Food

Shucking oysters and making waves

At Making Waves Academy, a middle school in Richmond, students can take long-time educator Aaron Reaven’s popular class, “Healthy person, healthy planet.” The class focuses on nutrition, cooking, and environmental issues that relate to the food supply.

Reduce, recycle, reuse and rot in El Cerrito and Richmond schools

A new project aims to usher in a waste management transformation. This month, the Environmental Protection Agency awarded the Watershed Project, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting East Bay watersheds and ecosystems, a $30,000 grant to educate children and their community about recycling, reusing and composting.

Food stamp bill would cut deep in Richmond

A bill passed by the Republican-dominated House of Representatives on Thursday aims to cut food stamps or the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) by $40 billion. An estimated 4,522 Richmond households might be affected if the federal food stamps program were to be dramatically cut back.

Appetite a must for Point Richmond’s Brazilian restaurant

Pikanha’s Brazilian Steak House in Point Richmond knows meat. In fact, they know beef, pork, lamb and chicken so well that their waiters just keep bringing the grilled morsels out one after the other. Thais Silva, the restaurant’s owner, calls the meat her “show.” But it wasn’t until her mother’s death that the Brazilian native, and her brother, decided to pursue a family dream—to open a family restaurant. Located just down the street from the Richmond Plunge, the restaurant is…

Fiesta Latina Market stocks shelves with Central American flavors and memories

For those who move from one country to another change can be hard. Families are separated, speech is not understood and finding employment may be impossible. For others the change of address may be seamless. Curiosity brought Rosy Maria Barron to the United States. She was 18 years old when she and a friend arrived to California from Mexico. Now a Palo Alto resident, Barron makes daily 45-mile trips to Richmond to manage her supermarket on Cutting Boulevard.

Contra Costa board votes to refuse state call center, citing disagreement with local union

After weeks of intense back and forth between political players in Richmond and Concord the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors announced Tuesday that neither city would play host to a state call center—and its 200 plus jobs—because the county could not settle a contract with a local union. The call center would have been one of three statewide centers set up by the California Health Benefits Exchange to help Californians with health insurance questions under the new federal Affordable…

4th Annual Chocolate and Beer Festival

Hundreds of Bay Area residents flocked to the Craneway Pavilion on Saturday for a delicious end to SF Beer Week. Attendees sampled beer of all hues from nine different breweries and chocolates and other sweets from twenty confectioners. The event also featured live music, raffles, beer pong, a bouncy castle, and unseasonably warm afternoon sunshine. Proceeds benefited Richmond’s Police Activities League, which offers athletic, artistic and academic activities for local youth.  

Cuisine from award-winning restaurant owners coming to Richmond in February

Two successful restaurateurs are set to bring their award-winning cuisine to the Richmond Craneway Pavilion this February, replacing the Boilerhouse restaurant, which closed in December. Husband and wife team Richard Mazzera and Terumi Shibata-Mazzera have more than 35 years of experience managing restaurants between them and have made Richmond the location of their newest restaurant, Assemble. It was named in recognition of the Ford Motor Company Assembly plant, which operated on the same shorelines that Assemble will overlook, along with…

Richmond residents dig into Greenway and MLK celebration

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would have been proud of Richmond Monday. Mother Nature would have been thrilled, too, as more than 400 people strolled several blocks of the Richmond Greenway and watched hundreds of volunteers plant seeds of hope and food. Under a warm winter sun folks young and old congregated near the community garden portion of the trail and celebrated the city’s 6th Annual Martin Luther King National Day of Service event. Organized by Urban Tilth, the gathering…