Hello Friends!

Spring has sprung and we're happy to celebrate the upcoming growing season. Big thanks to everyone who helped plant hundred of baby potato starts at our Sunol Farm.
This month we'll be moving our greenhouse to a new home and our Urban Ag. staff will be on the move as well, when Hubert McCabe leaves us to bike home to the East Coast in April (we'll miss you Hubert!) and Brent Walker steps up to become our new Farm Manager. In 1920, there were 925,000 African American farmers in the United States; now there are less than 15,000 African American farmers and less than 1/3 of 1% of California farmers are African American. We welcome Brent's distinctiveness as a leader among the less than 1/3 of 1%!
Read on for more news and events!

February Highlights Community Outreach and Education: • Developed new workshop “Stepping Up for Food Justice”. • Delivered presentations to Oakland Youth Movement and KIPP Middle School. • Tabled and delivered cooking demos at the African American Health Summit. • Held cooking classes at deFremery Park for 7 adults. • Held cooking classes at the YMCA for 10 elementary students. Grub Box Program: • Distributed 100 Grub Boxes to clients affiliated with St. Mary’s Center. • Enrolled 10 new Grub Box customers • Sold over 60 residential boxes and 70 sponsorship boxes • 35.5 volunteer hours assisting in packing and distribution Farm and Gardens: • 27 volunteers at farm for approximately 200 volunteers hours • Planted 2,000 row feet of crops at farm • 215 lb. pounds of produce harvested at farm and gardens • Produced 4,500 plant seedlings and starts • 2 cubic yards of compost made

People's Grocery at African American Health Summit People's Grocery had great presence at the 2009 African American Health Summit held Feb. 7th at the Marriot City Center in downtown Oakland. An estimated 4000 people attended this year's event which was convened by The Bay Area Black United Fund, Inc. New Farm Manager, Brent Walker, spoke with attendees about sustainable farming, where their food comes from, the health benefits of eating from the ground up, and connecting with community. This was Brent's first community event here in Oakland (he's from Memphis, Tennessee), and we as was he were delighted to connect with this amazing and diverse community. Other community organizations such as City Slicker Farms, OBUGS, and Oakland Food Connection shared a space alongside People's Grocery at this year's event. Watch a video interview of Brent

"A Spring Thing" Grub Party this Saturday, March 21! Come get your grub on and join us this Saturday as we welcome two special guest chefs: Greg Mann and Sim Peyron of the Pacific Coast Farmer’s Market. Entertainment: “Slap Team” of Cal Prep Academy. Thanks to Honest Tea for donating drinks. Saturday, March 21st deFremery Park 1651 Adeline St. 11am - 2pm RSVP at erica@peoplesgrocery.org or call (510) 652-7607 click here for info

KIPP and Peer-2-Peer Our Peer-2-Peer educators had this young crowd captivated as they presented "What You're Really Eating", to this amazing and very energetic group from KIPP drop-in center. Peer 2 Peer is a People's Grocery program created by and for youth. Through interactive and fun presentations, youth staff educate middle and high school teens, after school programs, and church groups about healthy eating and food justice. Peer 2 Peer presentations are free to West Oakland youth groups. We ask for donations to help us cover costs for groups outside of the community. click here for info and to schedule a presentation

Free Nutritional Cooking Class Tuesday evenings in West Oakland Our Cooking Insturctor Vigi Molfino heats up the kitchen with this new adult cooking class. This class has proven time and time again to a bit hit! Just look at them cut up! For more information concerning the cooking class and the next session, please check out our website. You can get some great recipes there too. Click here for more info and to sign up

Students "Meat and Compete" at Lick-Wilmerding High School People's Grocery would like to give special thanks to the students of San Francisco's Lick-Wilmerding High School, in particular the HAPA Club, a group for multiracial students, and the Meat Club, a group obsessed with gourmet barbeque. These groups organized a wildly successful, sustainability and healthy living cook-off/food festival called "Meat and Compete". The entrants of the cook-off were clubs, individuals and even the head of the school's cafeteria. Having heard about People's Grocery at a school assembly, the students decided to make a generous donation from the proceeds of their fundraiser event in an effort to make sustainable food accessible to a wider population. Thanks for all your inspiring work! Donate to People's Grocery

Get your Grub Box! People’s Grocery is going strong with the Grub Box program, offering an array of seasonal, organic and local produce from our own farm and gardens, including other seasonal produce purchased through Veritable Vegetable. The cost for residential members who live, work and/or worship in West Oakland, and who consider themselves low-income, qualify for the $12.00 rate. The sponsorship rate is $24.00 and is intended for those outside of the West Oakland community, who want to receive fresh vegetables and help keep the cost low for West Oakland residential members. We're also looking for a new Tues. evening distribution site, so if you have a space or a covered porch where people can pick up their boxes, please let us contact Jason Uribe at 510-504-3664. click here for more info

People's Grocery at the 2009 Small Farm Conference People’s Grocery farm manger, Brent Walker and Jason Uribe, urban gardens and Grub box manager both presented on March 2nd at this years Small Farm Conference held in Sacramento CA. The conference is intended for farmers, educators and policy makers to come together and learn and share with each other the importance of creating a more sustainable agriculture system. Both Brent and Jason were on two different panels to help discuss in small group session settings the highlights and challenges of our urban agriculture and Grub box programs and to help spark discussion. They were both allowed 10-15 minutes to present and participate in a brief Q & A period after the panel.

Please forward this newsletter to friends and family. Thank you for being part of the People's Grocery community. Here's to Food Justice!