Oakland Food Policy Council

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

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