While there are endless opinions as to what ingredients make up the perfect recipe for a sustainable community, there's at least one component that seems impossible to ignore: food. Healthy food, that is. Yet for the residents of West Oakland, CA, that is precisely what they have been missing for so long. For a community of approximately 30,000 people, there are are over 50 liquor stores and convenience shops, but until recently, no grocery stores. Without a car or easy access to reliable public transportation, the presence of (largely overpriced) health food stores in other parts of town may not actually be as close as they seem. The result has been that West Oakland bears some of the highest percentages in the country for hunger, malnutrition, diabetes, and other chronic health diseases - all of which contribute to greater health care costs and poverty (and so the cycle perpetuates itself). Clearly, it's not a system capable of being sustained for long.
That's why activists in the food justice movement - which seeks to make high-quality, healthy food readily accessible to all people, regardless of race or socioeconomic status - have staked a claim in this community to provide the sustenance that has been so sorely lacking. Organizations such as the People's Grocery and Mandela Foods Co-op are bringing fresh, local, organically-grown produce into West Oakland, and their impact has been felt immediately. Below are two short films highlighting these projects and the people driving their courageous efforts.
