Healthy Food for All (HFFA) is a collaboration of community members and organizations working together to improve food access, production, and education in South Sacramento. The goal of the Collaboration is to support the community's vision for a healthy and just food system. They do this by partnering on events and sharing resources, services, and expertise. During HFFA’s monthly meeting, collaborative members had the opportunity to share their end of year success stories and the great work they have done in the community. Back in September of 2019, the collaborative members were given the opportunity to share some success stories that occurred throughout the year. These programs are just a small list of the great work the organizations within the collaborative are doing for their community members. Within the hustle and business of transitioning to a new year, this was a wonderful opportunity to take a moment and collectively appreciate everyone’s hard work and reflect on these accomplishments.
2019 Success Stories:
· Oak Park Art Garden ( January 2019) – Made a big shift this week, habitat for humanity built a perimeter fence, Sac Kings program helped plant 20 fruit trees, Thursday the SFPC sign (EBT CalFresh sign created by Leon Willis) will be unveiled on Thursday and the MLK march will go right by the sign; the MLK Day mural that was created by Oak Ridge Elementary school kids will also be featured; lots of amazing and positive community feedback and support – feeling really positive where the garden can go.
· Women on the Line (February 2019) – Valley Vision hosted three women chefs and business owners to have a candid conversation to talk about what it’s like to work in the culinary industry, the injustices they faced as women, and what can be done to change the industry to make it more equitable.
· CalFresh Incentive Program Gets a Boost (May 2019) – Oak Park Farmers Market recently received a $20K grant from Robobank to support their CalFresh Incentive Program and are on target to exceed CalFresh target outcomes.
· Student Congress Herbicide Free SCUSD (May2019) – On May 31st Pacific Elementary students will be hosting a ‘Student Congress for Herbicide Free SCUSD’ in hopes of raising district awareness students and will lead workshops, an art response, and a rally. Three schools will collaborate in partnership with Megafoods, Sprouts and Soil Born Farms.
· Oak Park Art Garden (June 2019) – The Oak Park Art Garden held a Community Action Day on June 1, 2019 during which many students and families from the local elementary school came together. Students created murals that were left at the art garden and will move to the school when school resumes in the fall. The event was a huge success in connecting the community with the garden and helped set the stage for additional community-driven events in the future.
· CalFresh@ Famers Markets Breaks Organizational Record (August 2019) – In August, Alchemist CDC broke an organizational record by distributing over $4,000 of CalFresh benefits at a single market.
· Alchemist Microenterprise Academy Celebrates Inaugural Graduation (August 2019) – Alchemist CDC had a graduation for their first cohort of the Alchemist Microenterprise Academy (AMA). Sixteen businesses showcased their new food business products, and are working on developing their business plans.
· Project G.O.O.D Celebrates Another Successful Summer of Youth Programming (August 2019) – Yisrael Family Urban Farm completed another summer of its Project G.O.O.D Youth Program! Ten youth graduated the program and received a stipend as well as a certificate of completion. YFF was also able to offer three youth the opportunity to attend the EcoFarm Conference in early 2019 where the youth led their own workshop on privilege in the food system and how to build racial equity.
· Financial Institution Partnership Opportunity (FIPO) & Award (September 2019) – SHRA/The Sacramento Promise Zone recently awarded California Capital and FNDC for some projects. This year 11 banks have partnered to provide funding to those two organizations and four other banks sponsored 30 organizations to do capacity building through Impact Foundry.