $500 in sales each week. This translates into a significant amount of healthy produce that is made available to students, their families, and neighbors. Mr. Oatey describes the best part of the market as people being excited about healthy foods. It provides an opportunity for customers to learn about which fruits and vegetables are in season and what it means to purchase organic produce. He also observes how the market has really added to the school’s overall environment, acting in a positive way to bring people together around healthy food.

The Oakland Farm-to-School Network is looking forward to a bright future. Coordinator, Christine Cherdboonmuang hopes to see the school produce markets’ continued growth with the addition of several more participating school sites over the coming years. Look for a school produce market near you this fall, when apples, tomatoes, and a whole host of other fresh produce will be in prime season.

The OUSD Produce Markets will begin operating this fall, the third week in September. For a full schedule of the market days and times see the OFPC Healthy Living page. The markets are also set to accept EBT cards this fall.

Oakland Planning Commission Considers Adding a Health Element to City's General Plan

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:46:00 -0500

On July 7^th the City of Oakland Planning Commission heard a presentation from the Alameda County Public Health Department (ACPHD) on adding a health element to the City’s General Plan. Public health staff members, Pam Willow and Dr. Muntu Davis, highlighted the connections between land use planning and health. They cited truck routes and asthma rates, public transit and access to medical care, liquor store concentration and crime, and street planning and pedestrian safety, all as examples of how planning decisions directly impact the community’s health. Eric Angstadt, Deputy Director of CEDA (Community and Economic Development Agency) introduced the speakers and explained that they are asking the commission to work with the ACPHD to seek funding and develop strategies for incorporating a health element.

The planning commissioners expressed support for the idea, many stating that this action is long overdue. In addition to hearing the public’s opinion about the health element proposal, Commissioner Michael Colbruno was interested in hearing more about solutions to the health issues the City is currently facing. The public health department emphasized that including a health element would allow more of these solutions-based conversations and collaborations to take place and allow for health to be considered in all future planning decisions.

During the open forum, community members were invited to voice their opinions about the proposal. There were representatives from diverse organizations including the Oakland School Food Alliance, the Alcohol Policy Network, Transform-- a Bay Area public transportation advocacy group, a local children’s gymnastics program, and the Oakland Food Policy Council (OFPC). OFPC member, Heather Wooten, and OFPC coordinator, Alethea Harper, both took a few minutes to speak to the Planning Commission. Heather spoke about her work with Public Health Law and Policy and their capacity as a resource for information on how health elements have been implemented in other cities and communities throughout the country. While funding for such a planning process is a concern among the commission members, Heather pointed to the fact that adopting a health element would put the City in a unique position to receive additional state and federal funds for its planning efforts. Alethea’s comments focused on possible policy solutions to food system problems, including supports and protections for urban agriculture; establishment of a Fresh Food Financing Fund; and streamlining regulations for farmers’ markets. Alethea stated that the Oakland Food Policy Council is eager to help develop these solutions, and having a comprehensive plan and vision for Oakland as a healthy city will help attract resources to each possible solution. Alethea also underscored the point that good food, places to exercise, and a clean environment are the basis of good health, both mental and physical.

There was general excitement among the commissioners, several referred to the work around sustainability, urban agriculture, and health that is already taking place in Oakland. They want to be able to use the expertise of people working on these projects in order to implement larger scale programs to improve the health of City residents. But what are the next steps for this movement towards a health element? The ACPHD staff will need to present their proposal to the Oakland City Council to establish the collaboration between the Planning Commission and the ACPHD. When we know more about the date and details of this presentation to City Council, we will share them with you. It is important to continue showing our support for a health element in the General Plan.

As New Wave of Energy Emerges, A Seasoned Food Policy Council Member Imparts Her Knowledge

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 12:15:00 -0500

By Beth Sanders

Not only is Jennifer McTiernan a motivated individual with a passion for improving the Connecticut foodshed and the health of its people—she also has a stoic, philosophical side. When asked about words of wisdom she can impart on fledgling food policy councils around the country, McTiernan quotes the late Roman Lucius Anneaus Seneca: “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”.

Preparation is the First Step

No one knew exactly whether the goals of the New Haven Food Policy Council (NHFPC) would gain momentum when it was initially established in June of 2005. But what they did know is that deliberate preparation—such as getting a city ordinance passed to support their group’s formation, ensuring a diverse representation of appointed council members and selecting the issue of childhood nutrition to begin making policy recommendations—was a safe bet to begin working. The NHFPC began by identifying an area of focus – childhood nutrition and school food – and then writing a policy primer report to explain the current state of school food in Connecticut, accompanied by ideas on how students can receive healthier lunches from local farms. Several ambitious recommendations were published, including an increase in the federal government’s reimbursement rates to school lunch programs, revision of federally mandated nutrition standards, and promoting Connecticut Public Schools to participate in the state’s Farm-to-School program.

“For a long time, we sat through the NHFPC meetings, came up with things to do, defined our priorities, and created ways for the council to come together”, recalls McTiernan, who was instrumental in the policy council’s formation and served as Founding Chair. “We were coming up with lots of activities to engage in, but I started a lot of meetings not being sure about what we would actually end up doing.” She acknowledges that a lot of members in other food policy councils around the country may be asking themselves similar questions as to what their organizing efforts will later accomplish.

The Opportunity Arises

A lot of hard work was already underway before McTiernan and her colleagues realized that the effort had not been made in vain. The clue was the ubiquitous billboards across New Haven and the growing newspaper articles on how union workers, parents, students, and school employees were urging the City to cut all ties with the private food contractor, Aramark. The tension over the company’s management of food services and facilities maintenance was coming to a boil, in large part because of a national campaign launched by the Los Angeles-based Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The company had a twelve year history of menus offering “chicken nuggets, chicken tenders, chicken bits, and all the previous on a bun" with infrequent fresh vegetables, and many parents were fed up. Advocates were starting to question whether there was a link between this practice and the rising trend of childhood diabetes and obesity rates.

It was at this moment when McTiernan realized that this was the council’s golden opportunity to help tip the scale. “It was amazing after spending all that time building our food policy council, we were ready for that moment”, she remembers. The NHFPC proceeded to become an important voice in the community’s conversation about healthy, school food and the best way to promote it by attending public hearings and writing an op-ed in The New Haven Register. They also worked to develop recommendations, as part of the policy primer, for a self-management food system model structured specifically for the New Haven school system. Thanks to their preparation, the NHFPC was able to bring an important perspective to the table at a time when the city was deciding what the school food service program should look like and how it should operate. Victory was achieved in May of 2008 when the Board of Education voted unanimously to designate in-house food service for the district, effectively rejecting the three outside bidders—including Aramark.

Words of Wisdom for Blossoming Food Policy Councils

McTiernan’s success story serves as an inspiration to all food policy councils that may be in the initial phase of organizing themselves and finding their footing to engage the local community. “The take-away message is that you can’t start setting up a council at the very moment something of importance arises”, she states. The story could have a different ending, however, if there was careful preparation for that moment: “even if it’s only the second public hearing you have attended, that’s fine if you’ve found your direction.” Recalling how the City of New Haven decided to prioritize fresh, healthy school food by bringing the operation of the food service program in-house, McTiernan believes, “Maybe they wouldn’t have come out with the same priority if it weren’t for the food policy council. By investing in building an infrastructure and creating legitimacy, food policy councils can position themselves to be ready to be effective advocates when the moment of opportunity arises. Developing a relevant mission statement is an excellent starting point and a way to be prepared to address important issues that come up. It serves as a mandate to support advocating for what will help make a healthier, more sustainable food system.”

Jennifer McTiernan was the founding director of CitySeed, a non-profit organization she started that launched a network of farmers markets in New Haven and addresses local as well as national food policy issues. She is currently living in Berkeley, California, with her family, and preparing to attend Yale Law School to continue her work on food policy and law issues. To read more about CitySeed and the New Haven Food Policy Council, see cityseed.org.

Sources

http://www.cityofnewhaven.com/Government/pdfs/NHFPCminutes012408.pdf

http://www.cityseed.org/

http://www.cityseed.org/programs/council/NHFPCSchoolFoodPolicyPrimer.pdf

http://www.cga.ct.gov/coc/obesity_forum_documents.htm

http://www.ctfoodblog.com/?tag=jennifer-mctiernan

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2008/03/aramarks_missin.php#008564more

http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/university-news/2007/03/30/ysfp-sustains-speaker-series/

Calling All Local Gardeners

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 15:34:00 -0500

Local gardeners who have abundant harvests should know that there are many creative ways to share their bounty. Regardless of whether you’re just tired of making endless loaves of zucchini bread or you would like to share your produce fortune with a fellow community member, consider donating to the Alameda County Community Food Bank. Many food banks are striving to provide more fresh food to their clients and Alameda County is no exception. Between 2005 and 2009, they increased their distribution of fresh fruits and vegetables from 1.2 million pounds to 7.6 million pounds annually. You can help to further increase these numbers by giving your own fresh produce through a donation to the food bank.

The Alameda County Food Bank is registered with Ample Harvest.org, a newly formed, national organization that is hoping to connect enthusiastic gardeners across the country with their local food pantries. The goal is to increase the offerings of fresh produce to those needing food assistance, while also reducing waste of unwanted produce. AmpleHarvest.org allows emergency food providers to register for a free listing on their website. Here, gardeners can search for feeding programs that will accept their donations of extra fruits and vegetables.

The Food Bank gladly accepts donations from backyard gardens. Food Resource Manager, Glenn Ruley, explains that local gardeners are welcome to bring in their own freshly picked, boxed or bagged produce. They often see seasonal fruit as well as zucchini and winter squash come in from area donors. The Food Bank serves more than 275 agencies throughout the county, many of which are based in Oakland. Clients from all of these programs could benefit from additional fresh produce distributed by the Food Bank. For more details on how to donate your own garden-fresh food, contact Glenn Ruley, Food Resource Manager, Alameda County Community Food Bank, at 510-635-3663 ext. 326.

A Pay What You Wish Cafe

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 12:35:00 -0500

You step up to the counter, order your soup and sandwich, but instead of being told the price you must pay, you are simply handed a receipt with the suggested price for your meal. You walk past the cashier, pick up your order, and proceed to the donation box at the end of the line. How much will you put in the box? The suggested price? More than what your meal was quoted for? Or less?

If you are a customer at the St. Louis Bread Company, a new non-profit community café supported by Panera Bread, this is just the situation you will encounter. The idea is pay what you wish. According to CEO Ron Shaich, this is not just another social responsibility publicity scheme for the growing franchise-- the intentions of Panera here are true. They are looking to provide meals for those who truly cannot afford it with the support of others who can spare a little extra change, all while having everyone dine in the same location. The new café opened up in Clayton, Missouri and is the first of what Shaich hopes to be many community cafés located near other Panera Bread restaurants across the country. With plans to expand the concept if it encounters success, there is still no official word on where the next community café will set up shop. For those wondering what the possibilities might be here locally, the nearest East Bay Panera establishments are in Hayward and Alameda.

Community cafés and kitchens are growing, yet they rely on regular customers—both paying and non-paying—in order to be successful. These are not your typical soup kitchens, they are meant to bring together community members as they break bread and in some cases, help each other out. One non-profit, One World Everybody Eats (OWEE), which operates its own pay what you wish restaurant in Salt Lake City, is helping others bring this practice to their communities. OWEE provides resources, including business plan guides, for those who want to start up their own community kitchens. The opportunities to “pay what you wish” may become more frequent if the momentum of OWEE and companies like Panera continues to grow.

Oakland Unified School District “State of the Plate” (June 3, 2010)

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:33:00 -0500

Wondering what Oakland Unified Nutrition Services have been up to lately? At the June 3 “State of the Plate” meeting, we heard from Director Jennifer LeBarre and several students and staff from OUSD on exciting new developments, and the challenges the district still faces.

One of the first speakers was Iris, a student at MetWest High School. For her senior project, Iris put together and taught a 15-day class for her peers covering such things as basic nutrition and where to go in the neighborhood to get healthier food. Her class series sounded fantastic – we’ll try to get in touch with her to see if she wants to present it for other groups too. Listening to her talk, the passion and dedication Iris brings to the subject was very clear, and I firmly believe it is the leadership of young people like her that will transform our food system in years to come.

Here are some highlights from the rest of the afternoon:

OUSD Facts & Figures

OUSD has 91 cafeterias
68% of OUSD students qualify for free or reduced-price meals
OUSD serves 6,500 breakfasts; 27,000 lunches; and 10,000 snacks EVERY DAY
To pay for all these meals (including food, supplies, labor, transportation, etc) OUSD receives the following Meal Program funding:
$3.01 for every free meal
$2.61 for every reduced-price meal
$0.26 for every paid meal

OUSD has some impressive accomplishments to its name. In 2001 the district eliminated sodas. 90% of white bread has been removed, and the deep fat fryers are gone, too. There are produce stands at 12 schools, salad bars at 52 schools, a fresh fruit or vegetable offered at each breakfast and lunch, and “Meatless Mondays” at all K-8 schools. Several well-stocked “cooking carts” roam around the district for cooking lessons as well – stay tuned for an in-depth story on these carts.

Every school that has a full kitchen is phasing in scratch cooking, and the next challenge will be bringing scratch cooking to the district’s central kitchens. Nutrition Services also wants to increase local sourcing, have garden-to-cafeteria connections, and serve fruits and veggies in the afterschool snack program. The biggest challenges for these aspirations are facilities and funding. The Center for Ecoliteracy is working with Nutrition Services and the Oakland School Food Alliance on a feasibility study detailing the costs of a new central kitchen featuring scratch cooking and meals served on real trays that would be washed and reused each day. They’re also comparing this to the costs of trying to put scratch-cooking kitchens in place at every school.

Certainly OUSD Nutrition Services has challenges ahead, but there is tremendous energy within Nutrition Services and throughout the community to prove that a large urban district can serve up fresh, healthy, tasty food every single day.

Support the addition of a HEALTH ELEMENT in Oakland's General Plan! July 7, 6pm, City Hall Hearing Room 1

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:50:00 -0500

Put this meeting on your calendar, and come out to support the addition of a health element for Oakland's General Plan! This is a great opportunity to address a wide range of health issues, including access to fresh, healthy food for all residents. Read on for more information:

The Oakland Planning Commission is scheduled to hear a report on a proposal to seek a health element for Oakland's General Plan on July 7th at 6 p.m. in Hearing Room 1 in City Hall at One Frank Ogawa Plaza. This item will be first on the agenda. Anyone interested in seeing Oakland adopt a health element in the General Plan should plan on attending this meeting to express their support.

One of the tools available to create healthier communities is the general plan, the primary land use policy document for California’s communities. As the "constitution" of a community, the general plan underlies all land use decisions. All local government land use policies must rest on the principles and goals of the general plan. Since general plans also take a long-term vision, those with strong health language can powerfully orient government actions for decades. The process of creating a health element in a general plan is an opportunity to engage and educate the community about the state of its health and to invite residents to participate in identifying local health issues that are important to them.

On July 7th at 6 p.m., the Oakland Planning Commission will hear a report on the concept of including a health element in Oakland's General Plan. Such a health element could address a wide range of health-related land use decisions, such as:

Access to grocery stores and fresh fruits and vegetables
Safe places to exercise and play
Clean air and environment
Limiting an over-concentration of liquor stores and tobacco outlets
Designing communities to be safer and reduce crime
Promote economic development to stabilize neighborhoods
Safe access to public transit and walking and biking paths
Sustainable development

If you are interested in seeing any of these health issues addressed in Oakland, please come attend the Planning Commission meeting on July 7th to express your support.

Feed the Hunger Foundation – Food for Thought Microcredit Loan Program

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:59:00 -0500

Last week I attended the Oakland focus group for Feed the Hunger Foundation’s new program, the California Food for Thought Microcredit Loan Program. The idea behind Food for Thought is to “provide microcredit to low income borrowers in the food system whose goal is to better their communities and provide healthy food for all.” This has some strong similarities to the Fresh Food Financing Fund model that has worked so well in Pennsylvania and other communities, with one important difference – the Food for Thought loan fund will be financed exclusively through private dollars. The founders hope this will allow them more flexibility in the kinds of loans they approve, and the kinds of borrowers they can work with.

The literature for Food for Thought describes a vision for regional food systems that give those in poverty the “opportunity to use their industriousness, their skills, and their character to start or maintain a business.” This vision encompasses people and businesses at every link of the food supply chain. And looking around the room at the focus group, I saw a great cross-section of the food system represented: independent truckers, café owners (and aspiring café owners), business development consultants, grocery store managers, food manufacturers, urban farmers, and many more.

Starting the week of July 28, 2010 the Food for Thought program will provide loans of $5,000 to $15,000 that can be repaid over approximately three years, though they will work with each individual borrower to design terms that work the best for that borrower. Interest rates will be around 11%. This is lower than the 12-15% typical of traditional loans, and much lower than the 22-25% interest charged on microcredit by for-profit lenders in other parts of the world. One group even reportedly charges an astronomical 80%. Even though 11% is a comparatively low rate, borrowers will need good business development support to be able to repay their loans. FTH hopes to break even on the loans, and be able to lend the capital out again each time a loan is repaid.

After submitting an application, a borrower’s next steps would include creating a business plan, getting a credit report, providing past income tax returns, and potentially providing a UCC lien check for collateral. Since FTH wishes to lend to people who have not been able to gain access to credit through traditional lenders, technical assistance on these steps will be critical to success for new entrepreneurs who have great energy and passion for the work, but who haven’t had the opportunities to learn these kinds of business skills. Perhaps some of FTH’s partner organizations will be able to provide this kind of support.

This new endeavor is supported by Congresswoman Barbara Lee, whose District Director Anne Taylor came to the meeting and read a statement from the Congresswoman emphasizing the need to invest in initiatives that bring healthy food into our communities. Her statement also mentioned our need for a statewide alternative food system comprised of food businesses all along the food supply chain. The Congresswoman recently took the “food stamp challenge”, living on a $21/week food allowance to learn firsthand the challenges of attempting to get by on food stamps.

The toolkit for building and financing a food system that works for all people is getting more diverse. With this loan program set to launch this week, ongoing efforts by groups like Inner City Advisors, ALBA, and many others, and growing momentum for establishing a Fresh Food Financing Fund in the region as well, aspiring entrepreneurs should have more and more options for attaining start-up capital and technical assistance.

POWERing Up Rooftop Garden Party

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 18:33:00 -0500

By Beth Sanders and Colleen Lynch

This may be a different kind of garden party than you are used to; the garden party recently held at POWER’s Mission office was a working garden party. Last year POWER (People Organized to Win Employment Rights), a San Francisco based racial justice organization, partnered with Movement Generation and Bay Localize to create its own rooftop garden. Since last August they have been growing a number of fruits, vegetables, and herbs that are shared with staff and POWER community members.

The rooftop garden needed some remodeling, so a party of volunteers was called on to help with the reconstruction. There was work to be done in making smaller garden boxes that will be better supported by the roof’s structure. From re-shoveling and redistributing soil to drilling together boxes and their wheels, it was quite an undertaking. Once the garden is ready, POWER has plans to grow corn, beans, squash, and tomatoes over the coming months. The ultimate goal of having the rooftop garden is to host a community member farmers’ market where their produce will be shared with local residents. This can also provide a venue for cultural exchange between POWER members organizing around increased access to healthy foods in their own neighborhoods.

Volunteers construct new garden boxes on POWER's rooftop.

Urban Gardening as a Tool to Increase Access to Healthy Foods

Alicia Garza, POWER’s co-executive director, is proud of the organization’s history of fighting against environmental racism in neighborhoods such as Bayview Hunters Point, located near the San Francisco airport. Injustice in this predominantly African-American community is evident as the average family earns $15,000 per year and the neighborhood has the highest asthma and cancer rates in the area due to contamination of toxic waste from the Naval shipyard, the City’s powerplant, and a nearby trash incinerator. According to Garza, POWER’s recent efforts in promoting urban gardening in Bayview are “…offering alternatives, which has proved to be the easiest way to bring about change. With these efforts, we are seeing things go the way that they should be in the community.” During the afternoon portion of the garden rooftop party, Jerio Lee—a resident Bayview Hunters Points and POWER organizer—was asked if he has witnessed any efforts to increase local access to healthy foods, such as corner store conversion projects that increase fresh produce inventories. Lee’s response was unforgettable: “The only thing happening like that is when corner stores are converted into dollar stores. In Bayview, there is not a single grocery store within the neighborhood, so POWER’s new focus on establishing community gardens is important.”

Volunteers and POWER's Co-executive director, Alicia Garza (right), begin to fill a raised bed container with soil.

A Synergy Among Diverse Organizing Networks

The POWER rooftop garden party demonstrates collaboration between a variety of networks with diverse goals, yet they are working together to achieve environmental change throughout the Bay area. Bay Localize is working towards a localization agenda for the region, with food and energy as just part of its focus. Their Use Your Roof! Project continues to have success in transforming rooftops on both sides of the Bay into efficient sources of energy, food, and water. The Green Rooftop Alliance is another emerging group promoting similar projects, which helped to recruit volunteers for the POWER Rooftop Garden Party.

Sara Camp cuts through a plastic lining used to hold soil in the rooftop gardenbeds. She is the U.S.campaign manager with the climate-change actionorganization 350.org

Recipes for Change: A new report

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 18:11:00 -0500

Published in April, the Prevention Institute’s report, Recipes for Change, offers program and policy recommendations to make healthy food more accessible for all communities. This recipe focuses on four main ingredients: the food retail environment, healthy food and institutions, federal food and nutrition assistance programs, and regional food and agricultural systems. Each area is broken down into specific strategies and opportunities for policy action leading towards improved access to healthy foods, which are defined here by the Dietary Guidelines, breastfeeding recommendations, and sustainable and fair production practices.

Suggestions range from concentrated local change to national policy change like the Farm Bill, while including calls for both system-wide and community-based initiatives. Actions are not limited to building more healthy food outlets in underserved neighborhoods, but take into account the influence of institutions on improving access to healthy foods. For example, having schools and hospitals provide high quality, local foods and government agencies act as models through the food they serve. There is an emphasis on continued improvements to federal nutrition programs, such as streamlining the application process and making federally funded food more nutritious.

A broad perspective in revamping whole local food systems from “farm to fork” is a theme illustrating overlap between the report’s four areas of focus. There is a section on food policy councils created as city, county, and state level initiatives. Councils are lauded for their ability to work with an entire food system as opposed to other government policy strategies that may only address narrowly defined aspects of a local food environment.

With recommendations in so many different areas, Recipes for Change encourages work in a variety of sectors leading to improved food access in all communities. The report offers examples of actions already taking place on the local and national levels. These steps are meant to address the food system’s health implications in addition to its potential economic, social, and environmental consequences. It seems this recipe can be blended, tossed, and mixed in any number of ways. The spices we add here in Oakland as we cook up some changes for the local food system and the unique, inspiring flavors we will create remain open possibilities.

For a full copy of the report visit the Prevention Institute webpage here.

Food Deserts & Growing Hunger in the US: The USDA’s response

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:52:00 -0500

Finding the appropriate term to describe the landscape of the US food system brings us again to the paradoxical nature of the US food system itself. As levels of obesity and health related disease rise in places where access to healthy food is difficult, it becomes unclear whether such areas, with limited access to nutritious and affordable food, should be understood as food deserts, food swamps, or perhaps both. The USDA’s report titled “Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food: Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and their Consequences,” released in June 2009, sets out to assess the prevalence of such areas with limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables under the assumption that health and nutrition can be expressed at the regional level as the outcome of two factors: distance to a supermarket and access to a vehicle.

Articulating a definition of food desert as ‘an area with limited access to affordable and nutritious food,’ (as measured by distance and car ownership) their efforts seem misguided from the start, as the report fails to understand the structural causes of obesity, poor nutrition. Health and access to nutritious foods have been historically distributed along lines of race and income in a process understood by many as food apartheid. Their narrow consideration of the prevalence of food deserts focuses on solutions that strengthen the agri-industrial complex wherein the problem finds its root causes, recommending incentive programs to entice new stores, with a preference for supermarket-led development and Wal-Mart style superstores, leaving community programs ($100 million) vastly underfunded in comparison to the amount spent on farm subsidies ($74 billion).

As millions of Americans are finding themselves in increased food-insecure situations (approximately 49 million Americans, or 16% of the population, were food insecure in 2008 according to a November 2009 released USDA report, the highest ever recorded), and as the externalities of our American food system wreak further havoc on our health, our environment and our economy, the task of understanding the true causes of food deserts becomes essential if we are to move forward in rebuilding local food systems, guided by the principle of food sovereignty and devoted to the cause of making food deserts bloom. Taking a closer look at the USDA’s conclusions and the public debate that followed, we can begin to make sense of the food desert phenomena and develop an understanding of how government, non-government, and community actors are thinking about and tackling the dual issues of diet-related disease and access to food and nutrition in the United States.

Identifying only a small percentage (2.2%) of the American population with limited access to a grocery store, the report goes on to conclude that supermarkets and large grocery stores have lower prices than ‘smaller stores,’ convenience stores may not provide all the foods needed for a healthy diet and may be more expensive, and that easy access to all food, rather than lack of access to specific healthy foods, may be a more important factor in explaining increases in obesity. Drawing the conclusion that availability of nutritious food doesn’t necessarily mean improved outcomes, the USDA’s report asserts that understanding the market conditions that contribute to differences in access to food is critical to the design of policy interventions that may be effective in reducing access limitations. If high development costs serve as a barrier to entry for supermarkets in some areas with low access, then subsidy programs or restructured zoning policies may be effective solutions.

Further, the USDA’s assessment goes on to report that,

The rise of nontraditional retailers in food retail (Wal-Mart, Costco, or Super Target), which offers foods at prices that are 8 to 27 percent lower than at large supermarket chains, has changed the competitive environment and has likely led to decreases in the average prices of foods for consumers. These stores are not typically located in urban areas and may not be accessible in all rural areas either. Thus, those outside of the reach of these large stores may be less affected by the price benefits of the stores… If cost factors keep food retailers from developing new stores or expanding services in existing stores, then efforts to reduce these costs or to subsidize development of new or expanded stores may be effective policy solutions (104).

In making these policy recommendations, the report opens the discussion of what constitutes a just, accessible, and equitable food system, touching off a national public debate over the issues raised. Will the construction of a Costco in aregion known as a food desert be sufficient to provide health and nutrition for the community? And who exactly will benefit under this type of food development?

While high food prices do serve as a major obstacle towards making healthy food more accessible, simply making more cheap food available-in the form of Costco’s and Wal-mart’s- is not seen as a solution for many of those interested in greater food justice and food security. Instead, the further expansion of corporate food suppliers into new communities can be seen as an extension of the problem, misunderstanding that what needs to happen is a more radical change in what we consider healthy food and how certain modes of distribution work into or against the development of a healthy food system stretching from the community to international level. As Raj Patel writes in his book Stuffed and Starved,

Supermarkets have been successful in shutting down neighborhood

channels for the distribution of fresh fruit and vegetables, the foods predominantly available in poor neighborhoods are highly processes and fat-saturated. When

supermarkets decide that they will not expand into areas of predominantly poor

people of color, and having by their very existence already restricted the

possibilities of other fruit and vegetable distribution mechanisms, they consign

the residents to a diet of frozen pizza, pork rinds, beef patties and corn dogs (242).

What needs to happen therefore is a shift of focus away from supplying more cheap food (made artificially cheap by heavy subsidies towards large agri-businesses), towards reestablishing the neighborhood channels of fresh fruits and vegetables that contribute to the flourishing of healthy food systems, recognizing local farmers as key stakeholders and partners in the process of promoting greater access to fresh, healthy and affordable foods for all.

Indeed there are highly productive, equitable and sustainable alternatives to the present industrial practices, and many people working to advance these alternatives and reestablish community channels of nutritious food in this time of need. In the United States, the livelihood struggles of low-income, African-American, Native-American, Latino-American, Asian-American and immigrant communities are at the center of programs for food justice and agricultural sustainability. Low-income people of color are mobilizing locally, forming national coalitions, drafting legislation, and reaching out internationally in their efforts to build healthy, equitable, food systems that contribute to the social and economic development of their communities (http://www.foodfirst.org/en/blog).

Yet in the face of a formidable movement working towards greater sovereignty stands the great challenge of a growing hungry populace, as the number of hungry and food insecure soars to an all time high amidst times of economic hardship. Last year, according to the USDA’s November 2009 report documenting hunger in America, the deterioration of access to food from 2007-2008 far exceeded any other single year in the report's history as 16% of the population sometimes ran short of nutritious food, compared to about 12% the year before. In 2008, people in 4.8 million households used private food pantries, compared with 3.9 million in 2007, while approximately 625,000 households resorted to soup kitchens, more than 90,000 from the year before (Goldstein).

The USDA’s report on hunger also found that African-American or Hispanic people were more than twice as likely than whites to report food insecurity in their household and more than half of the people surveyed who reported they had experienced food shortages said that they had, in the previous month, participated in either the government’s food stamp program, subsidized school lunches or WIC, the USDA’s nutrition program for women, infants andchildren (Goldstein). Despite $60 billion yearly in government food nutrition programs and the explosion of over 70,000 food banks and emergency food programs across the nation, more than one in five children in the US go hungry each month, with nearly 17 million children living in a food insecure household, up 4 million from the year before (Winne).

President Obama, who pledged to eliminate hunger among children by 2015 in his presidential campaign, has responded to questions of how to fix the problem of hunger in the US by saying that solutions begin with job creation. Further, he has stated that the administration has been working to increase food stamp benefits and is hopeful that the $85 million dollars that Congress freed up through an appropriations bill will be able feed more children during the summer, when subsidized school breakfasts and lunches are not available (Goldstein). Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has also identified unemployment as the leading cause of lack of access to nutrition in the US, as more than 10 percent of Americans are unemployed, and many more ‘underemployed.’ Vilsack acknowledged that next year’s report may also show rising rates of food insecurity, although he is hopeful that the administration’s economic stimulus and job creation plans may ease the problem. Yet are the issues of hunger, lack of access to food, and growing food deserts merely a matter of unemployment? And will more government dollars allocated towards food stamps/food banks/emergency programs be effective solutions towards the goal of eradicating food deserts and hunger in the US?

A plan simply for job creation and increasing emergency food outlets won’t go far enough to reverse the trend of growing food deserts and a populace that’s more than ever at risk for diet related diseases and hunger. To solve the food desert phenomenon, we need to fix the food system. This entails reducing the oligopolistic power of the agri-food corporations, rebuilding agroecologically resilient family agriculture, and increasing support to local economies and sustainable farming and production practices. We need to make food affordable by turning the food system into an engine for local economic development in both rural and urban areas by supporting production based on social, ecological, and economic justice and the goal of greater food sovereignty. These movements already exist, and are gaining strength in the face of the food crisis as independent community-based food business are growing, new mechanisms of local distribution (such as farm to food bank linkages) are being established, and food policy councils are sprouting up throughout the country working to localize and rationalize food systems at various levels of governance. This movement towards greater food democratization remains the greatest hope towards eradicating hunger, unraveling the structure that has created a food desert and food insecure reality for so many, and founding a food system based on the idea of justice and health. Join and support organizations campaigning for fair food systems policies; write letters and make calls to your elected officials, and ask questions of presidential and congressional candidates about hunger and food system related issues in the US and what they intend to do.

Goldstein, Amy. “American’s Economic Pain Brings Hunger Pangs.” Washington Post

Bibliography

Ver Ploeg Michele, Vince Breneman et al. “Access to Affordable and Nutritious Food—Measuring and Understanding Food Deserts and Their Consequences: Report to Congress.” USDA Administrative Publication AP-036: 160. June (2009).

Winne, Mark. “High Food Prices- Just Another Bad Day in the Foodline.” Food BankSpeech, Seattle, WA. 15 May 2008.

Food First: Institute for Food and Development Policy, http://www.foodfirst.org/en/blog

17 November 2009.

Healthy Food Comes to Temescal

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 12:28:00 -0500

Healthy Food Comes to Temescal 11/09/2009

The Temescal Produce Market, located at Telegraph and 51 Street, opened in November of 2009 and is co-owned by AbdulElsumeri and his cousin Jamal Ahmed. It is a welcome change in a neighborhood where finding fresh and healthy food is difficult. The Market sells a variety of organic produce alongside environmentally friendly cleaning and paper products, fresh bread, and bulk goods. Residents are excited to have a grocery store to go to that is easy to access and that offers healthy foods. These attributes are hard to come by throughout much of Oakland, where there are three times the amount of fast food and convenience stores compared to produce stands and grocery stores.

Other than grocery chains such as Safeway and Whole Foods there are not a lot of options in the neighborhood to pick up organic produce, ethnic foods, snacks, grains, and pre-packaged foods all in one place. These large grocery chains take profits away from the community, in order to pay producers and suppliers abroad and throughout the U.S. With over 70 percent of the money spent on food in Oakland traveling outside the city’s boundaries, the Produce Market will hopefully be one of many local food businesses to keep revenue in the community. While organizations such as the Mandela Foods Cooperative and People’s Grocery aim to increase access to healthy food in West-Oakland, increasing incentives for local food businesses throughout the rest of the city are another viable way of attacking rising obesity rates.

So why sell mainly organic products? The Produce Market’s owners are entrepreneurs that know a good business opportunity when they see one. “It is something that is good for the neighborhood and the people, and there is nothing like it around here,” says Abdul. They knew that they were tapping into a lucrative market by selling organic and Abdul plans on the Produce Market being a successful business. “We wanted a nice, clean place for people to shop. No one loiters outside and hassles our customers, I make sure of it.”The Market sells prepared sandwiches, quesadillas, and burritos for quick meals on the go, as well as more unusual fare such as fresh injera bread and unroasted coffee beans for only $3.99 a pound from Asmara, a near-by Ethiopian market.

According to Abdul, the Market’s customer base is ethnically diverse but currently much of his business is from students and youth. He hopes in the future that more local residents will frequent the market. There are a lot of public transportation options close to the store, which not only increases foot traffic for Abdul, but is a necessary component in creating a sustainable food system in which residents have access to healthy foods. Nearly 29 percent of Alameda county residents are food insecure, or lack access to healthy, affordable food, and this is an issue of particular importance throughout the city of Oakland.

Residents have been waiting for more stores to offer healthy foods and organic products in the Temescal area for quite a while. Deborah Ching works around the corner from the Market, and she is grateful to have an alternative to Walgreens to grab a healthy snack. “Not a day goes by that I don’t get thanked for opening the store. People are so excited,” says Abdul.

The Temescal Produce Market is open seven days a week from 8am to 9pm.

(photo by Jamie Nash)

Nathan McClintock talks urban agriculture

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:51:00 -0600

Nathan McClintock, Oakland Food Policy Council member, was recently interviewed by the Africa Reporting Project regarding lessons Oakland can learn from African urban agriculture project. Follow this link to listen to his full interview.

Food Policy Councils: Leasons Learned referred to in Eric Holt-Giménez's Huffington Post article

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:18:00 -0600

"On January 12, 2010, Eric Holt-Giménez , the executive director of Food First (Institute for Food and Development Policy), which incubates the Oakland Food Policy Council, wrote an elucidating Huffington Post blog post about the role of food policy councils in this country. While food policy councils have existed for several decades in the United States, the current economic crisis has increased their visibility. As Holt-Giménez states, food policy councils “create democratic spaces for convergence of diversity.” Holt-Giménez explains, “What people refer to as "the food movement" is actually a collection of social movements: food justice, fair food, fair trade, organic food, slow food, food security, public health, food sovereignty, family farms... and local folks just trying to make things better... Food Policy Councils have a unique quality within this wide array of activists, advocates and practitioners: they create democratic spaces for convergence in diversity. The power of informed, democratic convergence--especially when linked to the specific places where people live, work and eat--has an additional, emergent quality: it can change the way we--and others--think." The Huffington Post article refers to Food Policy Councils: Lessons Learned, which was co-authored by Oakland Food Policy Council coordinator Alethea Marie Harper.

Eric Holt-Giménez is now a regular blogger for The Huffington Post. Please click on this link to read the full article about food policy councils.

Bagriculture and Elevated Beehives: Notes from Carrot City

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:26:00 -0500

Imagine a city where bee keepers grow colonies atop apartment buildings, where greenhouses are built of old window panes, and where recycled heavy-duty bags scattered throughout parks and vacant lots produce the fruits and vegetables that will later be cooked in houses and apartments just footsteps away. While these ideas may seem alien to conventional notions of what a city should look like and what a city should produce, these ideas are becoming increasingly popular, as designers and urban farmers respond to the growing urban agriculture movement to realize innovative ideas of sustainable urbanism and facilitate the production of food within the city. The question of ‘how can we change our built urban environment to foster a greater practice/ethic of urban agriculture’ has inspired designers and architects to new heights in innovation and creative design, as recently showcased at Carrot City, an exhibit held at the Design Exchange last April in the city of Toronto, Canada. The exhibit, sponsored by Ryerson University, brought together the work of international designers and architects, to share ideas, visions, and plans for the future of city design with localized urban food production as the goal. The resulting ideas, some already built and some in development, highlight a range of design ideas, from small-scale chicken coops to sky-scraping vertical farms to elevated beehives and to greenhouses made from recycled window panes. In an impressive display of creativity and innovation, the Carrot City exhibit showcased the idea of cities feeding themselves, and encouraged designers, urban farmers, architects, city planners, and citizens alike to design, build, and thrive in a healthy and productive urban foods system. Take a look!

Recycled bags used as planters

Elevated Beehives

Mini Greenhouse

Eglu: Backyard Chicken Coop

One of a Kind: The Mandela Foods Cooperative

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 10:53:00 -0500

I was so excited that I called three friends and my mother as I walked through the new Mandela Foods Cooperative on 7th Street in West Oakland. I had been eyeing the developing grocery store for months during my daily commute to San Francisco. After work I would peer into the windows and watch the co-op workers fill up bulk item containers and place gloriously bright yellow bell peppers in produce baskets. I felt like a kid in front of a toy store: I could not wait for the store to open so I could enjoy locally grown, pesticide-free produce everyday without spending most of my paycheck, or having to travel to another neighborhood, or having to wait until Saturday morning to visit a farmer's market. Then, one afternoon in early June, I de-boarded the train to find a couple of people shopping in the co-op. I picked up a hand-basket and cruised through the store, grabbing organic strawberries, raspberries, apricots, bananas, red cabbage, kale, collard greens, spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, free-range organic eggs, and apple juice. Imagine my delight when I carried all of my goodies out of the door for less than twenty-five bucks.

While the Mandela Foods Cooperative is certainly one of a kind in West Oakland, it is also accompanied by a handful of community gardens, urban homesteading programs, and backyard farms developed by West Oaklanders to counteract food insecurity in the neighborhood. Before the Mandela Foods Cooperative opened, one could travel from the northwest tip of West Oakland to the "lower bottoms," and find plenty of convenience stores, even a few fast food restaurants, but not one full-service grocery store. Some legislators and academics use the term "food deserts" to describe areas like West Oakland, by which they mean predominately low-income neighborhoods with little to no access to healthy, affordable and "culturally appropriate" food in the immediate area. According to a study commissioned by the USDA meant to discover the extent of such "food deserts" in the U.S., minimal access to food translates into a higher likelihood of chronic hunger and greater incidences of diet-related illnesses. While these conclusions are important to state, the study's popularization of the term, and under-investigation of its sources, threatens to obscure some of the bigger issues at stake.

For people living and working in West Oakland the term "food deserts" only names a symptom, or effect of the systemic social inequities that make it difficult to find healthy food. Brahm Ahmadi, Executive Director of the West Oakland community-based organization Peoples Grocery, argues that the term "food apartheid" or "food injustice" better describes the situation confronting people in poor urban areas. In an exchange with other food activists, Ahmadi maintained that "the term food desert has emerged as a safe and neutral way to avoid rocking the boat with an analysis of inequity, racism and oppression.... No one in our neighborhood has heard of, or uses, the term food desert," he notes, "but folks do talk about racism, [and] exclusion all the time.... We may live in food deserts, but we live under food apartheid." The distinction is an important one that pivots on the latter term's ability to surface the structural and systemic inequities that give rise to "food deserts" - a distinction enabling us to formulate better solutions to the problem of food insecurity, economic disparities, and diet-related illnesses in poor communities.

The Mandela Foods Cooperative really understands the distinction to which Ahmadi refers. The Co-op is part of a multifaceted food and economic security effort mounted by the Mandela Marketplace, a West Oakland based "community leadership incubator that provides civic engagement, economic and entrepreneurial opportunity to low-income residents and minority farmers." According to Dennis Terry, who has worked on the development of the Co-op for three years, "the co-op is seen as part of a larger effort to develop food security in Oakland, provide income opportunities, and provide nutrition education to Oaklanders." This integrated approach is meant to reinvigorate local food cultures and the transmission of knowledge about whole foods cultivation and preparation, develop greater self-sufficiency in the community, and support local economic circuits.

Moreover, this three-prong approach tackles some of the root causes of food injustice thereby marking a qualitative shift in how the problem of food insecurity is addressed. By moving away from a owner/worker business model to a cooperative business model, Mandela Marketplace addresses issues of worker's rights and most notably, the right to democratically determine one's working conditions and wages. Through their nutrition education classes, which will begin once the market completes the construction of its onsite kitchen, the Co-op provides practical ways for West Oaklanders to take control of their health by learning how proper nutrition can prevent a range of chronic illnesses. It is a low-tech, "do-it-yourself" approach to healthcare in the midst of a healthcare reform debate that consistently fails to connect the dots (at least at the policy level) between real food and healthy people. Finally, the Co-op sources their produce from small to medium sized local farms within a 120-mile radius from Oakland. Consumers can learn about these farms from well-placed informational placards in the store as they shop. It is a gesture that reminds consumers of the reciprocal relationship between food growers and food eaters: the farms support our wellbeing, and we support the health of small farms.

In all of this, what may be one of the most important things about the Co-op is that, as Dennis Terry told me, "it's the kind of store West Oaklanders want. People can walk to the Co-op" and it is open everyday. In short, it is a neighborhood market that has really taken into consideration what matters to the community it serves. It is a one of a kind food retailer in Oakland: run by the people, for the people.

Mini-documentary portrays the lack of food access in a West Oakland neighborhood

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:45:00 -0500

In this video, Leon Davis and President L. Davis travel down Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd in West Oakland exploring the few options the residents have for grocery stores in the area. They encounter liquor store after liquor store (three in the span of four blocks), and the occaisional "grocery" store that might have about 15 bananas and a paltry selection of meats. Each time they ask the store cashier where the food is they receive a response along the lines of "we have no food," even at a store described as "Grocery & Deli." Outside the Grocery & Deli they explain to a boy sipping a can of soda and his friend that they are making the documentary to show people how few options the residents of this neighborhood have, and to highlight the need for more healthy food like fruits and vegetables instead of liquor and processed foods. The video gives striking personal insight into the situation and clearly illustrates the need for change.

Hank Herrera on Mayor Dellums' Address at the Sustainable Foodsheds Summit

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 16:41:00 -0500

Working toward Sustainable Foodsheds in Oakland

On Thursday, July 9, the Sustainable Foodshed Conference, organized by Roots of Change, featured a presentation by Alethea Harper, Coordinator of the Oakland Food Policy Council, and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums. Alethea gave a very nice overview of the Oakland Food Policy Council and a lovely introduction to the Mayor. She reminded us that Mayor Dellums was elected to 13 terms in the House of Representatives and sponsored legislation to oppose apartheid that overcame President Reagan's veto.

Mayor Dellums then gave a warm and engaging talk about food systems. He began with recollections from his childhood of getting a morning ride at 8th and Peralta during the summer to go to farms where he picked fruits and vegetables, and how each day he made sure to be first in line to get paid, so he could go back into fields to glean, bringing home two bags each day, one for his grandmother to can. At the end of the summer, his grandmother had a household filled with jars of fruits and vegetables for the winter. He also described the hilarious scene when he and other neighborhood youth would wait for the fruit-laden trucks to park on their ways to the canneries in East Oakland, pull off the sides of the boxes they could reach, and when the trucks pulled away, how they would pick up the fruit spilling out onto the street, again bringing it home to his grandmother. When she asked where he got the fruit, it was "don't ask, don't tell, the Mayor said with a smile and the audience laughed in

The Mayor went on to serious comments about the importance of food in the era of global warming, and the possibility that people will fight wars over food unless we take steps to improve the food system, starting with local initiatives that ultimately connect to regional, national and global change. Finally the mayor raised up the opportunities for Oakland to lead the way, because, as he said, "we are big enough to be significant and small enough to solve the problem." He ended his comments by saying that we hold the answers to change in our hands.

Oakland and the HOPE Collaborative had a strong delegation present, with Alethea, Hannah Laurison, Barbara Finnin, Brahm Ahmadi and others. The Mayor was kind enough to have a picture taken with all of us. I think it is fair to say that his words were both encouraging and inspirational.

-Hank Hererra, HOPE Collaborative

[back to blogs]

The Bay Area leads the way

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:22:00 -0500

The recent USDA Agricutlural Marketing Summit generated a good deal of press for the local, sustainable and equitable food system movement in Oakland. Here are a few links to informative articles about the event:

California Mayors Newsom and Dellums Challenge Nation's Cities on Food and Farming, Michael R. Dimock

Roots of Change Breaks Ground with Sustainable Food Summit, Vanessa Barrington

OFPC Introductory Event, March 23 2009

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 16:20:00 -0500

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