Oakland Food Policy Council

Celebrated author Anna Lappé coming to Pizzaiolo to help Oakland Food Policy Council celebrate first year and 2010 PLAN FOR ACTION

Community will Reflect on Oakland Food System Milestones and Challenges for the Future

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On Sunday October 17, 2010 from 4:30 – 7:00 p.m., Food First will host a “Party with a Purpose” for the Oakland Food Policy Council. As the event’s featured speaker, national bestselling author, public speaker, and television host Anna Lappé will bring her expertise in sustainability, food politics, globalization, and social change to Temescal’s popular locavore restaurant, Pizzaiolo, where she will speak at an event promoting the work of the Oakland Food Policy Council to create an equitable and sustainable food system in Oakland.

The Oakland Food Policy Council (OFPC), authorized in 2006 by Oakland’s City Council, incubated at Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy, and officially launched in September 2009, is comprised of representatives from every sector of Oakland’s food system, including farming and production, processing and distribution, regulation, the public schools, community organizations, and retail.  The goals of the OFPC are to:

• Make healthy food available and accessible to every Oakland resident;
• Build a healthy local economy, including locally-owned food businesses and fair wages and working conditions in food sector jobs;
• Cultivate a healthy environment, including a “zero-waste” food system and ecologically sound agricultural practices;
• Educate citizens so they are equipped to make healthy choices about food and the food system.

Anna Lappé, co-founder of the Small Planet Institute and writer of Diet for a Hot Planet, an investigation about the relationship between industrial agriculture and global climate change, will be guest speaker at the Oct. 17 event.  Lappé says:  “Most of us don’t think about our lunch when we think about global warming.Yet … the food system is responsible for as much as one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions … if we are serious about addressing climate change, we have to talk about food.”

Also appearing as a special guest speaker at the OFPC event will be Jason Harvey, founder and Executive Director of Oakland Food Connection, an East Oakland-based organization that promotes nutritional awareness, access to healthy foods and the connections between people and the planet.

Local food and wine will be served at the event, which will feature screenings of food documentaries, a silent auction, and a chance for the community to share ideas with Food Policy Council members.  There will be discussion of the council’s 2010 Plan for Action, a Q&A, and special take-homes.

Pizzaiolo provides the setting for the OFPC event.  Chef and co-owner Charlie Hallowell, formerly of Berkeley’s renowned Chez Panisse, raises his own chickens behind the restaurant and uses mostly local, organic and seasonal ingredients, waging a vocal campaign against commodified food.

Tickets are available for $30 at Brown Paper Tickets.

The mission of the Oakland Food Policy Council (OFPC) is to establish an equitable and sustainable food system in Oakland, California.  For more information, visit: http://www.oaklandfood.org/