It’s a Plan! ALL IN Eats Business Plan
In less than a year, ALL IN Eats has grown rapidly – involving hundreds of community members and county leaders – acquiring land for farming, establishing a Black Farmer program, creating employment and entrepreneurial opportunities, increasing food security, delivering nutritious produce and meals countywide, expanding food recovery, exploring locations for new Food Hubs, and supporting Recipe4Health (Food as Medicine).
Please join us for a briefing and discussion on our first ALL IN Eats Business Plan at the Working Group meeting on Thursday, October 28.
The plan is intended as an articulation of how we will move forward to build a new and equitable food economy. It was presented to the All in Steering Committee and All in Eats Executive Team earlier this month.
Dig Deep Farm Leaders Featured at the Annual Integrated Medicine for the Underserved Conference
Troy Horton and Sasha Shankar, Urban Farmers, Educators and Organizers
Troy Horton and Sasha Shankar Co-Farm Directors at Dig Deep Farms; regenerative farmers and educators were presenters along with Dr. Steven Chen, Medical Director of ALL IN Recipe4Health in a workshop on Food as Medicine: Re-imagining Food, Healthcare, and Land During COVID-19 last month.
The panel discussed implementing food as medicine programs during the pandemic and the connection between regenerative agriculture, produce prescriptions and group medical visits in improving population health and creating a circular food economy.
Member Spotlight: Alameda County StopWaste. Wait! Don’t toss that!
StopWaste is a public agency in Alameda County dedicated to advancing environmental sustainability by helping residents, businesses, schools, and local jurisdictions prevent waste, save energy and water, and take action to increase community resilience to climate change.
Vision
Our long-term vision is that Alameda County is a model for a healthy, thriving community that is resilient to climate change, and people are empowered to use resources and energy in a way that is good for their communities, our local economy, and the planet. Our services include technical assistance, grant funding, community engagement, public outreach campaigns, energy incentive programs, and ordinance enforcement.
Castro Valley High School students hold a Stop Food Waste campaign banner at a sustainability dinner
Reducing Food Waste
Food represents the largest component of what gets sent to landfills in most communities, including Alameda County. Given the impact that wasted food has on our environment and communities, prioritizing upstream food waste prevention and recovery (donation) is central to our work. We help to ensure that we’re not only keeping food out of the landfill but partnering with community organizations so that edible surplus food goes to people who need it, supporting a commercial and residential composting program to ensure that organics are turned into clean compost, and a system where local farmers have access to compost to build healthy soil and grow nutritious food.
The Stop Food Waste media and outreach campaign, offers easy tips to reduce wasted food at home by planning, storing, eating, and composting. Our schools program engages students and their families through action projects and activities in the class room around food waste reduction as well as proper sorting of organics at school and at home.
Grants
Since 2012, our grants program has supported community organizations committed to preventing and recovering wasted food. We’ve offered over $700,000 in funding to over 50 organizations, which in turn have delivered more than 13.5 million meals to people in Alameda County. We’re piloting grants that support community-based organizations working to facilitate a community food system.
Berkeley Food Network staff prepare individual portions of nutritious meals from recovered food.
Policy
One of our biggest priorities is supporting cities with a sweeping new law, SB 1383, designed to reduce methane gas emissions through diversion of organic material away from landfills and into compost facilities. In addition to outreach and enforcement support, we are playing a key role in connecting grocery stores and large restaurants with food recovery organizations and services and coordinating capacity planning.
Strengthening the Circular Food Economy
Bringing all the community stakeholders together is key to building a healthy, circular food system. In 2012, we brought together the first Alameda County Food Recovery Network (ACFRN), which now represents over 30 organizations from food banks and community-based organizations to faith-based groups. ACFRN provides a forum for food recovery organizations and jurisdiction staff to collaborate on planning and implementation for the state’s first food donation law while also recognizing and uplifting the vital work of participating organizations addressing food insecurity and longer-term food system change in Alameda County. We’re excited about this group’s potential to provide a bridge to All In Eats Circular Food Economy work.
Visit our website for more information or contact Cassie Bartholomew cbartholomew@stopwaste.org with any questions.
Justice for Black Farmers 10/28, 12:30PM
Justice for Black Farmers: A Conversation to Uproot Racist Policy and Plant Seeds of Redress - Berkeley Food Institute
The introduction of the Justice for Black Farmers Act in 2020 and the Emergency Relief for Farmers of Color Act of 2021 was the first time many Americans learned about the historical and ongoing discrimination against farmers of African descent by local farm service agencies and private entities like banks. Yet, it was only the latest chapter in the long saga of anti-Black racism in American farming.
Join a panel of legacy farmers, critical race scholars, and a civil rights lawyer to learn about the grave injustices of the 1999 Pigford v. Glickman class action racial discrimination lawsuit, recent actions by the Biden Administration and Congress to rectify these wrongs, and what you can do to support a more fair and democratic farming system in the United States.
For more information and to register, click the link above.
Food Hubs in the News
A low-cost commercial kitchen is in the works for East Oakland
The City Council voted to accept a $100,000 donation from Google last Tuesday for commercial cooking equiptment at Arroyo Viejo Recreation Center in East Oakland, bringing the community one step closer to a Food Hub. ALL IN Eats is exploring ways to be supportive and partner.
Unheard of: Food Finders rescued 17 million pounds of food last year
https://lbpost.com/news/unheard-of-food-finders-rescued-17-million-pounds-of-food-last-year
Combating food insecurity and food waste across Long Beach is not an easy feat, but Los Alamitos-based nonprofit Food Finders is taking on the challenge with its latest initiatives.
Friendly Reminders
Partnerships:
If you have not already done so, please review the Partnership Agreement and sign up.
ALL IN Eats Working Group Partnership Agreement
Partnership sign up
Farmers:
Farmer collective interest form https://forms.gle/6mMFQUR2YkT17MHG7
Multiple pathways for farmers to get involved and benefit
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