Right now, our communities are in crisis, but they are in crisis for a very simple reason – a lack of true community. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Our goal is to create a beloved community…  the ultimate end is to win the friendship of the opponent… the end is reconciliation… the end is redemption”.   The California Food Project in partnership with the Sacramento Building Healthy Communities initiative has been developed to strengthen the capacity of residents, youth and community organizations in Sacramento to advocate for greater access to locally grown, healthy food. We believe people have the right to healthy food, clean air, and clean water.   The solutions to our problems

We are approaching a time in our democratic history where new leaders must arise out of the ashes of our recession, for left behind is a void to be filled with unknown leaders who still lurk in the shadows of this country, waiting for someone to bring them out, or to be brought out when the moment is ripe. Republicans have an advantage because they are militant about their form of economic prowess. A militancy that only accounts for a fiduciary responsibility, a bottom line, to the elite in society that are so incubated from the struggle of the common man that their comfort and opulence comes at the price of the middle class and the poor. As a Democrat, I do not share the same bottom lin

The California registered chemical Methyl iodide is one of the most carcinogenic substances on earth and causes late term miscarriages. The progress we, as environmental justice advocates, should have been enough to permanently stop the use of methyl iodide and urged our government to stop its use. Over 300,000 petition signatures were sent to the US EPA urging them to reopen the scientific review of methyl iodide. A large public outcry from the environmental justice and human rights communities, including well known Nobel Prize laureates, has protested methyl iodide’s continued use. In addition, very large coalition of environmental justice and human rights advocacy groups had protested

The City Council recently passed an ordinance that would allow privately owned, residentially-zoned vacant lots to be turned into “community gardens.” As a community organizer for the California Food Project in the Sacramento region, I spend most of my time facilitating the development of community leaders, groups, and coaltiions, which has also afforded me the opportunity to experience the local politics and policies that can pose barriers to communities becoming more self-sufficient and sustainable.   The community garden ordinance, while a success for many people and organizations, seemed to have left out many others. The idea of the community garden ordinance originated from residents