Access to Healthy Food in Los Angeles

MEDIA ADVISORY

Contact:    Andrea Azuma, Manager of Food Access Programs
                Center for Food & Justice, UEPI, Occidental College
                323-341-5094 (office)

Project CAFE to Release Detailed Assessment of Food Access in 3 L.A. Neighborhoods and Launch Campaign for More Markets and Healthier Food

Community members who mapped food access and surveyed food stores to speak

When:        Saturday, May 19th at 9:15 am

Where:        Norwood Street Elementary School 
                   2020 Oak Street, Los Angeles 90007

Who:    Esperanza Community Housing Corporation
            Blazer Learning Center
            Healthy School Food Coalition
            Center for Food & Justice, Urban & Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College

Project CAFE – Community Action on Food Environments will officially release the results of an in depth 4-year assessment that documents how difficult it is to access healthy, affordable food in 3 low-income Los Angeles neighborhoods.

Representatives of the project partners and neighborhood volunteers will summarize the results, release a report of project findings, and launch a campaign to attract more food retail establishments and farmers markets and get existing stores to offer more healthy, affordable food.

Project CAFE is a coalition of community-based organizations and residents, researchers, community activists, physicians, and epidemiologists working together to facilitate positive community-driven changes in local nutrition environments in communities that suffer disproportionately from diet-related poor health conditions. The major partners of Project CAFE are the Center for Food & Justice at the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute at Occidental College, Blazer Learning Center, Esperanza Community Housing Corporation, the Healthy School Food Coalition, and research and medical partners at USC and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. 

“Community members in the MacArthur Park, Pico Union and South L.A. areas have walked the streets to map more than 1,000 food retail locations and survey food availability and quality in more than 80 local stores,” said Andrea Azuma, Manager of Project CAFE. “Based on the shocking lack of access to healthy food that was documented, project partners have identified five priority policies and campaigns for improving food access that we will take to the City and to merchants.”

##

Visuals: available visuals include poster-sized maps of store locations in three neighborhoods, photos from store surveys, and exterior shots of a nearby food market.