In the wake of the recent election, HOPE Collaborative members have been gathering in community and dialogue to discuss what the election results mean for us, our communities, and our work. Many of us feel sad, scared, angry, and disgusted by the results of the presidential election. We know that many of you feel the same way, alongside other difficult emotions, and we invite you to join us in conversation and community-building. Our members have made it clear how important HOPE is for them, especially in creating and preserving safe spaces to share, build, and strategize with one another in this time. We will continue to foster dialogue and invite the broader community to join us. We will share more information as we plan these community conversations.
We are also completely fired up and recommitted to the work we have been doing since 2007 to advance racial equity, food justice, and community ownership in Oakland. We proceed now with twice the heart and urgency. We are ready to continue our long-term strategy for systemic change that creates new structures and systems that prioritize leadership of low income communities of color in Oakland. We are ready to keep being a resource for and support our local communities. We are ready to stick together and not be divided by those who want to see us weaken. We will stand up for ourselves and our communities, for people of color, for the working class, for women, for immigrants, for LGBTQ folks, for people with disabilities. We stand together.
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Organizing Oakland's Efforts Against Big Soda - We Won!
As we process the presidential election, we are also celebrating a local measure! HOPE Collaborative youth and community contributed to phone bank and canvassing efforts to lead Oakland in advancing the national movement against Big Soda. Oakland's Measure HH won 38.2% to 61.8% of votes with 100% of precincts reporting from the November 8th election! And in Albany, Measure 01 overwhelmingly won,
28.28% to
71.72% with all votes counted. San Francisco's soda tax, Proposition V also won
37.66% to
62.34%. Berkeley passed their sugar sweetened beverage tax in 2014.
Time will tell if consumption rates will decrease in Oakland, but Berkeley's tax demonstrated that consumers in Berkeley's low-income neighborhoods are drinking 21% less soda and other sugary drinks since the tax was implemented in March 2015. Not only was sugary drink consumption reduced, but consumption of tap and bottled water among residents increased by 63%. We can also look internationally to the prospects of decreased consumption rates. Mexico also successfully passed an excise tax on sugary drinks in 2014, reducing the purchase of sugary drinks by 12% overall, and by 17% among low-income Mexicans.
HOPE Collaborative youth and community members will actively organize to ensure low-income residents of color will benefit from tax revenue. The Oakland measure created a Community Advisory Board with representatives from health, dental care, and nutrition, as well as parents from the Oakland Unified School District and residents of communities most impacted by the negative health effects of sugary drink consumption. The Board will make recommendations to the City Council about funding programs that improve children's health and will issue annual public reports detailing the impact of funded programs. HOPE is looking to have our community members sit on the board.
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Join Us 12/6 for Deep East Oakland Neighborhood Town Hall
It's more important than ever for us to work together. You are invited to a gathering of the East Oakland community to learn about neighborhood-based efforts led by allied organizations and to share about your work and ways community can get involved. We hope to build stronger connections between groups and community members doing important work in East Oakland to promote health and equity, so we can all be more effective, strategic, and supportive of one another.
We are co-hosting this event with East Oakland Boxing Association and a Merritt College Sustainable Urban Planning class. Come join us to break bread with your neighbors and build a strong, healthy, and equitable East Oakland! Please feel free to invite others from your organization and community leaders you work with.
WHEN: Tuesday, December 6th
4:30-5:30pm Open House
5:30-7:30pm Presentations & Resource Sharing
WHERE: East Oakland Boxing Association, 816 98th Avenue, Oakland, CA 94603
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Welcome Teleah Slater, Food Justice Community Organizer!
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We are so excited to have Teleah Slater join HOPE Collaborative as our new Food Justice Community Organizer. This position has been developed to
build up community engagement in and around our Healthy Corner Stores, so we can get residents involved and have conversations around food justice in our communities.
We asked Teleah to introduce herself:
I am happy to join HOPE Collaborative as your new Food Justice Community Organizer. I am excited to start this new position to increase the availability of healthy foods in neighborhoods in need. From my previous food justice work and personal experiences, I know how important food is to the vitality and happiness of a community. As a New Yorker, I also am looking forward to getting to know Oakland and the Bay Area as a whole.
I will be working alongside current staff and community members to expand engagement with the Healthy Corner Store program. For the next few months I will be focusing on finding new stores and partner organizations to participate in the program, and increasing community involvement by recruiting new Project Leaders. I hope to fulfill these goals and maximize the impact of HOPE Collaborative.
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