Posts Tagged food justice

FOOD FORWARD SPREADS ITS FRUITY LOVE WITH NEW FARMERS MARKET RECOVERY PROGRAM

Sep 15

Posted by 7star.wwwmaster@gmail.com in Uncategorized | Comments off

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

LOS ANGELES – In August and September, 2012 Food Forward, Southern California’s largest harvesting-‐for-‐the hungry non-‐profit, will launch its brand new Farmers Market Recovery Program, at three of the LA-‐ area’s largest and most robust outdoor markets in Santa Monica, Hollywood and Studio City.

Building on Food Forward’s “100% to the hungry” motto, volunteer “Glean Teams” culled from each of the surrounding communities will gather unsold high-‐grade produce directly from farmers at the close of each market, and donate it to agencies within 5-‐7 miles of each market.

Laura Avery, Santa Monica Farmers Market Supervisor says, “The farmers who come to the Santa Monica Farmers Market are pleased to share their fresh picked produce with Food Forward through this exciting and efficient new partnership. We are especially pleased that Step Up on Second, serving homeless and mentally ill individuals living in Santa Monica, who might not otherwise have access to California’s abundant and nutritious fruits and vegetables, will be the recipient of the bounty we have to share.”

With initial funding from The Rosenthal Family Foundation, The Plum Foundation and Jason & Lauren Morphew, Food Forward hopes to scale this pilot program from three markets in year one, to nine markets in year two, and will grow the program from there.

Meg Glasser, Managing Director of Food Forward says, “We are thrilled to be able to work with farmers markets in the same way that we work with local property owners— gleaning excess produce to donate to Los Angeles’ hungry. We also are excited to bring food enthusiast, Mary Baldwin on as the Program Manager and we welcome her to the small but ever-‐growing Food Forward team.”

In addition to collecting unsold produce from farmers, Food Forward’s Glean Team will also be accepting customer and local homeowners’ fresh produce donations during the last two hours of each market (excluding Santa Monica). Gleaning will occur at Santa Monica (Wednesday from 11:30–2); Studio City (Sundays from 11:30-2); and Hollywood (Sundays from 11:30‐2). They will make their first collections beginning in mid-‐August and by the end of September they expect to have all three market recovery sites up and running.

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Food Forward’s vision is to reconnect our community with the abundance of food already present in our everyday lives, while creating change around the issues of urban hunger, food waste and food justice. For information on the program, joining the Glean Team, or donating produce please check our blog at
http://foodforward.org/blog/ Email: fmrecovery@foodforward.org, or call 818-‐530-‐4125.

Tags: community, food, food forward, food justice, food waste, fresh, Green, homeless, hungry, Los Angeles, nonprofit, produce, Santa Monica

Oxfam Makes a Difference in Supporting International Food Aid – Leading the Way to a More Sustainable Food Sytem

May 2

Posted by 7star.wwwmaster@gmail.com in News | Comments off

Written by Oxfam

For many people, buying local makes sense. Whether the goal is reducing your carbon footprint, eating fresher food, or simply supporting the local economy, buying local can be a powerfully cost-efficient way to make an impact. Congress should apply the same logic to saving lives by buying international food aid locally.

Recklessly, current law doesn’t provide the option. Nearly all food aid, used in times of emergency to save lives around the world, must first be purchased from large agribusinesses. Then, it must be shipped overseas on preferred vessels often arriving weeks or months after it is needed. When the food eventually arrives, up to 32% of taxpayer’s initial investment is already lost due to markups and unnecessary overhead costs.

Unnecessary because unlike the US, other food aid donor countries don’t have American red tape and regulations so they are able to get the best possible return on their investments. If a disaster strikes in the north of country where food is available in the south, it’s purchased there. If that’s not an option, another close source is found. The food gets there faster, it costs less, more lives are saved, and an investment has been made in local agriculture that’s proven to reduce the risk of future famine in the region. Buying local makes sense.

Congress has an opportunity to expand the local and regional purchasing of food aid this spring. The US Senate has already taken the first steps to make this possible in the draft 2012 Farm Bill. Click here to learn more and add your voice to the thousands asking Congress to buy local.

Fixing food aid is just one part of Oxfam America’s GROW campaign to build a better food system. Nearly one billion, or one in seven, people are hungry because of unjust distribution of land, water, and trading opportunities. The situation will worsen as population grows to nine billion by 2050. We urgently need a food system that sustainably feeds a growing population and empowers poor people to earn a living, feed their families, and thrive.

You can make a difference with Oxfam America. As a leading international poverty relief and development organization working in over 90 countries, our mission is to create lasting solutions to poverty and injustice. There are opportunities to get involved on our website or on the ground doing grassroots advocacy with Oxfam Action Corps Chicago.

Working with partner organizations and individuals like you around the world, we will GROW a fair food system for today and tomorrow.

Tags: Chicago, food, food aid, food justice, Green, Green Festival, grow campaign, local food, poverty

Sow seeds, not greed: Farmers gather on Wall Street

Dec 7

Posted by 7star.wwwmaster@gmail.com in News | Comments off

“It’s been a long time since farmers congregated in downtown Manhattan — around 350 years, to be exact. The folks who populate Wall Street and rural America don’t cross paths much these days. It’s easy to forget that Wall Street used to be rural America; in 1644, the area contained so many cows that the Dutch colonists had to erect a cattle guard to keep them from straying. Livestock farmers literally established the boundaries of Wall Street.

Today, the bronze bull — that icon of the OWS movement — is the lone farm animal you’ll find in the financial district. And the barricades are back, but only to keep Zuccotti Park’s mic checkers in check. That surprisingly fertile concrete plaza has yielded a bumper crop of grassroots activists, to the discomfort of (most of) the 1% and the shills who bill them. But the voices of farmers — a.k.a. the 1% that grows the food that 100% of us eat — have been largely missing from this movement to reclaim our democracy, despite the fact that food has become a commodity that enriches a few at the expense of the many.

That all changed this past Sunday, though, when a group of farmers from around the country marched to Zuccotti Park accompanied by their allies: food justice activists, community gardeners, and other advocates for a more equitable, ecologically sound, re-localized food system.

The march, organized by Occupy Wall Street’s food justice committee and Food Democracy Now, began with a rally at La Plaza Cultural Community Garden in the East Village, where hundreds of folks gathered to hear fiddlers and drummers give the event a festive kickoff, followed by a panel of urban and rural farmers.”

Sow seeds, not greed: Farmers gather on Wall Street Via Kerry Trueman – Grist

Tags: agriculture, economy, farmers, food, food justice, Green, Green Festival, LA, Los Angeles, New York, occupy, occupy wall street, OWS, rural, wall street, zuccotti park