According to Harvard Medical School’s health blog, a growing body of scientific evidence supports that doctors who teach patients how to cook meals at home are giving their patients effective medical intervention for improving diet quality, weight loss, and diabetes prevention.
Even Michelle Obama acknowledged the need for the nation to eat healthy food when she created a vegetable garden at the White House.
“Most of what we knew about food had come through food-industry advertising of everything boxed, frozen, or otherwise processed for convenience,” Obama wrote in “Becoming.”
She and her team planted lettuce, spinach, fennel, broccoli, carrots, collard greens, onions, and shell peas, along with berry bushes and herbs.
“I planned to use the work we did in the garden to spark a public conversation about nutrition,” she adds, noting that in June of that first year in the Obama administration, children from Bancroft Elementary enjoyed their harvest.
“…the schoolkids made salads with their fresh-picked lettuce and peas in the kitchen, which we then ate with baked chicken, followed by cupcakes topped with garden berries,” Obama wrote.
According to the Centers for Disease Control’s 2009 publication Preventing Chronic Disease, the term “food desert” reportedly originated in Scotland in the early 1990s. There is no doubt, decades later, that the problem still exists here and now.
Food desert areas are characterized by poor access to healthy and affordable food in South LA and they contribute to disparities in diet-related health issues, such as diabetes, obesity and digestive disorders.
Grocery store development in food-insecure areas can work toward the elimination of food deserts. That’s Where The South Los Angeles (SoLA) Food Co-op comes in.
South LA resident Bahni Turpin, founder of SoLA, actually faced a bit of a problem herself the other morning. She could not find the groceries she needs for her diet.
Being allergic to nuts, Turpin cannot use any of the non-dairy creamers made from almonds which are sold in nearby grocers. Therefore, she was planning a drive out in the rain that day to a Whole Foods market in the mid-cities area so she could enjoy her morning beverage.
“That’s the problem,” she said. “There are certain things you can’t get here. I can’t get creamer for my coffee.”
Turpin and the members of SoLA are in the midst of securing a site to create a cooperative grocery store venture owned by, and operated for the benefit of South LA residents who want to find fresh produce and special dietary locally.
South LA has more fast food outlet locations than large grocery stores that carry organic, natural and clean foods which would be healthier for residents. SoLA’s website stresses their co-operative efforts are about food justice.
Instead of focusing on investors, like the corporate chains Ralphs, Albertsons, or Trader Joes do, food co-ops focus on their community and are totally independent and owned by the community members who shop there.
SoLA Food Co-op has put in a bid for a recently vacated local site (which cannot be revealed yet, to prevent more competition), and with the support of philanthropists and volunteers, hopes to open soon.
“Now, we have to order a market analysis of this new site,” Turpin said. “Also, we need to capitalize real fast. They told us there was one other offer on the property. It’s been a few weeks since we expressed our desire for it. I think we are the preferred tenant. It is a really great spot. If we can get this, it would be fantastic.”
A number of locals visit the Saturday Farmer’s Market events near Slauson Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard to patronize local fresh produce growers. SoLA co-op has a booth at the site every first and third Saturday. There, volunteers pass out information about the venture and sell food items.
“We have rice and bean sales at the farmers market,” Turpin said. “We currently have a partnership with the Village Marketplace. People can subscribe to get produce bags at the market, and there are different sizes of bags, as well as diabetic bags and snack bags – foods that don’t have to be cooked.”
The SoLA group now consists of 707 household memberships and nine board members. They have studied the community and its buying habits.
“We needed to know that our people shop and actually spend money on food,” Turpin said. “People will support a store that wants natural, organic foods. Vegan items. They want healthy food too.”
Support needed for co-op
SoLA is working on finding additional support for the proposed store: volunteer support; financial support; and political support.
Turpin and supporters recently met with City Councilwoman Heather Hutt (D-10) and her staff and last month visited with members of Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove’s (D-37) office.
“Sydney’s outreach director led us to a grant her office was putting out,” Turpin said, noting many federally funded food financing grants have been frozen lately. “To date, no large sums of money have landed in our coffers.”
In addition to leading the SoLA co-op efforts, Turpin is an actress, who has worked as an audiobook narrator; joined the Cornerstone Theater Company; and is featured in a variety of TV commercials. But her other passion is SoLA and she is hard at work looking for financing, grants and donations for the cause.
“We are seeking to interface with additional elected officials and anyone who can help fundraise.” Turpin said. “Membership entails a voting share. A co-op is a democratically- run organization. We elected a board of directors and we promote it as a store model where shoppers can have more of a say in what the store does.”
Turpin explains that although the store will be open to the public, co-op members who have purchased subscriptions are obligated to shop at the store weekly.
“Once the store opens and is profitable, the owners share in the profits,” Turpin said. “There will be member discount days and member specials.”
SoLA received a small grant from the collective courage fund, which gets its name from the 2014 book “Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice.”
“As soon as slavery ended, we had to work together to provide for ourselves,” Turpin said.
The book reveals the achievements and challenges of Black co-ops, collective economic action, and social entrepreneurship. It finds that African Americans, as well as other people of color and low-income people, have benefited greatly from cooperative ownership and democratic economic participation throughout the nation’s history.
The National Black Food & Justice Alliance (NBFJA), based in Atlanta, works on food systems & food justice across the country. A large group of black co-ops is forming across the nation and they hold a yearly conference. SoLA is affiliated with the Alliance.
Since 2015, NBFJA has worked to convene partners with expertise in Black food security and land work in addition to legal, financial, organizing, and community-building expertise. They have collectively strategized interventions around the urgency to protect and recover Black land and build a strong, sustainable food system.
NBFJA focuses on Black food sovereignty, self-determining food economies, and land. The organization works to organize people, build institutions, and amplify culture.
“It’s kind of exciting to see we may be forming our own food systems,” Turpin said. “Growers, distributors and stores.”
Vallarta store grand opening
Another store recently opened in a food-insecure area of South Los Angeles. Recently, Latino-owned grocery store chain Vallarta Supermarkets held a grand opening of its newest store on April 23 at Slauson Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard.
The 46,333-square-foot space was formerly occupied by Ralphs and left vacant for some time. According to Vallarta Supermarkets, the store brings 165 new jobs to the Park Mesa Heights area.
The store features themes and imagery paying tribute to the area’s landmarks and culture, in addition to exclusive products catering to the preferences of the local community, among them offerings from fellow SoCal favorite Dulan’s Soul Food Kitchen.
According to a representative, Dulan’s will have a refrigerator unit at the store stocked with pre-packaged food items, including baked chicken and pork chops.
“Vallarta market is a family-owned business with a tradition of serving underserved committees traditional ethnic foods, mainly,” Greg Dulan, owner of Dulan’s on Crenshaw Soul Food Restaurant. “This is their first venture in what could be called an African-American neighborhood.”
“Ralphs left this big, giant grocery store empty,” Dulan added. “That has left a great hardship to residents who have to travel out of the community to get food. By bringing us in, they recognize they have to have a broad appeal, a wide appeal, not just to the hispanic market, but to African-American communities as well.
“They’re a great management team and it’s a good fit for us,” Dulan said. “This fits our brand strategy and our mission to provide good, home cooking and healthy meals. For over 30 years Dulan’s been one of few places in South LA where you can eat a home cooked meal, because South LA is a food desert in a lot of respects.”
Turpin, however, believes Vallarta may not be the community’s preference. Even though the chain is local, having started as a small carniceria in Van Nuys 40 years ago and expanded to 55 markets across California.
Still, she is not envious of the market.
“That space is 25,000 sq feet, that’s more than twice what we’re looking for,” Turpin said. “I’ve been in one Vallarta in the valley. It’s not terrible.”
SoLA held an open board meeting April 12th in the Good Earth Community Garden on Boden Street for members and guests.
“We sat in this beautiful garden,” Turpin said. “And a lot of good resources and ideas were shared. Like having members call elected officials.”
Wheels are turning quickly on the co-op project and SoLA is trying to fund as much of the initial down payment as they can without debt.
“I totally believe that is possible,” Turpin said.
“We also want volunteers.” Turpin said. “We would love to have some kind of partnership with a church or other organization that has some free meeting space for informational gatherings and socials.”
For more information on joining or donating to the SoLA food co-op, visit www.solafoodcoop.com.
