“Yes, there’s a difference in the stores in our area compared to the stores in (higher-income) Montclair or somewhere else. You know, the vegetables are great up there, everything is so beautiful. And you come down here, and I think we get ours last off the truck.”

That is how one Oakland resident describes the state of healthy food access in their community — one of more than 180 voices that helped create Healthy Food For All: Building Equitable and Sustainable Food Systems in Detroit and Oakland, a new report by PolicyLink, the C.S. Mott Group for Sustainable Food Systems at Michigan State University, and the Fair Food Network.

The report shows clearly that our food system – from farm to table to landfill – is broken, unhealthy, unsustainable, and unjust.

One of the worst symptoms of this broken system is the grocery gap in low-income communities of color: Twenty-six million urban residents live in low-income neighborhoods where there is no supermarket within walking distance.

The report not only highlights residents’ struggles, it also lifts up the successes we’ve seen driven by residents, advocates, and community groups. Promising strategies showcased in the report include:

* Developing or attracting new neighborhood grocery stores
* Expanding local food production through urban farms and community gardens
* Enabling the use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits at farmers’ markets
* Establishing food policy councils
* Linking low-income residents to jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities in food businesses

The movement for equitable access to healthy food is gaining strength every day. Read the report for more ideas on how to ensure better access for all communities.

Daily equity news

“Stimulus cash lifts states, localities,” - USA TODAY

A huge influx of federal stimulus money to state and local governments more than offset a sharp drop in tax collections, helping to put the brakes on the nation’s economic decline, new government data show.

The stimulus funds helped reverse six months of spending declines, pushing state and local government expenditures up 4.8% in the second quarter, reports the Bureau of Economic Analysis. 

“America’s Abandoned Cities,” - Forbes.com

Indeed, the Kansas City metro area tops our list of America’s Abandoned Cities. In Kansas City, rental vacancy rates rose from 11.9% to 15% over the past year; homeowner vacancy rates nearly doubled, up from 2.1% to 3.8%. Comparatively, the average homeowner vacancy rate in the country’s 75 largest metro areas improved slightly from 3% to 2.7%, while the rental vacancy rate edged up to 10.2% from 10% a year ago.

Kansas City isn’t the only metro where rental and homeowner vacancy rates are rising in tandem. Second on our list is the San Francisco-Oakland metro, where high prices are pushing Bay Area residents out of the region. Third is Tucson, Ariz., where the aftermath of the housing boom has left a glut of inventory. The pair’s predicament illustrates both sides of the vacancy coin.

“Where does the healthcare overhaul legislation stand?” -  Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Washington — Amid a flurry of activity on healthcare legislation, the House left Friday for its monthlong summer recess. The Senate will take off at the end of this week. The break comes as Democratic leaders are working to cobble together complex healthcare bills to bring to the floors of each chamber for votes this fall.

Daily equity news

 ”Playgrounds: They’re safer but still can be dangerous,” -  USA TODAY

Playgrounds have come a long way from the asphalt jungle gyms of the 1960s and 1970s.

Monkey bars and hot metal slides have virtually disappeared. They’ve been replaced by colorful plastic castles with guardrails and ramps and rounded edges. And instead of blacktop and concrete, many new playgrounds are covered with soft wood mulch or springy rubber chips made from recycled tires.

Yet in spite of these improvements, many playgrounds still fall short on safety, experts say.

“Stimulus Law Bolsters Food Bank Offerings,” -  The New York Times

Struggling to meet a demand for food that spiked with the unemployment rate, some food pantries have had to turn away people seeking help. Others are packing a little less food into each shopping bag they give out. But recently the nation’s food banks received a $100 million windfall of extra food, as part of the federal stimulus law.

The grant is a big boost for the food bank program, which usually gets $250 million a year from Washington, and the amount of food it can buy seems supersize, even for a field that routinely measures servings by the millions of pounds.

 ”Bay Area entrepreneur makes plans to open eco-friendly building-supply stores,” - Contra Costa Times

Bay Area entrepreneur aims to square off against big-box hardware stores — and buck a sour economy in the process — by offering green construction materials to builders of all sizes.

San Rafael-based New Home Inc. is planning to open a chain of building-materials stores, including some in the East Bay, that will cater to builders who want to be completely eco-friendly in their construction projects.

Daily equity news

“Tips can help the poor bridge grocery gap,” - The Fresno Bee
Ways to make life’s staples affordable

Maria Valencia of Strathmore stands in a long line twice a month to get free fruits and vegetables. Then she packs them in a baby stroller and rolls them to her home several blocks away.

The produce giveaway by FoodLink, a nonprofit food bank in Tulare County, is one of the ways organizations are trying to bridge the grocery gap for thousands of low-income people in the central San Joaquin Valley.

“Cost of treating obese patients soars to $147 billion,” -  USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — Obese Americans — those who are 30 or more pounds over a healthy weight — cost the country an estimated $147 billion in weight-related medical bills in 2008, double what it was a decade ago, a new study shows.

Overall, an obese patient has $4,871 in medical bills a year compared with $3,442 for a patient at a healthy weight.

 ”House OKs money for rail, infrastructure bank,” - Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - High-speed rail projects would receive a $2 billion boost under a bill passed by the House of Representatives on Thursday that also lays the groundwork for a national infrastructure bank.

By a vote of 256-168, the House approved $68.8 billion for transportation and housing projects for the fiscal year starting October 1, a 25 percent increase over 2009 funding levels.

Daily equity news

“Neighborhoods Key to Future Income, Study Finds,” - Washington Post

Researchers have found that being raised in poor neighborhoods plays a major role in explaining why African American children from middle-income families are far more likely than white children to slip down the income ladder as adults.

The Pew Charitable Trusts Economic Mobility Project caused a stir two years ago by reporting that nearly half of African American children born to middle-class parents in the 1950s and ’60s had fallen to a lower economic status as adults, a rate of downward mobility far higher than that for whites.

“Diversity the jewel reflected in Oakland’s lake,” - The San Francisco Chronicle

In Oakland, you just have to say “the Lake.” “Let’s meet at the Lake.” “Let’s walk around the Lake.” Let’s ride bikes, jog, or gossip about our co-workers. Around the Lake.

The Lake is of course Lake Merritt, sometimes described as the jewel of Oakland. While it is a jewel, showing off the city’s rolling green hills, serving as a sanctuary for migrating birds, ringed by the magical Necklace of Lights and now crowned by the breathtaking Cathedral of Christ the Light, it’s more than a jewel. It’s more like the city’s soul. It’s where you can see Oakland in all of her comfortable diversity that doesn’t even notice everyone seems to be from a different racial background.

 ”How a healthcare overhaul could affect you,” - Los Angeles Times
Lawmakers are considering options and costs for currently insured and uninsured Americans

Reporting from Washington — Here are some key questions regarding the effort to overhaul the nation’s healthcare system:

I have health insurance and I’m happy with it. Why does the nation need to overhaul healthcare?

Polls indicate that most Americans are satisfied with their coverage. But the White House and other advocates of overhauling healthcare say people are probably paying more for insurance each year. Premiums for employer-provided plans have risen four times faster than wages, and are now double their cost nine years ago. Deductibles are rising as well. Supporters of the legislation contend that healthcare costs are a drag on the economy.

The Gotham Gazette, a New York news and policy site, teamed up with The Huffington Post for a piece on fresh food availability in New York City.

The article, complete with interactive map, shows a huge disparity between food availability in Manhattan and the outer boroughs.

According to the map, some Manhattan neighborhoods have over 20,000 square feet of supermarket space per 10,000 residents. In a neighborhood like that, all residents could fit into their local supermarkets with two feet of wiggle room. Some neighborhoods have as much as 30,000 square feet per 10,000 residents.

Compare this to neighborhoods in the outer boroughs; the map tells us that Brooklyn’s tenth district has around a third as many square feet per residents as Manhattan’s 10th. That’s around 7000 square feet of supermarket space for 10,000 residents.

But not all of Manhattan has satisfactory fresh food availability;

“I live in the West Harlem area, and it is incredibly difficult to find quality fruits and vegetables,” writes Erin Barker. “It’s a big problem. Even when stores have this stuff, it’s usually not in good shape — bruised or not usable. I think it is more difficult in my neighborhood than it is in wealthier areas of Manhattan that have more upscale grocery stores.”

Check out the article for more, it really puts food access in the NY metro area in perspective.

The city is working on the problem, Gov. Paterson’s office sent out this press release in May.

On the other side of the country, in Oakland, an effort is being made to bring fresh foods to low income neighborhoods, as covered by The San Fransisco Chronicle.

Opened this past June, Mandela Foods Cooperative is located near an affordable housing complex called the Mandela Gateway.

Drawing about 300 customers a day, the new co-op only stocks healthful things, barring products including common ingredients like high fructose corn syrup from their shelves.
They have an interesting business model:

It’s a worker-owned cooperative. Eight local residents are worker-owners who make all the store’s business decisions and perform all its functions - including cashiering, stocking shelves, cleaning, taking inventory and ordering.

One third of the profits will be returned to the community in the form of a credit union next door.

Daily equity news

“Mayor wants to help Oakland food system,” - Oakland Tribune

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums remembers growing up in West Oakland, where there were three fresh-meat markets in the area. These days, the only area grocery store is the recently opened Mandela Foods Cooperative.

Dellums hopes to change that with the help of the Oakland Food Policy Council, something he discussed Thursday at the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service West Coast summit at the Hilton Oakland Airport. The summit, hosted by Roots of Change, focused on how to improve healthy-food access and nutrition for low-income communities.

“Jobless finding new work on farms ,” - USA TODAY

Unemployed workers are seeking jobs in fruit orchards and vegetable fields, easing farm labor shortages in the process.

Farmers who struggled in recent years to find laborers report that former workers who left for higher-paying jobs in industries such as construction are coming back because of layoffs.

“Tragedy inspires Georgia woman to fight childhood obesity,” – CNN

ALBANY, Georgia (CNN) — Pamela Green-Jackson didn’t learn until after her brother’s funeral that doctors had warned him his weight could cost him his life.

Pamela Green-Jackson encourages a student in the Youth Becoming Healthy program.

Daily equity news

“Cities Lose Out on Road Funds From Federal Stimulus,” -  The New York Times

Two-thirds of the country lives in large metropolitan areas, home to the nation’s worst traffic jams and some of its oldest roads and bridges. But cities and their surrounding regions are getting far less than two-thirds of federal transportation stimulus money.

According to an analysis by The New York Times of 5,274 transportation projects approved so far — the most complete look yet at how states plan to spend their stimulus money — the 100 largest metropolitan areas are getting less than half the money from the biggest pot of transportation stimulus money. In many cases, they have lost a tug of war with state lawmakers that urban advocates say could hurt the nation’s economic engines.

“Economic toll of obesity and inactivity exceeds $41 billion in California,” - Oakland Tribune

An overweight man walks the streets of Washington Tuesday, July 22, 2003. The political debate on fat has spilled over into public policy, with proposals for a junk-food tax, limits on food advertising, demands for more details on labeling and lawsuits against food manufacturers. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds) The excess weight and inactive habits of many Californians don’t only exact a personal toll, they’re saddling businesses and taxpayers with more than $41 billion in annual costs, according to a report released today.

“We think mostly about the health implications,” said Harold Goldstein, executive director of the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, speaking of the 59 percent of Californians who are obese or overweight, and the 48 percent who are physically inactive

“Lawmakers, businesses jockey for ‘green’ jobs,” – MSNBC.COM

ELKHART, Ind.— In the empty factories and laid-off workers in this struggling section of the Rust Belt, entrepreneur Wil Cashen sees “unimaginable potential.”

Seeking to capitalize on the trend toward more-energy-efficient vehicles, Cashen has a plan to retrofit pickup trucks with electric motors at several of Elkhart County’s large, dormant manufacturing facilities and sell them to utility companies.

Daily equity news

“Dirt-poor farmer: Living off the land in Oakland, and watching every dollar,” - San Francisco Chronicle

  ”New Rail Lines Spur Urban Revival,” - The New York Times

“Obama Blueprint Deepens Federal Role in Markets,” - Washington Post

This week’s updates on equity news. 

“Poor? Pay Up,” - Associated Press

Having Little Money Often Means No Car, No Washing Machine, No Checking Account And No Break From Fees and High Prices

Prices in urban corner stores are almost always higher, economists say. And sometimes, prices in supermarkets in poorer neighborhoods are higher. Many of these stores charge more because the cost of doing business in some neighborhoods is higher. “First, they are probably paying more on goods because they don’t get the low wholesale price that bigger stores get,” says Bradley R. Schiller, a professor emeritus at American University and the author of “The Economics of Poverty and Discrimination.”

“Fresh food choices coming to West Oakland,” - Oakland Tribune

If James Bell ever doubted during the past three-plus years that the Mandela Foods Cooperative would become a reality, he wasn’t owning up to it Friday.

“I knew it would happen, I just couldn’t say when,” Bell said, pausing between carting in boxes of natural juices and setting up display shelves inside the soon-to-be-opened store on Seventh Street. “The reason I stuck around is I wanted it to happen.”

“Tracking Stimulus Spending May Not Be as Easy as Promised,” - Washington Post

Shortly after the economic stimulus bill was signed, Vice President Biden was talking up the administration’s Web site to track the spending, Recovery.gov, when he accidentally directed people to Recovery.org.

As slip-ups go, this one had an upside: Unlike the government site, the privately run Recovery.org is actually providing detailed information about how the $787 billion in stimulus money is being spent.