Oakland Food Policy Council hires a coordinator

Food First, the City of Oakland, the HOPE Collaborative, and several other community-based organizations (CBOs) are working together to establish the Oakland Food Policy Council (OFPC). The OFPC will advance public policies that favor locally-owned neighborhood food systems, with the goal of building greater food security and a "closed-loop" city food system The OFPC will also work to build greater public health, support local agriculture, promote energy efficiency, reduce energy consumption, protect environmental resources, promote local economic development, and increase public "food literacy." This will contribute to Oakland's ongoing efforts to become a more sustainable city.

I am pleased to announce that we have recently hired Alethea Marie Harper as Coordinator for the OFPC. Alethea is a member of the HOPE Collaborative Food Systems Action Team, and is a Roots of Change Action Fellow for this year. While working as a project manager at SAGE (Sustainable Agriculture Education) for the past year, Alethea co-authored the San Francisco Foodshed Assessment. Alethea holds a Master's degree in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning from the University of California, Berkeley; her thesis focused on regional food systems and access to healthy food in West Oakland. Alethea recently returned from a research trip to Latin America, where she studied food systems and urban agriculture.

As Coordinator, Alethea will be responsible for providing structure, vision, and direction for the OFPC. She will work with government, communities and the private sector in Oakland to develop a plan for a sustainable food system, and will advocate for and support implementation of new and existing food policies and programs. She will also raise funds for the Council.

Alethea will begin work at the Food First office on October 20, 2008.