---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Frank Tamborello <[email protected]> Date: Mon, Sep 17, 2012 at 1:49 PM Subject: food justice news To: [email protected]
*To All Those Interested in Food and Justice... * * * A (usually) weekly update on food issues, promoting access to sufficient, affordable, healthy food ---with a focus on campaigns you can become active in! **** *Follow us *on Twitter @HungerActionLA . Welcome to all the new people on the list: please respond to [email protected] if you wish to use a different e mail or be removed**** ** ** *Monday Sept 17, 2012:* * * *1. Hunger Action LA News * **o ***Good Food Fair Sat. Sept 22* **o ***Monthly Meeting Fri Sept 28: Hunger Action Day in LA Nov 1* **o ***Awards and Dinner Thurs Nov 15* *2. Urge Congress to Save Vital Services and Prevent Poverty: Deadline Sept 19* *3. Charter School Meal Requirement Heads to Governor* *4. State Propositions Of Interest 5. Farm Bill: Urge Congress To Protect Nutrition Programs* *6. More News on Food Security:* **o ***Labor and Hunger* **o ***Hunger and Poverty in the US* **o ***Hunger Around the World* **o ***Healthy Eating in the US*** ** ****** Hunger Action LA News**** ****** ******** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** Check out the *Hunger Action LA website* www.hungeractionla.org for more information:**** ** ** *Hunger Action LA Good Food Fair at St. Marys Church, 961 S Mariposa LA 90006, Saturday Sept 22 10 am-3 pm*, will be held in the parking lot which is actually on Normandie in back of the church. **** Food demos and food for lunch include dishes by local Koreatown parents, Community Services Unlimited, Maggies Tapas, Food Not Bombs, and SEE-LA. Smoothie bike, clowns, jumper, and piñatas for kids.**** Special presentations:**** **· **Meeting at 10 am to plan on new childrens garden on Mariposa, open to anyone with ideas!**** **· **Screening of USC student film Buen Provecho about food swamps , (you can check it out on Vimeo here: http://vimeo.com/47783539.)** ** **· **Training on Prop 37 (to label genetically engineered foods) ** ** **· **Briefing and materials on Deferred Action For Child Arrivals (the dream kids). **** **· **Oaxacan Dance Group performs!**** **· **People can apply for CalFresh and MediCal at the event, with the CalFresh enrollment team from LA Regional Food Bank and MCH Access. **** **· **DPSS is also providing a Korean translator as well as Spanish translation for all events**** **· **Voter registration**** Free and open to the public.**** ** ** *HALA Monthly Meeting Friday Sept 28, LAANE 464 S Lucas. 10 am-12 noon*. Planning for this years Hunger Action Day in LA event for Nov. 1, focusing on poverty and the criminalization of certain types of growing, selling and distribution of food. Also well hear from volunteers on the campaign for Prop 37 to require labeling of genetically modified foods. Free and open to the public. RSVP to [email protected] **** ** ** *Hunger Action LA will celebrate Champions Against Hunger and Poverty at their annual dinner on Thursday November 15, 2012 at Kavar. *Funds raised from this event will go towards the support of training and advocacy for the community on nutrition, food issues and policies; to support the publication of The Peoples Guide; and to support bonus food vouchers for low income consumers through the Market Match program at 8 Farmers Markets.* * *Purchase tickets now at http://hungeractionladinner.eventbrite.com/ * If you would like to become a sponsor, or to purchase an ad space in the program, please contact Ivette Vivanco at [email protected] . Your donation is tax deductible. Tax ID #: 20-5142259**** Valet Parking will be available.This promises to be a really fun event! We will celebrate the advocates fighting poverty all over the county, make new friends and see old friends. If youve been to any HALA events you know we dont do them quite the same as anyone else----come have a good time with us!**** *Purchase tickets now at http://hungeractionladinner.eventbrite.com/ * ** ** *The Market Match Program* is helping boost buying power for seniors and low income families at farmers markets across LA County including Adams/Vermont, East Hollywood, East LA, Gardena, Huntington Park, Long Beach Downtown, Mar Vista, Monterey Park , Santa Monica, and Valinda. In October we will add two additional markets in Long Beach as well as Altadena. CalFresh, WIC and SSI participants get $5 to spend at the market. More information : www.hungeractionla.org see Market Match at top of website.**** **[image: Text Box: Legislation]**** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** *2. Urge Congress to Save Vital Services and Prevent Poverty: Deadline Sept 19* ** ** *(From Jessica Bartholow, Western Center on Law and Poverty): *The Coalition on Human Needs is circulating a sign-on letter urging Congress to SAVE vital services and prevent rising poverty. We hope you will sign on and forward to your networks. *The deadline for signatures is Wednesday, September 19.*Click here to read the letter. **** http://www.chn.org/pdf/2012/SAVESignOnLetter2012.pdf **** Click here to sign the letter. http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/125/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=11357 **** There are millions of reasons to sign this letter. Here are some pretty important ones:**** 750,000 fewer infants, toddlers, and moms receiving WIC. **** 1.5 million fewer low-income people provided anti-poverty help by community action agencies. **** More than 460,000 adults and youth will lose employment/training services, including 51,000 veterans. **** 734,000 fewer households with home heating/cooling assistance. **** 1.8 million fewer low-income schoolchildren with reading and math help. **** 185,000 fewer low-income households will receive rental vouchers.**** **** All these and more vulnerable people will lose vital services if Congress allows automatic cuts to kick in starting in January. At the same time, Pentagon cutbacks are scheduled. And Congress has to decide whether to let all the Bush-era tax cuts expire, let just the extra breaks for the top 2 percent expire, or extend all of them. **** ** ** *3. Charter School Meal Requirement Heads to Governor* AB 1594 would extend the needy-student meal requirement to California charter schools ensuring that all low-income public school students have access to affordable meals. In May, 400 advocates rallied at the state Capitol and educated their legislators on this bill. Currently charter schools arent required to provide any food whatsoever to students.**** AB 1594 is now headed to the Governor. He must sign or veto legislation by September 30. Give him a call at 916 445 2841 to ask for signature of AB 1594. View a sample letter here from our colleagues California Food Policy Advocates, who sponsored the bill:**** http://cfpa.net/ChildNutrition/ChildNutrition_Legislation/AB1594-CFPAGovSupportLtr-2012.pdf **** *4. State Propositions Of Interest: *** * * *Proposition 30 : *Raises 1% on households making $500,000 or more per year and 2% on households making $600,000 or more per year and 3 % on households making $1,000,000 or more. Funds raised will go to K-12 and community colleges. This will also free up funding that can pay for child care, health care, and other social services. By funding education, $5 ½ billion general fund dollars are freed. Sales tax is raised by ¼ of a cent for 4 years. Prop 30 is the first step to investing in Californias families -- our future. Our families cant succeed unless our schools have teachers, colleges are affordable, libraries stay open, and neighborhoods stay safe.**** * * http://www.reclaimcaliforniasfuture.org/ **** * * *Proposition 37 :* Proposition 37 is a common-sense November ballot measure that will help consumers make informed choices about the food they eat. Written with broad input from food groups, industry, science, legal and health experts Prop. 37 (The California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act) requires clear labels letting consumers know if foods are genetically modified. We already have food labels showing nutrition, allergy information and other facts consumers want to know. This measure simply adds information telling us if food is produced using genetic engineering.**** ** ** http://www.carighttoknow.org/ **** *5. Farm Bill: Urge Congress To Protect Nutrition Programs* The Farm Bill has about seven working days in Congress to be passed. It will likely not pass, and thats not necessarily a bad thing. While the Senate passed a Farm Bill reducing (or, apparently reducing) many of the corporate giveaways in farm subsidies, it also had $5 billion in cuts to SNAP (food stamps). The House of Representatives, after contentious negotiations, has been unable to get a Farm Bill onto the floor for a vote. This has created anxiety among farmers suffering from the drought, but they will likely get assistance even if a new Farm Bill doesnt pass. But notably, the House proposal for the Farm Bill had $16 billion in cuts to SNAP---far more than the Senate version. And yet, that was the COMPROMISE number the House Republicans came up with!**** Any Farm Bill passed hastily before the end of September will likely include vast cuts to SNAP.**** If the Farm Bill doesnt pass, there will likely be an extension of the current bill for a year, or a reversion to a 1949 version of the law. In either case, SNAP would be funded as usualuntil next years budget negotiations, Farm Bill negotiations, or Ag Appropriations fight.**** In the meantime, the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) and other groups are encouraging people to contact their Representatives and urge them to support and protect nutrition programs in the farm bill. House Democrats including Rep George Miller (D-CA)have sponsored Resolution 760, a Sense of the House Resolution opposing SNAP cuts. *Please ask your Representative to co-sponsor House Resolution 760.* You can view the House Resolution 760 PDF <http://www.frac.org/pdf/HR_760_McGovern.pdf> and the the current list of co-sponsors PDF<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5118/p/salsa/web/common/public/content?content_item_KEY=10375> **** **[image: Text Box: More news on food security]**** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** *Labor and Hunger:* * * *WalMart Warehouse Workers Pilgrimage :* 50 workers each day are walking off the job at warehouses in the Inland Empire that supply WalMart and marching to LA. Theyre carrying a letter appealing to the retail giant to help them improve conditions at the warehouses that contract with WalMart. Conditions faced by workers include: forced to work in 120 degree heat without a fan, that the heat and pollutants make the workers vomit and get bloody noses, and that workers are made to work without clean water or regular breaks and with faulty, dangerous equipment. **** http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/13/walmart-warehouse-workers-pilgrimage-photos_n_1881306.html?utm_hp_ref=los-angeles **** ** ** *Poverty in the US: * ** ** *Gordon Ramsay conundrum:* Columnist Nina Burleigh writes on the paradox of the explosion of celebrity chef reality TV shows and food porn at a time when more Americans are hungry than ever:**** http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-burleigh-celebrity-chef-hunger-gordon-ramsay-20120916,0,338299.story **** ** ** *Can You Survive on $4 of Food a Day?: *SNAP challenges---eating on a food stamp budget of $4 a day---have been around at least five years, but theyre still an effective way of really showing armchair theorists and professional TV pundits what poverty is like:**** http://www.tucsonweekly.com/TheRange/archives/2012/09/14/can-you-survive-on-4-of-food-a-day **** ** ** *Hunger and Poverty Around the World:* * * *Poverty Down, but Inequality and Hunger Up?:* Frances Moore Lappe shows how the World Bank has used funny math to claim that poverty is down.**** http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/frances-moore-lappe/poverty-down-inequality-up_b_1878850.html **** * * *Food Justice for Women in India:* Kiran Sharma, PhD student in India, points out the gender disparities in poverty and hunger in the developing world:**** http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/NI13Df04.html**** ** ** *Some African Farmers Adapting to Extreme Climate Change:* Farmers of small plots have adopted practices based on long held knowledge, such as planting trees on their land and rotating crops, to deal with drought conditions exacerbated by climate change. The downside is that farmers struggling with their own hunger have the least flexibility in adopting new methods:**** http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/07/study-finds-some-african-farmers-shifting-practices-to-withstand-climate-stresses/?partner=rss&emc=rss **** ** ** *World Hunger, the Problem Left Behind:* An economist argues that the U.S. should put a higher priority on food issues, and also stop subsidizing ethanol production to help stop the rise of food prices affecting not just us, but the whole world: **** http://mobile.nytimes.com/2012/09/16/business/world-hunger-the-problem-left-behind-economic-view.xml **** ** ** *Healthy Eating in the US:* ** ** *New York City bans humongous drinks:* We used to call em bladder-busters. **** http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-soda-ban-20120914,0,7620611.story **** *New Yorks soda limits could boost similar efforts in California:* http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2012/09/california-soda-limits-new-york.html **** ** ** *Kids Eating Too Much Dang Salt:* Researchers at Center for Disease Control found that 15% of kids surveyed had high blood pressue from eating 1000 mg too much of salt per day. The article also links to a list of the major foods contributing to a high sodium diet, including salty snacks, saucy meat and pasta dishes, cheese, sandwiches, canned soup, chicken and surprisingly bread:**** http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-57514239-10391704/kids-eat-too-much-salt-and-its-raising-their-blood-pressure-cdc-study-finds/ **** ************************************* ** ** Frank Tamborello**** Hunger Action Los Angeles**** 961 S. Mariposa #205**** Los Angeles CA 90006**** 213-388-8228**** [email protected]**** ** ** ** ** ** ** Frank Tamborello**** Hunger Action Los Angeles**** 961 S. Mariposa #205**** Los Angeles CA 90006**** 213-388-8228**** [email protected]**** [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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