Oakland Food Policy Council

July 2010

• 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. 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

June 2010

• Join the OFPC tomorrow at Project Youth Connect, a directservices fair for youth and young families. The fair will takeplace at Youth UpRising, and you'll have the chance to meetOFPC Council members; pick up a copy of the adult or youthOFPC application; and participate in interactive food milesmapping activites! Click here to read more information aboutProject Youth Connect. Lunch will be served!
• OFPC Coordinator Alethea Harper's piece about the role food policy councils play in influencing food policy locally, regionally, and nationally appeared in the Summer 2010 issue of British journal Food Ethics. Click here to visit the site.

March 2010

• Click here to read Ryan Van Lenning's article that recaps the March 18 OFPC meeting.
• Living in the O, an Oakland-based news source, recently posted information about the OFPC's upcoming meeting. Follow this link to read more and to bookmark the news blog. Pull the Root, Plant the Seed, a broad-based social justice themed blog, also has recently posted information about the Oakland Food Policy Council. Click here to find out what Ryan Van Lenning is saying.

December 2009

• Check out Food First's News & Views Winter newsletter.

October 2009

• New Oakland Food Policy Council Sets Course for Better Access-Social Change. Read the article here.
• Check out Food First's News & Views Fall newsletter.

September 2009

• The Oakland Food Policy Council has been seated! Meet the members here.

July 2009

• Check out Food First's News & Views Summer newsletter.

• At the USDA Agricultural Marketing Serivice West Coast Summit, OFPC Coordinator Alethea Harper and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums agreed that the nascent food policy council will help Oaklanders develop greater food and resources security. Read the Oakland Tribune article and a fewblog entries.
• OFPC Coordinator Alethea Harper joined Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums in a call for greater food security in Oakland at the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service on July 9,2009 hosted by Roots of Change.

• OFPC applications are due on August 3. Click here to download an application here.

June 2009

• Just released! Answers to frequently asked questions about the OFPC and a summary of the May recruitment meeting.

May 2009

• The process of identifying and selecting possible members of the OFPC will begin on May 27, 2009 with a food system-wide recruitment meeting.

April 2009

• On April 30, the Public Health Institute, the Oakland Food Policy Council, and the California Food & Justice Coalition held a free screening of 2009 Academy Award Nominee: Best Documentary Feature THE GARDEN at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland. Doors opened at 5:45 pm. The screening was followed by a panel discussion with the Garden Farm leaders, Rufina Juarez and Tezozomoc.

March 2009

• On Wednesday, March 4, the OFPC Coordinator was part of a panel discussion following a screening of the Academy Award nominated documentary “The Garden”. This event was sponsored by the Public Health Institute and The California Food and Justice Coalition, and was held in conjunction with the Network for a Healthy California annual conference. The screening was held at the Crest Theater in downtown Sacramento.
• The OFPC was officially introduced to the elected officials and staff of the City of Oakland and Alameda County at an event on March 23, 2009. The event was attended by over 80 people. 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.