Nicole West

The Charlie Cart, a newly designed mobile kitchen, brings food education into the classroom

It was a sunny Wednesday afternoon in April at the Richmond College Prep School, and the fourth grade students were divided among three tables near the outdoor garden. In front of the tables was a mobile kitchen called the Charlie Cart that can roll from classroom to classroom. Each table had placemats, bowls, cutting boards and the cooking lesson for the day. The students were making spring salad with garlic vinaigrette. As for the Charlie Cart, imagine a kitchen, shrunk…

Balancing life as a roller derby girl

Huck Sinn’s life was falling apart, including her relationships. After she stopped going to grad school, she moved from San Francisco to the East Bay, where she started “dating herself.” “I was taking myself out. I took myself to concerts and I took myself to a roller derby bout,” she said. It was at that bout that she realized she was “born to do this.”  By “this,” she means playing and coaching for the Oakland Outlaws, one of the Bay…

Berkeley passes first in the nation soda tax

Berkeley has become the first city in the country to pass a sugar-sweetened beverage tax in an effort to combat childhood obesity and diabetes, according to Josh Daniels, co-chair of the Yes on D campaign. As the polls closed Tuesday night, an energetic crowd, many of whom wore black t-shirts emblazoned with the words “Berkeley vs. Big Soda,” clapped and cheered within the Yes on D campaign headquarters on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley.