Oakland Food Policy Council

Below is a list of food justice-related organizations in Oakland. Each entry includes a link to the organization's website as well as a brief description of each organization.

• City Slicker Farms – Works toward dismantling environmental racism by bringing the farm to the city.  City Slicker Farms increases access to healthy foods in the urban context through its urban farms and food distribution programs; it empowers and engages community members through community education, a volunteer program, an apprenticeship and community events such as the “Ferment Change” series—a celebration of fermented foods and urban agriculture; it also has a backyard garden-building program, a composting program, and a nursery and seed-saving program, all of which encourage the community’s self-sufficiency. 
• Oakland Based Urban Gardens (OBUGS) – Builds healthier communities by giving children and other young people the opportunity to garden, learn about healthy eating, and exercise.  In-school and after-school garden-based programs teach children how to grow plants and cook.  A 6-week day camp brings youths on visits to farms, parks and museums, and has them work in gardens and cook.  YOBUGS, a program for young people ages 12 through high school, promotes leadership and business skills, and environmental and nutritional consciousness.  Farm stands set up by OBUGS provides community members with vegetables by donation, cooking demonstrations, recipes, and information on the nutritional content of foods. 
•  People's Grocery– A strong supporter of “food justice”—People’s Grocery believes everyone should have access to healthy foods, regardless of income.  They believe that access to healthy food is a human right.  People’s Grocery grows food locally and distributes it to low-income community members, provides nutrition education and gives people local jobs that stimulate the local economy. 
• Oakland Food Connection –Through grassroots organizing, this Oakland-based organization encourages residents to take improving their quality of life into their own hands—through nutritional education and access to healthy foods.   It has organized the Oakland Community Farmers Market, located in the Laurel District of East Oakland.  It has organized Unity High School students to work in the school garden bed and use the knowledge they gain to teach courses to K-8 youths.  It also installed a rooftop garden at E.C. Reems Academy and serves 3 healthy meals a week to 15-20 students at the Youth Empowerment Partnership.  Its Purple Lawn Café mobile food cart generates funds to help keep these programs alive. 
• Mandela Food Cooperative – A full-service cooperative grocery store and nutrition education center that provides long underserved West Oakland with nutritional knowledge and affordable, fresh and healthy foods grown on local family farms.  Their cooperative business model is an investment into the local economy, providing residents with entrepreneurial training, supporting new local businesses, participating in community service projects, and buying and distributing locally-sources inventory. 
• Mo Better Foods– Works to support African-American farmers and underserved communities by establishing markets that connect the two—providing business for these farmers and fresh food for these communities.  Mo´ Better Food believes that there is a correlation between the relatively few African-American farmers and the high level of food insecurity in the African-American population, and that by supporting African-American agriculture they can challenge the racialized economic structures that promote this inequality. 

• PUEBLO (People United for a Better Life in Oakland) – A community organization advocating for the needs of low-income residents of Oakland, mostly people of color.  The organization trains future leaders from the community, does grassroots organizing, and advocates for policy reform in a range of issues—from public health to education, living wage, environmental justice, youth development and public safety.  One of their programs, Urban Youth Harvest, brought together Oakland youth to harvest excess backyard produce and deliver these fresh foods to low-income seniors.
• Inner City Advisors - This non-profit promotes the creation of competitive and sustainable inner city businesses that promote the development of the local economy and invest in the local community.  The organization offers entrepreneurs strategic advice, as well as opportunities to further practical entrepreneurial education and connections to a variety of networks, resources and capital. 
• Food First - The Institute for Food and Development Policy/Food First shapes how people think by analyzing the root causes of global hunger, poverty, and ecological degradation and developing solutions in partnership with movements working for social change. Food First is incubating the Oakland Food Policy Council, working on "Go Live Real Food" with Jennifer Johns and others - a hip hop music campaign that brings together the cultural power of the people, the energy of university students, the analytical rigor of a think tank, and the strength of community organizations to build power for REAL FOOD, nationwide.
• Oakland Food Policy Council - The OFPC is already one of the most diverse food policy councils in the country,and is an innovative, progressive group of professionals and residents from the government, food business, labor, public health, land use planning, education, food justice, and waste reduction fields have come together to make healthy food available and accessible to every Oakland resident; build a healthy local economy; cultivate a healthy environment; and educate residents so they are equipped to make healthy choices about food and the food system.
• Youth UpRising - Envisions a healthy and economically robust community powered by the leadership of youth and young adults. Their many programs include a cafe serving local food prepared by the youth in their programs.
• Youth Radio- Youth Radio promotes young people's intellectual, creative, and professional growth through training and access to media. Youth Radio’s media education, broadcast journalism, technical training and production activities provide unique opportunities in social, professional, and leadership development for youth, ages 14-24.  Youth Radio has a "Youth Radio Eats" program with cooking classes, and run two radio series related to food - "WTF: What's That Food", and "Why They Tryin' to Kill Us"
• Planting Justice - is a non-profit organization based in Oakland, CA dedicated to food justice, economic justice, and sustainable local food systems. We are the first organization of our kind to combine ecological training and urban food production with a grassroots door-to-door organizing model that will vastly increase our educational community outreach, help us to recruit volunteers, decentralize our fundraising sources, and provide local jobs that also train young community organizers.
• Alameda County Community Food Bank - Their mission is to alleviate hunger by providing nutritious food and nutrition education to people in need, educating the public, and promoting public policies that address hunger and its root causes. The organization has made incredible strides in the proportion of fresh produce available at the food bank, and has been extremely active in supporting community work around food justice.
  
• Public Health Law & Policy - PHLP partners with government staff, advocates, and other community leaders to provide practical solutions to a wide range of public health problems. Our team of staff attorneys, city planners, and policy analysts research and answer tough policy questions, clarify and demystify the law, develop ready-to-go model policies, and "train the trainers" to equip community leaders with the confidence and capacity to put our tools to work. They have provided fantastic technical assistance to many of the groups listed here.
  
• Alameda County Meals on Wheels is a collaboration of the six Meals on Wheels programs in Alameda County that provide warm, home delivered meals to over 2,200 seniors each delivery day. Many of the seniors served live alone or are recovering from illness, and the nutritious meals and daily companionship provided by Meals on Wheels staff and volunteers keep these seniors living independently and with dignity in their own homes.
• City of Oakland Hunger Program - The City of Oakland Hunger Program distributes limited quantities of emergency food to Oakland residents five times per year. Brown bags of food are distributed only on scheduled days at designated food pantries and community-based organizations. Notices of each distribution, including the date, time and location of distribution sites are also posted on the website in advance of each distribution.
• Oakland Parks & Rec - In Oakland's community gardening program, residents of all ages, cultures and backgrounds steward equitably distributed plots of land to grow organic vegetables, fruits and flowers. This program empowers participants to meet their need for health, recreation, good nutrition, job skills, community security and natural beauty.

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Oakland School Food Alliance Meetings

The Oakland School Food Alliance is a grassroots community organization, formed in 2008, made up of students, families, OUSD Nutrition Services, educators, government officials, health and community organizations. The Alliance came together to work towards systemic and systematic reform of the Oakland Unified School District’s food service program. Through their partnerships with Oakland schools, community members and community organizations, they are hoping to ensure that all Oakland students have access to fresh, nutritionally dense, locally grown, appealing, culturally diverse and affordable food in all schools. The Oakland School Food Alliance works particularly to increase and mentor parent leadership to support access to healthy food for all kids in Oakland while uniting community partnership in order to provide resources for the programs that are working to transform the food in Oakland schools.

Meets: Every 1^stand 3^rd Thursday

            OCO Office in Eastmont Town Center

            12:30 pm

For more information:

call 510-593-6978

and check out the facebook group Oakland School Food Alliance

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Urban ROOTS

The folks at Urban ROOTS are developing a micro-farming operation to help Oaklanders grow their own food and revitalize neighborhood economies. The idea is simple:

1. Provide an inexpensive way for low-income urban residents to grow their own nutritious foods.
2. Build an economic link through a worker cooperative that grows, barters and sells the produce.
3. Provide entrepreneurial training to create self-sustainable communities.

What's best, is that the group will use self-watering containers, called The EarthBox, as the basis of their operation, so they can grow organic vegetables in locations without farmable land.

If you're interested in learning more about the project (how you can get involved, or how you can support their efforts), check out the Urban ROOTS blog, and contact Boku Kodama at Boku@urbanvoice.org.

If you'd like to learn more about self-watering growing containers, make sure to check out Urban ROOTS' demonstration of the EarthBox on June 25 at IGNITE! New Business Expo, a launching pad for sustainable businesses, in Frank Ogawa Plaza-downtown Oakland, 11am-3pm.