Good Food Purchasing Update
On January 26th the Alameda County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the Good Food Purchasing resolution, championed by Supervisor Wilma Chan, to assess how the county's food purchases align with the Good Food Purchasing standards. To kick off this process, The Center for Good Food Purchasing will meet with the staff from the Alameda County Sheriff's Office and Probation Department, and any additional county departments who choose to opt into the Good Food Purchasing Pledge. The kick-off meeting will serve as an orientation before the county embarks on the four key steps in implementation:
- Assess Baseline - Participating departments, with support from the Center for Good Food Purchasing, analyze their food purchasing records to assess how well they align with the Good Food Purchasing standards. This allows the departments to understand their current purchasing and how representative they are of the 5 Good Food Purchasing values-- local economies, nutrition, valued workforce, environmental sustainability, animal welfare.
- Set Goals - Once the departments have a clear picture of their current food purchases, they can explore opportunities to shift purchasing to better align their with the Good Food Purchasing standards.
- Track Progress - Departments will complete an annual assessment of purchases to track progress towards their goals.
- Celebrate Success! - Reflect on collaboration, achievement of goals, and continuing the work with stakeholders.
By working together on this important initiative, Alameda County is one step closer to understanding how well our food purchasing supports a healthy, local, sustainable and fair food supply chain.
 ALL IN Eats Shares a Common Vision with Common Vision
Along with the rest of the world, Common Vision has been walking a path of growth and transformation into the spring of 2021. Our school garden sites are thriving: outdoors, distanced, filled with all kinds of nourishment, they’ve blossomed as hubs of community connection and resilience.
Over the past year, the Hoover Elementary garden especially has been an anchor for our network. It’s helped teachers welcome new families; it’s hosted meetings about the future of garden education in Oakland; it’s been a breath of fresh air for those stuck at home during the pandemic; and in June, it held sacred space for Juneteenth ceremony and celebration, where people of all backgrounds put their hands in the soil and reconnected with the healing we’re all being called to. Good things grow in our gardens, and in the fall we grew a new branch.
In response to community needs, empowered by community connections, we launched a project to recover edible food waste and redistribute it through our garden hubs. Since then, we’ve rescued thousands of pounds of food, and have used it to feed our families, our garden animals, and our soil. Sharing the ALL IN Eats value of Food as Medicine, we’re proud to provide our networks with minimally processed, organic, local, nutrient-dense foods. We’re also coordinating with Essential Food and Medicine, as well as a community-based mutual aid group, to process and distribute food to Alameda County’s houseless encampments. Their work has significantly increased the amount of food we’re able to rescue, and they represent the broader network that is realizing the vision of a thriving community food system. In line with mutual aid principles, the communities most affected by the work are also helping accomplish it. We envision a regional food system rooted in this kind of community ownership, a system where our food shed is governed and operated by the people it nourishes.
To that end, and inspired by the ALL IN Eats vision for a circular food economy in Alameda County, our school gardens are evolving into holistic community food hubs: places where families and neighbors grow, collect, process, distribute, and recover food together. We see these school gardens as ideal places to iterate on the ALL IN Eats Food Hub model. Thanks to the efforts of parents, teachers, and administrators, the school communities are already strong networks of their own, facilitating flow and scaffolding future organizing. There’s also a variety of benefits related to co-location. 92% of children at the schools we focus on receive free or reduced lunches, which means that our sites are already de facto food hubs for a priority population; this allows us to meet people where they are, increasing efficiency and building trust. The gardens supplement distribution, compost food that can’t be redistributed, and act as a gateway for children and families to cultivate deeper, more active relationships with their food. The underutilized kitchens can become processing facilities for garden produce and recovered food.
We’re also growing out our roots as garden educators with an educational video series: MamaWanda’s Garden Show! Join our Executive Director Wanda Stewart and her friends as they share culturally relevant lessons about feeding the Earth and feeding ourselves. (Just search on Facebook or Youtube!)
If you’re interested in connecting with us, please send a message to Wanda Stewart at wandalynnes@gmail.com.
 BOSS and ALL IN Eats: Partnering to Support Second Chances
Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency (BOSS) is an Alameda County nonprofit that is fighting to end mass homelessness, mass incarceration, and community violence – social and economic inequities rooted in racially unbalanced systems.
BOSS serves over 4,500 people a year, at programs located in Berkeley, Oakland, San Leandro, and Hayward, including shelter and housing programs, and Neighborhood Impact Hubs in areas of Oakland hit hardest by decades of disinvestment, redlining, and racially biased policies – East, West, and Downtown. According to BOSS Executive Director Donald Frazier, “Oakland (Hubs) offer neighborhood safety and community healing services, street outreach, violence interruption, intensive outreach and case management, mentorship and peer support services, job readiness training and employment placement, computer training, transportation assistance, rental assistance, warm hand off services, college enrollment assistance and much more, with a focus on healthy behavior outcomes.”
A core part of the BOSS approach is peer mentoring by staff with lived experience – 90% of Impact Hub staff have personal experience with incarceration or justice system involvement: they know what people are going through and how to help them overcome both systemic barriers and internalized feelings of hopelessness so they can transform their lives. Says Donald, “We started offering comprehensive reentry and violence prevention services in 2014, with a grant from the Alameda County Probation Department. The program is set up to accommodate our folks coming in and advancing at different levels. For example, we had a plumber who made a choice and went to prison. When he got out, he was referred to BOSS and was ready for work immediately, he was in a union. He is what we call job ready. Then, there are folks who have some social, emotional and employment readiness challenges that need to be addressed. They may have never had a job before, have been in and out of jail or prison the majority of their life and are homeless. We metaphorically hug these folks tightly and give them all of these little kernels and nuggets from job readiness and cognitive skills trainings to prepare them for the next level, which is transitional work.” Right now BOSS is partnering with ALL IN Eats to support these second chance hiring efforts. BOSS participants have been hired for both urban agriculture in Dig Deep Farms, and as drivers in the ALL IN Eats food redistribution program.
To date eight BOSS clients have been hired, including Patrick Worrell-Facey. Mr. Worrell-Facey obtained employment with Dig Deep Farms as a Food Recovery route driver and while working he has been given time off to attend a six week training to obtain his Class A Truck Driver's license. As a result of his professionalism, ambition and commitment, the Dig Deep Farms management team is looking to promote Mr. Worrell-Facey into a Supervisors role as he exemplifies what a successful reentry process could be, provided the right attitude and support system. Other BOSS participants in the ALL IN Eats partnership are equally excited about the role they are playing in the circular food economy – and having stable employment, so they can care for their families. Says Donald Frazier, “At its core, our program is all about love, respect, and having a sense of safety and belonging. If you have those four things, you have a good foundation.”
 March 24, 2021 Nutrition Training
Nutritionist and herbalist Michelle Steinberg gave a stellar webinar on the new ALL IN Eats Nutrition Standards to local food vendors who cook meals for our community. Michelle dispelled any misinformation about the consumption of healthy fats, comparing vegetables to starches, and most importantly, tailoring meals not only to avoid dietary diseases such as hypertension, but to be creative to incorporate preferences within our diverse community.
In attendance was Rene Lontoc, the owner of Thank Que grill. He very much enjoyed our nutrition training, "The training was great, informative and very helpful... the presentation really helps me to think of different ways to prepare for future meals and new menu items that will meet the ALL IN Eats Nutrition Standards that will cater to those who have dietary needs/restrictions.
Some topics to highlight are:
- Sugar: High consumption of sugar is dangerous! Keep in mind that beets and carrots have lots of sugar, so be mindful!
- Healthy oils: cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, coconut oil (though it may carry environmental risks) and non-GMO oil.
- Proteins: choose lean meat, eggs, poultry, omega-3 fish, or legumes. Avoid processed meats!
- Eat less of the Dirty Dozen and more of the Clean Fifteen!
If you're interested in learning more about nutrition standards, click here!
 ALL IN Eats Working Group Initiatives
Members of the ALL IN Eats Community hold a monthly call to Celebrate our work, Support each other, and See ourselves within an integrated, Circular Food Economy. Together, we're working towards realizing our Vision to build A healthy, nourished, and resilient Alameda County that benefits from a local and sovereign food economy. So far, we've worked on many initiatives, including visiting each other's sites, forming a farm collective, building a policy response system, developing a resource list for food entrepreneurs, completing an asset mapping project, thinking about a fee-based service model for recovered food, and creating a cooperative governance system for our group. Find a quick summary of each breakout room here or watch the whole recording here
 Spanish-Language Cottage Food Operators Webinar
Please share this information about a Spanish-language Cottage Food Operators webinar this Thursday!
La programa de Alimentos Hechos en Casa en Español!
15 de Abril, 6-7:30PM de Noche por El Internet!!
Venda alimentos hechos en su hogar en tiendas locales, mercados comunitarios y directamente a los clientescomo parte del programa Cottage Foods. Aprenda lo que se necesita para convertirse en un negocio de comida cottage en un seminario ofrecido por la Extensión Cooperativa de la Universidad de California de los Condados de Sonoma, Napa y Alameda.
Participación de expertos del:
- Depto. de Servicios de Salud del Condado de Sonoma,
- Depto. de Salud Publica de California
- Centro de Desarrollo de Pequeños Negocios de Napa/Sonoma.
Este seminario gratuito de una hora de duración cubrirá los tipos de alimentos permitidos, los requisitos del programa, el proceso de registro y el inicio de un negocio.
!Jueves 15 de Abril a las 6:00pm de Noche por Zoom!
Para Registrarte visita: www.ucanr.edu/cfosp
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