Food
When Amanda Elliott, the executive director of the Richmond Main Street Initiative, describes the menu for the upcoming Spirit and Soul Festival, she scoots to the edge of her seat and flashes a smile. “There’s greens,” she says, “smoked-baked chicken, red beans and rice, and cornbread.” The caterer calls it “healthy soul food,” Elliott says, and it’s a fitting menu for a fundraiser dedicated to the health and soul of downtown Richmond. On Saturday, Sept. 17, the third annual Spirit…
Thirteen Contra Costa County cities participated in the third annual Mayors’ Healthy Cook-Off on Saturday in Clayton. The event encourages friendly competition and is a way for area cities to show their commitment to healthy eating.
On any given Friday, Victoria Williams serves up to 100 people at the McGlothen Temple Church of God in Christ. They leave with full bellies and a bag loaded with groceries. The 86 year old, known as “Mother Williams,” has spent every Thursday in the temple’s North Richmond kitchen for nine years, prepping food she collects from the food bank and wherever else she can. But the temple is busier than usual this week, as Williams has 1,000 bags of food to…
Kaiser Permanente wants to HEAL Richmond. Not with expensive medicine or shiny surgical knives, but with good old-fashioned Healthy Eating Active Living, or HEAL Zones, the acronym chosen for a program that will help residents fight obesity through education. The program also includes a small business action plan that will encourage local businesses to promote responsible food and exercise choices. The three-year $10 million HEAL Zones’ initiative is a continuation of Kaiser Permanente’s 2006 Healthy Eating Active Living Community Health…
A group of women from local churches got together Saturday to cook a meal and mark the end of 12 weeks of classes called A Taste of Health that focused on exercise and nutrition. The group met every Saturday for the last few months—skipping a few here and there for holidays—to exercise, cook and learn together.
More that 220 nutritionists, physicians, policy makers and community activists met in Richmond on Friday to discuss ways to improve and transform public health.
City and county leaders joined with members of Richmond’s growing urban farming community to discuss ways to keep West County communities at the forefront of the movement toward locally-grown foods.
In North Richmond, a community farming project may be the answer to providing healthy choices to residents who have long lived in a “food desert.”
When we first visited Richmond’s Seed Library in June last year it was a fresh idea popularized by its coordinator, Rebecca Newburn, and other garden-lovers volunteers. Today, exactly one year from its launch in May 2010, the library has between 350 and 400 users.