Good LA Launch

Date posted: April 9, 2011

April 2011: East LA Market Makeovers @ GOOD LA Launch, Atwater Crossing, Atwater Village, CA

GOOD LA Launch

On Saturday, April 9, 2011 at the launch of GOOD LA, students from the East Los Angeles Renaissance Academy (ELARA) at Esteban Torres High School took the stage with Public Matters’ Mike Blockstein to talk about their efforts to transform the East LA food landscape through Market Makeovers. Students shared personal consequences of an unhealthy diet and chronic lack of access to affordable, quality produce and presented the three “HAVE YOU NOTICED?” videos they created to increase public awareness about this issue.

Many thanks to the incredible folks at GOOD Magazine for spreading the word about the work in East LA!

Providing jobs while teaching kids about nutrition

Date posted: June 30, 2009

The Accelerated School (TAS) students were paid for their work during the summer session to improve healthy food access in their community. In the past two years, they’ve created short videos for the “Where Do I Get My Five?” DVD and marketmakeovers.org, a comprehensive online resource scheduled to launch August 2009, and transformed two local markets.

[vimeo 2948517]

The South L.A. Shopping Challenge
So You Think You Can Cook is a reality show competition set in the very real world of the South L.A. food desert. An average family of four in this area has $10 or less to spend on a meal. In this episode, two VERY competitive teams race to buy the healthiest, yummiest food from the corner store on their $10 budget.

Working on behalf of community issues has economic as well as social value. For several students, “Where Do I Get My Five?” and marketmakeovers.org was also their first job and their first paycheck.

South L.A. – The Food Desert. You can convince your local market to carry fresh food.

Date posted:

South L.A. is a “food desert.” There are few supermarkets and those carry low quality produce.
[vimeo 1016506]
This video is the true-to-life tale of an epic journey, two hours – by bus. It chronicles the extraordinary efforts undertaken by HEAC student Lae Schmidt to get quality fruits and vegetables missing from her neighborhood.

In many communities, the main outlets for buying food, corner and liquor stores, offer little to no fresh food. Building relationships and transforming local stores are key to increasing healthy food access and improving health conditions in South L.A.