Cookies, sandwiches, salads: Every afternoon, neighbors and visitors stop at Tony’s Market at 24th and Hampshire to buy food or pick up lunch at Pal’s Takeaway, inside the store. Only a few years ago, Kassa Mehari, the store’s owner, sold mostly liquor. But three years ago, as the street was developing, Mehari decided it was time for the store to change.
Category: Food Systems
Posted inBay Area, Food Systems, Media
New roots for green businesses
As the world economy increasingly collides with the limits of linear, “cradle-to-grave” production, more eyes are turning towards resource synergies, upcycling, and improved efficiencies to relieve some economic pressure and get more value with less waste. Take coffee. For every pound of coffee beans harvested (of which there were 17 billion in 2010, according to the International Coffee Organization), four pounds of pulp must be collected, and it is generally considered a waste product that is left in heaps to rot. But some companies, such as Equator Coffees & Teas and Thanksgiving Coffee, are supporting efforts to train farmers in Zimbabwe and Tanzania how to use coffee pulp as a substrate for growing oyster mushrooms.
Posted inFood Systems, Media
Free Farm Stand will stay, city says
The Free Farm Stand and its supporters won. The stand will continue to give away free food to the community on Sundays from noon to 3:30 p.m. in Parque Niños Unidos. At the same time, it will coordinate with the Department of Public Health to obtain a health permit, Connie Chan, a spokeswoman for the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department, wrote in an e-mail.
Posted inFood Systems, Neighborhoods
A farm blossoms in Hayes Valley where a freeway once cast a dominating shadow
Neighborhood rallies to site of collapsed freeway two decades after Loma Prieta earthquake
In 1990, Madeline Behrens-Brigham and Russell Pritchard opened art boutiques in a crime-ridden section of Hayes Valley. They called their part of the neighborhood, from Laguna Street to Market Street, the “Tenderloin of the ’90s.”
“It was only 20 years ago that you’d drive down Octavia Boulevard and on all corners it was prostitutes everywhere, like the Tenderloin is now,” Pritchard said.
The self-proclaimed neighborhood activists were barely making rent. They began attending meetings between Caltrans and city officials, petitioning to get the Central Freeway taken down. The double-deck structure had crumbled in the October 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and laid fallow for two years.
Posted inEconomy & Business, Food Systems, Government & Politics, Labor, Media, Social Justice
New ‘Distress Index’ shows San Francisco’s economic pain is getting worse
New tool finds that recession started earlier in Bay Area
Some economists and business groups say the Great Recession is over, but how do communities really know whether they’re moving out of the recession or falling behind?
A ground-breaking new tool that measures the real-world impact of the recession is providing answers. It shows that in San Francisco, at least, the worst downturn in 70 years isn’t just continuing — it may be getting worse.
The new San Francisco Distress Index, which assembles 11 types of monthly economic indicators such as foreclosure rates and food pantry visits, has risen 11 percent since June 2009 — the month when, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the U.S. recession supposedly bottomed out.
Posted inArts & Culture, Community, Environment, Food Systems, News, Social Justice
Green hip-hop group pruned by budget cuts
A local organization that promotes environmental consciousness through hip-hop culture is going on hiatus this fall after losing major funding from the city of San Francisco. Grind for the Grind hosted its first — and final — “eco-music festival” of the year in Oakland last weekend. The event, FreshFest, brought local hip-hop musicians, artists and sustainable food producers together for a day of solar-powered live jamming, healthy eats and green-themed crafts. After losing its San Francisco grant, the festival was free to move from Yerba Buena Gardens, where it had been for two years, to Oakland’s Mosswood Park. But there still wasn’t enough money to put on the usual four summer festivals.
Posted inFood Systems, Health, News
City sets regulations for cannabis-laced goodies
Chasing your morning latte with a pot brownie might be getting a bit safer. The San Francisco Department of Public Health this month placed new restrictions on the production and sale of edible goods containing marijuana.
Posted inFood Systems
Edible gardens grow up
Sanchez Elementary School, in San Francisco’s Mission District, has erected the city’s first public, off-the-grid, vertical garden. Equipped with a high-tech weather station, students will study the growth patterns of the edible, organic vegetables and measure weather patterns.
Posted inCalifornia, Environment, Food Systems
Agricultural production in Central Valley leaves toxic legacy for locals
One of the perks of living in the Bay Area is the wide variety of fresh, local produce we enjoy year-round. Much of that comes thanks to our proximity to the Central Valley, one of the most productive agricultural regions the world has ever seen. Unfortunately, this luxury comes at a price, although we aren’t the ones paying it.
Posted inFood Systems
Underground farmers market finds home in Mission District
Acorn flour, wild fennel seeds and homemade sarsaparilla (that’s soda for all you non-foodies) are just some of the treats that have found their way into a new alternative farmers market. This underground bazaar sponsored by the founder of forageSF is a house party, dinner party and street fair rolled into one. Small vendors who can’t afford commercial kitchens or a booth at SF’s official farmers market are hawking their food on the second-floor flat of a Victorian.