UEPI News and Commentary

Oxy Goes Green with Professional Wet Clean

For Immediate Release
Contact:  Amanda Shaffer 323-259-2759; cell: 626-818-2348; shaffer@oxy.edu
Elyse Leon-Reyes 323-259-2734; cell: 917-523-2639; eleonreyes@oxy.edu

Oxy Goes Green with Professional Wet Clean

Occidental makes sustainable chic as the first college in the nation to offer professional wet cleaning service to the campus community.

What: Professors and students model clothing that has been professionally wet cleaned by Sunny Brite Natural Cleaners. The fashion show will also highlight garments by green designer Stewart+Brown.
Where: Outside Herrick in the Academic Quad
When: February 12th, 2008 11:30am-1:30pm

 

Fresh & Easy's Environmental and Food Access Commitments

For Release November 6, 2007

Contact:
Amanda Shaffer 323-259-2759; cell: 626-818-2348; shaffer@oxy.edu
Robert Gottlieb 323-259-2712; cell: 310-617-0657; gottlieb@oxy.edu

Report Update evaluates Tesco'€™s progress in locating in food desert areas, and the company'€™s commitment to green building.

LOS ANGELES €“- On November 8, 2007, Tesco, the world'€™s third largest food retail corporation, will open its first six Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Markets in Southern California.  Tesco's entry into the U.S. market raises key food access, health and environmental issues that apply to the supermarket industry as a whole. These sets of issues were evaluated in the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute's August 2007 report, Shopping for a Market: Evaluating Tesco's Entry into Los Angeles and the United States, which can be accessed online at www.uepi.oxy.edu.

Today, UEPI releases an update to Shopping for a Market that addresses two of those issues: the location of stores in food deserts and Tesco'€™s environmental profile regarding the company'€™s plans for green building certification. 

FARM TO SCHOOL PORTAL ON THE MENU FOR NATIONAL SCHOOL LUNCH WEEK

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE       
October 15, 2007                     

Contact: Debra Eschmeyer
Tel: 419.753.3412; Cell: 202.557.6942l deschmeyer[at]oxy.edu

New tool provides innovative approaches to tackle childhood obesity
and loss of family farms 

LOS ANGELES — As a means to support community-based food systems, strengthen family farms, and improve student health by reducing childhood obesity, the National Farm to School Network launched its new and improved website, www.farmtoschool.org. This timely release coincides with National School Lunch Week, October 15-19, 2007.

New Report on 10 Years of California Farm to School

The Center for Food & Justice at Occidental College is pleased to announce the release of a new report on ten years of Farm to School in California.

A Growing Movement: A Decade of Farm to School in California.
By Anupama Joshi and Moira Beery of the Center for Food & Justice at Occidental College

A Growing Movement: A Decade of Farm to School in California is a brand new resource from the California Farm to School Program at the Center for Food & Justice. The farm to school movement began in California more than 10 years ago. This report tells the story of work undertaken by farm to school proponents in California and chronicles the emergence of the program, and the impacts it has had on students, farmers, and communities around the state.

Click here to download the report.

New Farm to Hospital Brochure Released

Farm to Hospital: Supporting Local Agriculture and Improving Health Care

By Moira Beery, Center for Food & Justice, and Kristen Markley, Community Food Security Coalition.

This brochure introduces interested farmers and hospital food service departments to the ins and outs of developing partnerships between hospitals and local farms. Included are examples of ways hospitals can improve the food they offer, issues for farmers to consider if they are interested in selling products to area hospitals, and specific case studies of successful programs.

Download the brochure for free here: http://www.foodsecurity.org/F2H_Brochure.pdf

Please take a very short survey to let us know what you think of this publication  - Click here for online survey.

The Tesco Invasion

August 2, 2007

Contact:
Diana Buckhantz, 323-934-0443, 213-591-1681
Amanda Shaffer, 323- 259-2759, cell 626-818-2348

REPORT ANALYZES GLOBAL FOOD RETAIL GIANT AS IT LANDS IN U.S.

Report Details Tesco’s Promises, Policies, and Past Performance

Consumers, community residents, and policymakers need to question and hold accountable promises made by British food giant Tesco as it prepares to enter the U.S. market, according to a new report, Shopping for a Market, by the Occidental College Urban & Environmental Policy Institute released today.

UEPI Received Grant to extend our Farm to School Program

Oxy Nets $2.34 Million Food Grant

(June  26, 2007)

   

Contact: Andy Faught
(323) 259-2534

Building on previous success in several states, a $2.34 million grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation will make it possible for the Center for Food and Justice at Occidental College to establish and coordinate – in collaboration with the Community Food Security Coalition – the National Farm to School Network. The effort will link local farmers with school cafeterias across the country, improving student nutrition while giving small farmers access to a multi-billion dollar market.

UEPI's Benefit Assessment of the Los Angeles State Historic Park and Rio de Los Angeles State Park is now Available Online

"Connecting the Parks to the Community and the Community to the Parks", UEPI's Community, Economic and Environmental Benefit Assessment of the Los Angeles State Historic Park (Cornfield) and Río de Los Angeles State Park (Taylor Yard), is now available online.

In the report, Andrea Azuma and Robert Gottlieb provide a synthesis of published literature on the benefits of parks and an evaluation of community perspectives from a series of interviews with key community residents and stakeholders. In addition, demographic information about the parks is paired
with the other sources for an analysis of the issues and a series of recommendations for maximizing community benefits associated with the two new parks.

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

California to Phase Out PERC

The California Air Resources Board announced today that the chemical perchloroethylene, a solvent used in drycleaning, will be phased out in the State of California by 2008.  Says UEPI's Peter Sinsheimer of the ban, "It's an historic day. Perc has nev er been phased out in a state before, and that is an amazing thing. This is not as green as it should be, but it's greener than it was before."  Read the full article about the ban in today's LA Times.

The AP also covered the ban, and you can learn more about the growing popularity of Professional Wet Cleaning, an environmentally-friendly alternative to dry cleaning, on UEPI's Pollution Prevention Center web pages. 

Are you a Californian who doesn't want to wait until 2008 for healthier dry cleaning?  Click here to find a greener cleaner near you!

Gail Goldberg - Planning in LA

Last May, when the search for a new Planning Director for the City of LA was announced, UEPI, as part of the Alliance for a Livable Los Angeles, helped draft a letter to the new planning director with a vision for a new Los Angeles. A little over a year later, it seems that the vision has a good shot at becoming a reality.

On Saturday, July 22^nd, the Alliance for a Livable Los Angeles hosted a community forum with the new planning director, Gail Goldberg. Over 150 residents filled a meeting room at the LAANE office, for a dialogue with Gail about the future of planning in Los Angeles. Community groups presented on a number of issues including affordable housing/gentrification, transportation, fresh & health food access and the impact of new developments on surrounding communities. Overall, Gail’s responses were, as one of the event organizers put it, “music to our ears.”