<!-- Alternate content for non-supporting browsers --> <div id="pic-container" name="pic-container" style="float:right; width:310;height:225; text-align:right;background-color: white;"><img id="pic-rotate" name="pic-rotate" src="/news/newsletter/images/issue49/49-0.jpg" border="1" width="300" height="200" alt="A City of Villages" title="A City of Villages" /> <div id="pic-title" name="pic-title" style="float:right; margin: 0; padding: 0;"><font size="-2">A City of Villages </font></div></div><script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">var pic_sel= new Array(); pic_sel[0] = new Image(); pic_sel[0].src='/news/newsletter/images/issue49/49-0.jpg'; pic_sel[0].alt='A City of Villages'; var picnumb= 1; </script><font face='verdana,helvetica'> <i><b>A City of Villages : March 2010 “City of Villages” Newsletter</b> <br />Oakland Food Connection<b> <p>OFC, Springing into ACTION!</b></i> <p>March 2010 “City of Villages” Newsletter </p> <p> 1. Founder’s Letter </p> <p> 2. Program Highlight: Oakland Community Farmers Market & Oakland LOCAL News </p> <p> 3. OFC Board Expansion </p> <p> 4. March Volunteer Opportunities </p> <p> _________________________________________________ </p> <br /> <p> 1. A note from OFC’s founder: </p> <p> Greetings friends! </p> <p> Thank you for continually supporting OFC’s programs and mission. I am honored by your commitment to seeing food justice actualize and expand in East Oakland. Every day, I am completely amazed at how each of you uncover and shift amazing opportunities to OFC. Through your generous financial contributions, forwarding our emails, making phone calls to local foundations on our behalf, and forwarding our emails on to friends and family members, OFC is now in its 5th year of existence and on the radar of many communities throughout the Bay Area. It is because of your support, I feel very confident in deepening our commitment to East Oakland by spreading our programming 2 new schools by the Fall of 2010. </p> <p> In low-income communities of color throughout East Oakland, one is more likely to find a bag of hot Cheetos than a fresh apple in the hands of our youth. In order to create real change in Oakland’s food system, we aim to reach more youth with our message. Through OFC, we are currently able to reach 300-500 youth each in the classroom. Along with the support of our staff and tens of volunteers, we are able share valuable information with our youth participants about what is going on with our food, how it is produced, and how all of this affects the health of our community. Many of our student participants are greatly affected by family members who suffer from preventable diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Sometimes our students are unable to be fully present in the classroom because they worry so much about the health of loved ones or the difficulties they face at home. Youth participants, such as David and Daytra from E.C. Reems Academy, are eager to do something about the health tragedies they face each day. For them, learning how to prepare and distribute healthy meals to people in their community is way for them to emerge as problem-solving leaders committed to changing the health of their community. </p> <p> I invite you to join us in our 5th year of growing our food justice movement in East Oakland. We have a number of activities in store such as volunteer work days, fundraisers, food parties and more. Check out our monthly newsletter, and sign up to volunteer for an OFC event or two that speaks to you. I also encourage you to reflect on how you can support us a monthly financial contribution to help keep OFC going in 2010. $25 per month, for instance, will allow us to provide one stipend for our youth participants or to keep our phone bill paid. </p> <p> As many organizations face the hard challenges of budget cutbacks while struggling to keep their services available to community members, OFC also faces the same challenge. With your support, we will be able to keep our doors open as we prepare to expand our programming to serving 200-400 more youth and community members in East Oakland. </p> <p> As always, I look forward to working with you MORE in supporting OFC’s vision through 2010 and BEYOND! </p> <p> Jason A. Harvey <br /> Exec. Dir/Founder <br /> Oakland Food Connection </p> <p> _________________________________________________ </p> <p> 2.Program Highlight: </p> <p> Operating year-round, every Saturday, from 10am - 2pm, the Oakland Community Farmers Market is East Oakland’s newest destination for farm fresh food. Located at 4173 Mac Arthur Blvd, the Oakland Community Farmers Market is a community program of OFC, featuring farm fresh food from local farmers and artisans: J&P Organics, Wingwalkers Bakery, The Purple Lawn Cafe and others intermittently. The farmers market weekly serves as a cultural gathering space, destination for local foodies, and as an educational space for youth leaders and entrepreneurs. OCFM also serves as outreach vehicle for emerging businesses, nonprofits and artists who seek to spread their work and talents in the community. </p> <p> On Saturday March 6th, OCFM will feature its first FRUIT farmer, Johann, of Hidden Star Orchards. Traveling all the way from the Sierra Nevada Foothills, Johann is very enthusiastic about supporting youth entrepreneurs, celebrating local foods and creating pathways for young people to emerge into farming through hands-on experiences. Each week they will offer seasonal fruits such as strawberries, blueberries, apples, oranges, juices, dried fruits and more. Youth from the Laurel neighborhood will take part in managing this new farm stand each week. Come on out to celebrate our monumental community partnership with Hidden Star Orchards at 4173 Mac Arthur Blvd, 10am – 2pm. </p> <br /> <p> Oakland Community Farmers Market featured in Oakland Local: </p> <p> http://oaklandlocal.com/article/2-big-firsts-oakland-community-farmer%E2%80%99s-market-saturday </p> <p> _________________________________________________ </p> <p> 3. OFC welcomes aboard NEW Board Members: </p> <p> We are currently in the process of selecting NEW Board members! A number of community residents have expressed interest in supporting OFC in moving our mission forward. The following residents were selected: <br /> <br /> • Olivia Nava <br /> • Kristin Reynolds <br /> • Annette Haugabook <br /> • Dhameera Ahmad <br /> • Gabriel Avila <br /> • Gerard Priester </p> <p> <br /> Our goal is to have a total of 6-10 board members, who are all active participants in supporting the development of our strategic planning process, fundraising and more. We are scheduled to have our first strategic planning session on March 7th. We’ll spend this time together getting to know each other, assessing OFC’s strengths and weaknesses, narrowing our focus, and plotting out our next steps to further OFC’s vision for creating a healthy food system in East Oakland. </p> <p> _________________________________________________ </p> <p> 4. March Volunteer Opportunities: </p> <p> March, 13th: Gardening at Oakland Unity High School, 6038 Brann St. Volunteers will work with Unity’s teachers and student participants in building a new 200 sq ft garden bed, and amending the spoil in preparation for Spring planting in April. We start at 10am - and end at 2pm. </p> <br /> <p> March, 20th: Gardening with OFC and Bay Localize at E.C. Reems Academy of <br /> Technology and Arts. This school garden is located at 8425 Mac Arthur Blvd, and is the home of East Oakland's first rooftop garden. Volunteers will build garden beds, amend existing soil, haul new compost, and work alongside teachers, parents and youth from E.C. Reems. We’ll play in dirt and have a lot of fun building community together. We start at 10am - and end at 2pm. </p> <br /> <p> March, 22nd & 27th: Backyard gardening at Semillas de Paz with OFC and Students Today, Leaders Tomorrow: Join our “bucket brigade” of volunteers who will set up new garden beds and haul compost in a residential backyard on 64th and Outlook. We start at 10am - and end at 2pm. </p> <br /> <p> NOTE: Anyone who is interested in volunteering should email OFC staff at info@foodcommunityculture.org, letting us know when you plan to show up. We ask that all volunteers fill out a volunteer application through our website: www.foodcommunityculture.org </p> <p> <p> </p></font>
