LAFPC Quarterly Newsletter

August 2013

"Healthy Foods, Healthy Businesses" Storeowner Training

Saturday, September 7, 2013

REGISTER TODAY! LAFPC's Healthy Neighborhood Market Network training for neighborhood market operators is almost here! The "Healthy Foods, Healthy Businesses" training on Saturday, September 7, 2013, will be held at LA Trade Tech College from 9AM - 5PM. This event will be accessible in English, Spanish and Korean.

This special full-day training is designed to provide independent store owners and their staff with the skills and resources needed to successfully introduce healthy food items at their stores. Intensive workshop sessions will connect store owners with industry experts who will present strategies for growing your business, effective marketing, and handling fresh produce. At the end of this newsletter, be sure to check out the interview with Brad Min, manager of Supermercado Latino, who participated in previous trainings to improve his store, and is an active member of the Healthy Neighborhood Market Network.

This event is FREE for market owners, managers and staff, as well as nonprofit organizations and students. Free lunch will also be provided to those who register for the event. TO REGISTER and for more event details, please visit http://neighborhoodmarkets2013.eventbrite.com/, email healthymarkets@goodfoodla.org or call (323) 452-3890. This event is part of LAFPC's Healthy Neighborhood Markets Network and Community Market Conversion program.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!

Get involved, and you can help us make the "Healthy Foods, Healthy Businesses" training on Saturday, 9/7/13 a terrific success! If you would like to volunteer on the day-of for jobs such as set-up and registration, please email Anisha Hingorani at ahingorani@goodfoodla.org.

Invite your local market owner — Help us get the word out! Please print out the training flyers below and share the information about the September 7th training with YOUR local market. Be sure to let them know you care about healthy food options.
Market Training Flyer - English & Spanish
Market Training Flyer - English & Korean

Bilingual volunteers needed (Spanish or Korean) — The "Healthy Foods, Healthy Businesses" neighborhood market training is designed to be accessible in several languages. We are looking for Language Resource Volunteers who speak Spanish and/or Korean to make sure everyone gets where they need to go! Time commitment will include 9AM-5PM at the Saturday, September 7th training, as well as a Volunteer Orientation via telephone conference call on Tuesday, September 3 at 5:00pm. Note that shorter volunteer shifts may be available if you are unable to come for the entire day on 9/7/13. Please contact Esther Park at epark@goodfoodla.org if you are interested.

CALLING ALL LOCAL FOOD VENDORS!

Do you have an amazingly healthy, local food product that you'd like to demo at the "Healthy Foods, Healthy Businesses" training to generate interest among local retailers? We're opening up the space to food entrepreneurs who would like to educate retailers about their healthy food products. If interested, please email Clare Fox at cfox@goodfoodla.org.

SAVE THE DATE!

Food Day - Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Food Day is a nationwide celebration and a movement for healthy, affordable, and sustainable food. This year LAFPC plans to celebrate at City Hall on the morning of Wednesday, October 23, 2013. Some of the exciting activities we have planned include:

We hope that you and your colleagues can join us! Please stay tuned for more details. Exact times and location will be announced in September.

Welcome to Mayor Eric Garcetti!

Welcome to our new Mayor, Eric Garcetti! During his election campaign earlier this year, Garcetti shared some of his thoughts on food policy with LAFPC. One highlight: "I support the LA Food Policy Council and other community-­based organizations and networks that are advocating for better food for all Angelenos." Consistent with his campaign statement, Mayor Garcetti is continuing support of The Los Angeles Food Policy Council and has designated Alejandra Marroquin as our liaison. We look forward to working together with the Garcetti administration to strengthen the L.A. regional food system for all Angelenos. Click here to read more of Mayor Garcetti’s statements on food policy priorities!

City of LA Temporarily Suspends Citations for Edible Parkways

On Tuesday, 8/13/13, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to support a motion that would temporarily suspend enforcement of edible parkway citations while the City continues to work with departments on increasing access to food production. More than 25 community stakeholders and organizations were in attendance, including representatives from LA Green Grounds, the Urban Ag Working Group, Farmscape, the LA Community Garden Council, Root Down LA, Los Angeles Community Action Network, Hunger Action Los Angeles, the Wynbrandt Farm, Community Health Councils, St. Johns Well Child & Family Center. Afterwards, several Councilmembers stood up and affirmed their support for urban agriculture, green spaces & community building.

"Cultivate LA" Assesses Urban Agriculture in L.A. County

Before a packed house at the LAFPC Network Meeting on 8/15/13, graduate students from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs presented their client project, "Cultivate LA," which assesses the state of urban agriculture in LA County for the UC Cooperative Extension.

By analyzing mountains of public data, zoning information, municipal codes and maps, the researchers were able to quantify several aspects of local urban agriculture that were previously unknown or unverified. One of the highlights of their project was the creation of an enlightening interactive map that pinpoints the locations of 1,261 urban agriculture sites in Los Angeles (including school gardens, community gardens, farms and nurseries).

Cultivate LA's report also put forth a number of recommendations to help guide policy change and strategic planning for the future. One of Cultivate LA's key findings was that the definitions for agricultural activities in municipal codes vary widely throughout LA County, thus making it difficult — if not impossible — for urban farmers to operate in compliance with local health and zoning regulations.

For more information about Cultivate Los Angeles, please check out this article by the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and be sure to visit Cultivate LA's website.

Petition to Legalize Street Food Vending

Did you know that in the City of Los Angeles it is illegal to sell food on the sidewalks? The Los Angeles Street Vendor Campaign is an initiative to legalize food vending on Los Angeles' city sidewalks. The campaign is driven by a city-wide coalition of organizations who are committed to developing a system that gives micro-entrepreneurs an opportunity to make an honest living, encourages healthy eating, and supports existing small businesses in communities all over Los Angeles. In fact, a coalition of community groups recently held a "Twitter party" to raise awareness and discuss the future of street food vending in Los Angeles.

If you support legal street food vending, then let your voice be heard by signing this online petition! Street food vending petition. Find printable versions of the petition at www.streetvendorsforla.org

LAFPC is also recruiting volunteers to help survey small businesses in Los Angeles about legalizing sidewalk food vending. To find out about our next volunteer training and canvassing outing, please email Clare Fox at cfox@goodfoodla.org.

Tell us a little bit about your store.

My uncle, Seung Hwan Koo, is the owner of Supermercado Latino. He has been operating the store for 13 years now. As manager of the market I have been working here for 7 years. I am originally from Vancouver. I had to start from scratch, with no business background when I came to Supermercado Latino, but actually it is exciting to be learning new things on the job.

How would you describe your business, and its role in the community?

Our role is to provide healthier food to the community, at good prices. It’s what the Community Market Conversion program encourages to happen at other neighborhood stores.

What do you see in the future for Supermercado Latino?

My uncle's vision is to expand the store to multiple locations in Los Angeles. Other than that long term goal, what I want to see is a fresh and clean market with good graphic design.

What would you say are the strengths of your market?

Our biggest strength is customer service. Most of our customers are locals who we’ve known for years. They are loyal to us because they know we are not about the money. We are also able to provide more variety of healthy foods than other local stores. But what makes us competitive as a business is our reputation. We pay our employees well, we don’t sell alcohol or tobacco, and we work hard to offer fresh, affordable, healthy food. We follow the law and try to love our neighbors through our business. We may not be as financially profitable as we could be, but the way we do it works for us. It is possible.