Original NOBE Video Below

Want to read more about this? See our thoughts on NOBE covered in Oakland Local here

Thanks to all that signed our petition.  We took it down as Ms. Edwards complied with our wishes!

Getting Started
The Crossroads Cafe Cooperative has grown out of a community of food justice enthusiasts brought together by Phat Beets Produce, an organization that provides accessible, healthy, and local food to North Oakland. Every Saturday, several of the founding members of the Crossroads Cafe Cooperative attended the Phat Beets farmers’ market. Along with their shared interest in food justice for North Oakland, these founding members soon realized other similarities: they were all residents of 57th Street, and they were all either underemployed or unemployed because of the economic crisis. And they all wanted to take more control over their workplace and their destinies by creating a worker-owned cooperative.

As these connections between the founding members grew, a space became available at 942 Stanford Avenue. A structure that once served as train dispatch in the 1920s, and later a small restaurant in the 1970s, was available for rent. Recognizing that the structure could serve as acooperative community space, the founding members seized the opportunity, and started building support for the Crossroads Cafe Cooperative. More people joined the effort, and a core group of founding members emerged.

Making Progress
The Crossroads team evolved organically, with each founding member taking on work that best suited his or her interests and skills. From implementing the build-out process, to managing kitchen operations, to bottom-lining administrative needs, members of the Crossroads Cafe Cooperative facilitated the transformation of 942 Stanford Avenue over the past year. 

Throughout this effort, the team collaborated with GC3 for legal assistance. Some of the founding members attended last year’s Think Outside the Boss Workshop, and received legal guidance through a one-time follow-up consultation. The founding members soon entered GC3’s cooperative incubator program, through which GC3 continues to provide longer-term legal support to the Cooperative as it develops into afully-functioning, worker-owned, community cafe.

Envisioning the Future
Soon, the Crossroads Cafe will be a fully functioning cafe, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner to the North Oakland community. But the space will be more than that. The founding members see 942 Stanford Avenue as a community space, where people can come to share inwholesome food, teach and learn about issues affecting the community, and access commercial kitchen space, which will be available for rent to community-based food businesses. The Phat Beets Farmers’ Market will continue to take place every Saturday at 942 Stanford Avenue.

Pitching In
Although the Crossroads Cafe Cooperative made incredible progress over the past year, the team has two major steps to take before the cafe fully launches. First, the team is working to complete the build-out process, which poses unique challenges because of the building’s age. Second, the cafe must receive permits before opening to the public.

And, if you feel like heading to an awesome party with a great cause this weekend, join the Crossroads team for its Old Skool ThrowBack Partyon Saturday, November 10, from 8pm to 2am, at ABCo Artspace (3135 Filbert St., Oakland).

Summing Up 
The Crossroads Cafe Cooperative exemplifies GC3’s vision: to advance community resiliency by inspiring, informing, and incubating cooperative ventures. From attending a free legal workshop, to getting a legal  consultation, to becoming an incubator client, the Crossroads team took part in every facet of GC3’s legal services program. We’re humbled by the opportunity to support the transformative work of the Crossroads  Cafe Cooperative.

by Marcelo Garzo

On March 4, 2012, over 130 Oakland residents came together at the Bethany Baptist Church to imagine and organize a better North Oakland community. This event was held and facilitated by Phat Beets Produce with the support of dozens of community partners and volunteers, in order to build relationships and bring our collective minds together to create solutions to the most pressing problems in our communities. We wanted to hold a space to listen, exchange directly, face-to-face with our communities, asking for people to bring only 6 things: 3 big concerns and 3 big ideas or visions for the beloved community. These were recorded as folks entered the space, written on butcher paper that lined the walls as the community arrived.

While we shared nourishing food prepared by dedicated Phat Beets volunteers and local businesses including Dorsey’s Locker, we had the honor of opening the space with long-time North Oakland resident and feminist of color elder, healer, and storyteller Luisa Teisch. She brought the teachings and songs of the Yoruba ancestors in order to call us to the sacred task of building community and sharing food and ideas. We were then introduced to the site of Bethany Baptist Church by Pastor John Leggett, who reminded us we were in a home of the black revolutionary tradition, a place where both Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton attended services with their families as children. Coming from the South, Pastor Leggett knows and embodies the long history of the Baptist church as a place of healing, community and political action. We were overwhelmed by the support from the Bethany Baptist Church and are grateful they offered their sacred space for us to have these conversations and build relationships that will be bring about real change on the streets in North Oakland.

    Soon after honoring the space, we began our day of dialogue and exchange with 6 thematic breakout groups. The themes for the groups were decided after tallying the results of the 3 big ideas and 3 big concerns the community brought with them. The groups discussed: Community Safety (Gang Injunctions, Policing, Violence), Affordable Housing (Foreclosures, Accessible Homes), Transportation, Food and Health, Education (School Closures, Alternative Ed) and Community Beautification. We then began our community visioning exercise, imagining what our ideal neighborhood would look, feel, and taste like before drawing these images in a collective art practice. We closed the space with the palabra/word of Chicano elder, activist and poet Rafael Jesus Gonzalez. He reminded us that in coming together as a community we had mobilized the most sacred force of all: the power to love.

    We express our deepest gratitude to everyone who came out to make this event possible and are looking forward to continuing the dialogue at future community forums. March 4th was only our first effort to facilitate North Oakland residents in building new relationships and deepening existing ones in order to cultivate justice, health, safety and power in the community. Stay tuned for follow-up meetings and ways to stay involved!

MARCH 4th North Oakland Flatlands Community Brunch and Forum

What do you want to see in the North Oakland Flatlands? Join Phat Beets Produce for a Free Community Brunch and Forum to meet your neighbors and to share your vision for a healthier, safer,  more resilient North Oakland community.  Bring 3 concerns, 3 big ideas and 3 of your neighbors (or more) to Bethany Baptist Church on 54th and Adeline to break bread, share ideas, dialogue, and organize a healthier North Oakland.

Topics to include: community health, urban greening, affordable housing, food justice and beyond.  Information from these breakout sessions will be used to shape the direction of community based work in the neighborhood by Phat Beets Produce and community partners.   A community resource fair will also be held in the lobby of the church.  Full meal will be provided including vegan and gluten free options.

Who: North Oakland Farmers’ Market Group and Phat Beets Produce

What:  North Oakland Flatlands Community Forum and Brunch

Where: Bethany Baptist Church 5400 Adeline, Oakland 94608

When: 2-5pm Sunday, March 4th

Why: Join us for a free community meal and break out discussion to vision what we want our North Oakland community to look like and how we will get there! All North Oakland residents welcome! Topics to include community health, urban greening, affordable housing, food justice, and more.  Bring a 3 concerns and 3 big ideas to discuss and 3 of you neighbors neighbors.  Music and open speaker TBA

Cost: FREE!! Meal and speaker included.  RSVP by phone at 510-250-7957 or http://tinyurl.com/798b6s7

Contact: max@phatbeetsproduce.org or 510-689-3068, www.phatbeetsproduce.org

**If you can help cook, provide dessert, or help with outreach by becoming a community outreach block captain then please hit us up at info@phatbeetsproduce.org or 510-689-3068.

Phat Beets Produce runs on a very small budget, this is our wishlist for 2012.  Please hit up max@phatbeetsproduce.org if you have something to donate (tax deductible):

• Laser Printer
• Macbook laptop or 2006+ Mac Desktop
• Small pickup truck with less than 100,000 miles
• Wheelbarrows
• Working Fridges
• Shovels
• Gloves
• Technical Service (business plan)
• Office space in North Oakland
• Leading a workshop for our Food N’ Justice Workshop Series

THANK YOU!

The Yanomami people of the Amazon Rainforest who live along the border of Venezuela and Brazil have one of the lowest recorded blood pressure readings around the world with an average of 90/60.

Yes, they live in a society free from the stressors of the modern world, yet their culture has been described as one “that encourages aggression and a life of chronic warfare with violence and tension.” The key to their low blood pressure is their dietary salt intake. It is <0.5 mg per day. They represent the ultimate human example of the relationship between dietary salt intake and high blood pressure.

Among the Masai people of Kenya in East Africa, there is not one person suffering with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease or obesity. Studies confirm that many who live in rural tribes and villages throughout Africa and other parts of the world have much lower blood pressure than those living in urban areas.

The key common denominator is maintaining a balanced diet that is naturally low in salt.

Heart disease or cardiovascular disease associated with high blood pressure is the leading cause of death for people of all races and cultures around the globe. Unequivocally, around the globe, in every demographic group, research confirms that ADDING SALT TO YOUR DIET INCREASES BLOOD PRESSURE.

Humanity has known this for thousands of years. The earliest medical comment that relates dietary salt to blood pressure was recorded in 1700 BC and comes from Chinese physician Huang Ti Nei Ching Su Wein who stated, “. . . therefore if large amounts of salt are taken, the pulse will stiffen and harden.” (Translated by Wan Ping, AD 762.)

There are other contributors that could also increase and compound high blood pressure in addition to dietary salt as well. Stress, a magnesium deficiency, lack of exercise and movement of the body, obesity, and a poor diet that is high in fat and includes too many packaged, processed and prepared foods can cause high blood pressure and lead to other chronic health problems.

The daily-recommended sodium health intake is:
Under age 51: 1,500 mg per day
Ages 51-70: 1,300 mg per day
Ages 70+: 1,200 mg per day.

The average American consumes 3400 mg. of sodium per day, way over the recommended amount. To give you an idea of how much this is, 1 teaspoon of table salt is 2325 mg.

Some foods naturally contain sodium like dairy, meat, shellfish and vegetables. They do not contain a high degree of salt but it contributes to your overall salt intake. 1 cup of milk has 107 mg. of sodium. And, sodium is essential for our body functioning in small amounts. Sodium, salt is harvested in the sea and on land. Some people think sea salt is better for you than iodized salt, but research shows and many health professionals say sea salt impacts our body the same way. The vast amount of sodium in the American diet comes from processed and prepared foods that typically have high sodium content.

Many prepared foods from restaurants market themselves as healthy alternatives but have high sodium content. Six-inch subway sandwiches have very high sodium content that exceeds or almost meets our recommended daily dosage in one serving! Some of these readings are below.

Italian sandwich 1640 mg of sodium
Chicken fillet 1123 mg. of sodium
Tuna 998 mg. of sodium

A Chick Fil A Hard-grilled Chicken Club sandwich contains 1460 mg. of sodium.

El Pollo loco Jalapeno Chicken Sandwich contains 2017 mg. of sodium.

You can’t always tell how much sodium foods contain by tasting them. To help lower your sodium intake, get in the habit of reading the nutrition facts label found on packages. You can also find nutrition guides of most common restaurant chains online.

Below is a list of salt and sodium-containing compounds in most packaged and processed foods.

When you see these products on the label, you know the sodium content is high: Baking soda, Baking powder, Monosodium glutamate (MSG), Disodium phosphate, Sodium alginate, Sodium nitrate or nitrite

These terms and condiments also indicate high sodium content: Pickled, smoked, marinated, teriyaki, soy sauce, broth, au jus, gravy, ketchup, mustard, mayonaise, tobasco, barbeque, cocktail sauce and salad dressings.

WATCH OUT FOR HIGH SODIUM MEDICINES

Surprisingly, medicines such as the antacids Alka-Seltzer and Bromo-Seltzer have rich sodium content. A two-tablet dose of Alka-Seltzer contains 995 milligrams of sodium while Bromo-Seltzer contains 761 milligrams in just one tablet. These two “medicines” contain more sodium to your diet than many processed foods.

OTHER WAYS TO LOWER AND MAINTAIN HEALTHY BLOOD PRESSURE LEVELS:

Black folk medicine remedies:

Joe Hayes, legendary water-diviner of Paradise, North Carolina, regularly harvests YELLOW ROOT aka GOLDENSEAL and makes a water infused tea that he sips on daily to maintain normal blood pressure and to ward off illness. Hydrastine, a chemical in goldenseal is shown to reduce blood pressure. Goldenseal also contains the chemical berberine which may have the opposite effect. If you start using goldenseal, make sure you take your blood pressure to see how it affects you and if it is elevated, stop using it; goldenseal is not for you. Joe Hayes also takes a daily swig of cod liver oil, rich with Omega 3′s, which help prevent heart disease and lowers blood pressure.

Wild harvested YellowRoot tonic recipe:
Harvest a bunch full of yellow root, pulling up the plant from the root.
Clean off the dirt with luke warm water.
Break the root into 1-2″ size pieces and fill a pint sized mason jar 1/4 to 1/2 with the root.
Fill the jar with luke warm water and let sit for a day until the water turns deep yellow.
Take a sip, 1-3 times daily until all gone.
Wait a week and repeat process.

Or, you can buy the Yellowroot tincture known as Goldenseal and swallow a dropperful under the tongue or in a cup of warm water 1-3 times a week. Follow recommended dosage and if your pressure elevates, discontinue use.

EAT 2 CLOVES OF GARLIC DAILY
Eating 2 cloves of garlic daily will lower your blood pressure. Just chop it up and sprinkle it on your meals. Add a raw clove as a condiment to your meals or add it to your dish.

Ma Mare Mamie Cerre (aka Salena Gray, b.1888, d. 1960) of New Orleans, Louisiana added several cloves of garlic and bay leaves to her meals regularly. She would also tie garlic cloves around her head and let them hang from her neck to ease headaches.

BAY LEAF REDUCES BLOOD PRESSURE AND RELIEVES MIGRAINE HEADACHES. Add 3-4 leaves regularly to dishes like stews, soups, casseroles, meats and vegetables. Make a tea using 2-3 dried or fresh bay leaves, letting them steep in 1 cup of hot water for 10 minutes. Drink 2-3 times a day.

SEASON WITH COLORFUL HERBS INSTEAD OF SALT TO BOOST FLAVOR. The herbs and spices below enhance any meal and are also medicinal. Ginger, cayenne, garlic and bay all reduce blood pressure. garlic, cayenne, ginger, cinnamon and bay leaf, basil, oregano, chives, marjoram, cumin, tumeric, curry, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger (grated, sliced or dried), garlic, onions, shallots, chives, basil, bay leaves, vinegar, lemon, orange, apple (fruit or juice) and SPIKE, DASH and other seasonings.

WAYS TO PUNCH UP THE FLAVOR WITHOUT SALT

- Marinate meats in vinegar, citrus or pineapple juice

- Use balsamic, apple cider and plain vinegar to flavor greens and salads

- Cook and flavor with wines, the alcohol will evaporate with heat and the flavor stays.

- Season with SPIKE, DASH and other salt alternatives you can buy in the store.

- Adding celery to your diet regularly lowers blood pressure. Eating ¼ cup a day, about one stalk, will help to treat your high blood pressure.

FINALLY, Exercise and . . .

Eat more fresh foods, fiber rich foods and fruits and vegetables.

LIVE HEALTHY!!! The world loves you and needs you!

It starts with that scratchy throat, then dread: “Uh-oh, I’m getting sick.” I used to consider it a good thing, it meant a few days away from the rigors of school. But now I don’t have that luxury, I need to work. And my immune system’s efforts to defeat the infectious agent will likely result in additional symptoms. So, in order to continue working, I need to both reduce the symptoms and speed up my recovery. I’ve learned over the years that medications for suppressing these symptoms actually suppress my immune system and only prolong the suffering. They also allow for a false sense of wellness. So I think back to those times of illness and recovery that my mother and others have helped me through and they all tended to include soups and teas.

Just soup?

Commercial food establishments, originating in France in 1765, were called “Restaurants” (meaning “(something) restoring”) and they served highly concentrated simple soups that were advertised as an antidote for physical exhaustion. In fact, every culture that we know of has for centuries included in their diets some form of nourishing soups. Making soup, that is, cooking a variety of ingredients together to make them safe, easily digested and tasty could arguably be one of the most important inventions that helped civilization to grow and spread. So simple soups are all but simple in their effect on our health and culture.

We are always learning more about our health and food, but what we know from tradition and current science is that whole foods, herbs and spices cooked together in liquid form, have some excellent regenerative properties (see article link below). This could likely be due to multiple factors, such as the knowledge that I am being cared for by the person making me the soup; the break down and dispersal of nutrients and minerals in liquid form (making them easily absorbable and transportable around my body); the synergistic effect of multiple phytonutrients and their effects on my immune system, and even the sheer soothing pleasure of a delicious meal.

Chicken soup study
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/diet.fitness/10/17/chicken.soup.reut/

Quality or quantity?

As with all therapeutic foods, the quality of the soup’s ingredients is of the utmost importance. We need more nutrients and less toxins. (http://www.ota.com/organic/benefits/nutrition.html)  So we choose fresh, local and organic produce, pasture raised animal products and organic herbs and spices. And we remind ourselves that slightly higher prices we pay for quality ingredients will result in lowered health care costs down the road. Let’s not short change our health for a few dollars in savings.

Soup recommendations
-Fresh homemade: Avoid canned soups and ingredients. Cooking from scratch will insure the best tasting and healthiest soups. Plus to save yourself the effort when you are sick later on, you can make extra and freeze it for later.
-K.I.S.S.: (Keeping it super simple) By nature, soups are simple. And it helps me to motivate myself to make a batch of soup, if I just stick with a few ingredients that I enjoy. With time and experimentation, you’ll find yourself adding more foods from your fridge and pantry and spicing the soup the way you want it to taste.
-Delicately cooked: To prevent oxidizing oils, add them towards the end of cooking. And to avoid the creation of other toxic compounds which form at high temperatures, avoid high heat roasting and sauteing. If you like your veggies sauteed, try cooking them in a dry pan, adding small amounts of water.
-Therapeutic ingredients These include: Miso and other fermented foods, Alliums (onions, garlic, leeks, etc.), carrots, celery (these three make a great soup or broth all on their own), mushrooms, seaweed, leafy greens, herbs, spices, oil (olive, coconut, or butter, avoid others), acid (vinegar, lemon juice, etc) and protein (meat w/bones, soaked/sprouted beans, eggs, etc.).

So before you reach for that medication in your cabinet, reach for the miso in your cupboard. And when you hear of someone’s illness, offer to cook them a nourishing soup like this one below. Practicing the art of making home-made soups could be the healthiest thing you do for your health as well as your community.

Recipe:
Primordial Chicken Soup
According to Webster’s, primordial soup is “a mixture of organic molecules in evolutionary theory from which life on earth originated.” This basic and nourishing soup is titled after this substance, because by making it (and other soups) the foundation of your nourishment in times of illness, it will likely lead to more life for you!

Makes about 1 gallon soup

Ingredients
2 pastured chicken legs (or other parts)
3 quarts filtered water
1/4 cup vinegar

1 lb carrots
1 head celery
3 onions
5 cloves garlic
1/2 head small cabbage
1 bunch kale
1/2 lb shitaki mushrooms

1/4 cup dulse seaweed (or any other kinds)
1 bunch fresh thyme (or 1.5 T dried)
1 bunch parsley
2 T curry powder
1 t black pepper
2 T coconut oil or butter

Sea salt and vinegar to taste

Instructions:
-Simmer chicken with water and vinegar for at least 1 hour (ideally overnight in the oven at 170F) then strain stock, saving the liquid. Remove the meat from the bones, chop the meat and return to pot with the saved liquid.

-Chop all the veggies to bite-sized pieces and add, along with the remaining spices and ingredients, to the pot of meat and broth and bring to a simmer for 1-2 hours.

-Season with salt and vinegar to your liking (you should say, “yum, I want more”, if not, add more seasonings). Serve it warm and jar and freeze the rest.

In the past year, I’ve been laid off from my job, lost my health insurance, downsized my living situation and turned in my car. Like I said, life happens. And, on the other hand, my son graduated from college, my daughter is starting high school and they are both healthy and happy. I’m a full-time urban bicycler. It’s great exercise! I sleep through the night and wake up rested. I am grateful!

At 52+ years young, I am infinitely thankful for my good health and strong physical ability.  No pills, aches or pains and I still get my “Moon” like clockwork. And now, I have another opportunity to expand who I am.

In the meantime, I am without health insurance, like so many of my kindred global beings. So, I heartily embrace the healing and healthy living traditions of my ancestors who stretch 7 generations back in New Orleans and Mississippi.

I face the same situation they did which is having no health insurance or limited access to it. I do what they did and take care of myself by maintaining a routine of preventative health care so I don’t get sick. And if I do fall ill, I use natural remedies to treat the ailment. Our healthcare industry is not based in preventative care or holistic healing but rather relies on “drugs” to mask the symptom and other aggressive treatments. I’m afraid of “them” and besides, I do a better job at my healthcare than they would anyway.

It’s time to start using some of the preventative health care routines the wise ol’timers did to stay healthy. My grandmother, Maw-Maw, is a testament to that. She’s 104 years young. MawMaw is a New Orleans native who moved up to Oakland, in the 1940s. She lived on 54th street below San Pablo Ave. for over 50 years. She cooked with garlic in everything and had her occasional garden of seasonal veggies like peppers, collards, tomatoes and milliton (chayote squash). Here are 10 Healthy Living Routines to maintain good health:

1. The Daily dose of Cod Liver oil or another omega-3 like Flax seed oil.
   Cod Liver oil has omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, is an immune booster and is anti-inflammatory which keeps your body oiled and joints from aching. It also helps prevent dementia, alzheimers and degenerative conditions associated with aging.
2. Apple Cider Vinegar tonics.
   Cuts the mucous from your system, maintains healthy intestinal bacteria so you poop regularly, anti-inflammatory, kills viruses and bacteria to ward off colds and flu, helps regulate blood pressure. Granny from North Carolina would take regular vinegar shots after she’d eat dinner to “cut the mucus.” Use 1 tablespoon in a 1/4 cup of warm water and drink.
3. Castor oil.
   Cleanses your colon to eliminate toxins and tone your intestines and help ward off colds. Take 4 times a year at the beginning of each season. Take one tablespoon and wait.
4. Eating chalk or clay from the side of the road.
   Pulls toxins and heavy metals from your body. Your body does not digest it, so it expands and pulls toxins and metals from your body and is eliminated in your poop. You can get it today in the form of bentonite at any health food store.
5. Eating a lot of vegetables, fruits and beans, which were organic back in the day.
6. Eating minimal meat, which was also organic back in the day. Folks used to say “I knew what was in my cow, chicken or hog because I fed it.”
7. Cooking with healing foods and spices such as tons of garlic, onion, peppers, cayenne, vinegar, bay leaves, basil to name a few. Garlic and onions are natural antibiotics and antiseptics. Cayenne and peppers move the energy through your body and eliminates mucus. Eating collard, kale, mustard and turnip greens and drinking the pot liquor are very nutritious.
8. “Sip” on or take your seasonal tonics such as yellow root (aka goldenseal), mullein or sassafrass in the fall. All strengthen your immune systems to ward off colds. Mullein is also an expectorant and a great decongestant that can be sipped on or smoked. Also used in baths to reduce swelling and pain from inflammation.
9. Make your body more alkaline by drinking plenty of water with a lemon squeezed in it. Many people have a high acidic ph in their bodies which contributes to dis-ease.
10. Move it our lose it! Move your body by dancing, exercising or doing your regular chores. Even mopping, washing and hanging your clothes, vacuuming, carry your own groceries, gardening, hiking, walking the hood or the lake are good ways to exercise.

Breathe deep and slow and give thanks for the journey you’ve had so far. We all have amazing stories to have made it this far.

Finally, I’ll leave you with this. I canvassed the North Oakland area yesterday promoting Phat Beets farmers market (Saturday’s on the corner of 57th and Market Streets in Oakland) and “chopped it up” with many of my neighbors. A few houses from where I live on 57th Street, I met a southern born 90 year old gentleman who was sitting on his porch. He has lived in his house on 57th Street since 1961. I found out he was a merchant marine who has travelled the world 3 times. What experience and stories he had and has to share. Many of our elders live among us and have valuable things to share. Let’s engage our elders and learn from their wisdom.

I wonder what were on the minds of those first 13 young Freedom Riders, six white and seven black, the day before they got on that Greyhound bus in D.C. headed to the South fifty years ago in spring 1961.  Were they nervous, for themselves and their future, that the law to desegregate interstate commerce wouldn’t uphold in a still-segregated South?  Did they feel any pride for their anticipated acts of non-violence, soon capturing the attention of the world and cementing themselves in the history of racial equality?

I’ll soon find out.  It’s the day before I get on a bus in Birmingham, Alabama with 12 other young folk from across the country of all different backgrounds to seek another form of civil rights.  The Freedom Riders sought racial justice.  We are seeking real food justice. We’re changing the food system in our own communities and meeting others who are doing the same, whether it’s increasing access to affordable healthy food for low-income communities, getting better conditions for food chain workers, or reclaiming traditional food cultures.

The first 12-day Food and Freedom Ride – from the ‘hood to the heartland – starts in the South with Alabama and Mississippi, heads into the Midwest with Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, and Iowa, and ends in Michigan.  The second ride, one week later, will go through America’s salad bowl – California.

I’m nervous, and I’m proud.  I’m nervous because freedom for real food away from the industrial food system is at an all-time high, whether it’s a massive recall on turkey, raid on raw foods and needs for retail permits, or getting supermarket chains to sign onto fair farmworker rights.  I’m proud because I’m excited to meet and share the stories of youth, food producers, and community leaders who understand the problems and are manifesting real food solutions.  The past efforts of the Freedom Riders and other social movement leaders give me hope that my nervousness will override with strength and my pride with even more so.

Our hope is that the rides will bring to light the need to change the structural systems currently in place that prohibit people hurt by the industrial food system from growing, eating, affording, and accessing this basic civil right.  On our rides, we’ll engage youth and communities on a recently drafted Youth Food Bill of Rights, sending the message to our representatives as we approach the 2012 Farm Bill that real food is a real solution and that it’s the norm, not the exception.

We’ll share stories, actions, and reflections daily on the road from different riders.  Ride for Food and Freedom with us online, on Facebook or Twitter @liverealnoworg (#foodandfreedom), or e-mail info@liverealnow.org to join us if you’re on route.  We’re also nearing our campaign to fund a video documentary of the rides and complementary curriculum.  Chip in $5(+) for #foodandfreedom!

**The California Food & Freedom Ride will finish in the San Francisco bay area September 1^st.  Plans include visiting US and state representatives in San Francisco and events in Oakland.  Stay tuned!

——————————-

Hai Võ grew up in Orange County, California soon after being born and sponsored with his Vietnamese immigrant parents and older brother by a family in Sioux City, Iowa.  Hai began seeking food and social justice when at 18 years old and 250 pounds with Type 2 diabetes and autoimmunity, his doctor told him that he’d live to be 30 if he continued eating and living the way he did. He’s passionate about evolutionary nutrition and reclaiming traditional foods and foodways.