<!-- Alternate content for non-supporting browsers --> <div id="pic-container" name="pic-container" style="float:right; width:310;height:225; text-align:right;background-color: white;"><img id="pic-rotate" name="pic-rotate" src="/news/newsletter/images/issue24/24-0.JPG" border="1" width="300" height="200" alt="OFC's founder and director, Jason A. Harvey, a tireless community advocate of healthy neighborhoods in Oakland, CA." title="OFC's founder and director, Jason A. Harvey, a tireless community advocate of healthy neighborhoods in Oakland, CA." /> <div id="pic-title" name="pic-title" style="float:right; margin: 0; padding: 0;"><font size="-2">OFC's founder and director, Jason A. Harvey, a tireless community advocate of healthy neighborhoods in Oakland, CA. </font></div></div><script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">var pic_sel= new Array(); pic_sel[0] = new Image(); pic_sel[0].src='/news/newsletter/images/issue24/24-0.JPG'; pic_sel[0].alt='OFC's founder and director, Jason A. Harvey, a tireless community advocate of healthy neighborhoods in Oakland, CA.'; pic_sel[1] = new Image(); pic_sel[1].src='/news/newsletter/images/issue24/24-1.JPG'; pic_sel[1].alt='An excited young lady who came out to work in our rooftop garden project at E.C. Reems Academy.'; var picnumb= 2; </script><font face='verdana,helvetica'> <i><b>A City of Villages : OFC needs financial contributions TODAY!</b> <br />by Jason A. Harvey, Director/Founder<b> <p>Please donate, ask your friends and family to consider donating, and forward this message as wide as you possibly can!</b></i> <p>October 23, 2008 </p> <p> Dear Friends and Supporters: </p> <p> I am deeply in love with Oakland! Its people and environment warm my heart every day, and its history continually encourages me to work hard, just as those who migrated here decades before me. I am proud to tell people everywhere I go that I’m from Oakland. Despite mainstream media’s portrayal of Oakland as place where violence and drug addiction are at the center of our community’s problems, I envision a healthy Oakland that inspires people to work toward realizing their dreams, just as Oakland has helped me do the same. </p> <p> I created Oakland Food Connection as a catalyst for a kind of social change that desperately needs to happen in Oakland. I envision an Oakland where affordable, healthy food can be obtained on any street corner and more people have jobs because of the fruits and vegetables grown in the yards and community gardens owned by Oaklanders. On a much deeper level, I envision elders and youth gardening together, sharing stories of love and personal transformation. Oakland’s root problems that allow its violence to persist after 40 years will cease, because community residents will have jobs with a purpose. We are the weavers of our social web of interdependence. Together we can rely on each other for food, shelter, love, and support. </p> <p> For the last three years--since OFC’s inception--I have worked tirelessly to raise awareness that our local food sources are in danger. OFC promotes nutritional awareness, access to healthy foods, and the connections between people and our planet. For three years, we served nutritious lunches to students at Oakland’s Unity High School. Students were excited to have hot, freshly prepared meals, instead of the standard tasteless, frozen and packaged meals delivered by the standard school lunch providers. This program served as a strong connection with youth and an equally strong financial base for OFC as an organization. At the start of the 2008-2009 school year, however, we lost our contract to Revolution Foods, a bigger business. Since losing this contract, I have struggled on many levels – both personal and financial -- to keep OFC going. </p> <p> Initially, I experienced shock and was depressed for several weeks because I was unsure how to recover from such a massive blow: we essentially lost half of our annual budget, and I didn’t know how I would keep OFC afloat. One of my colleagues and mentor, Bryant Terry, once shared with me key advice to manage this situation, “Sit, breathe, and a solution will present itself.” And so I did, and in time the solution presented itself: the “Healthy Food for All” campaign, which consists of creating a food system based on catering, a farm-based community agriculture program, continuing our school-based garden programs and establishing a local farmers market. Together, these programs have the potential to create up to 15 jobs for community members in East Oakland. <br /> <br /> It will take a great deal of time and energy to realize “Healthy Food for All”, but I am confident that with your support we can create meaningful employment for Oaklanders, and take back a portion of our local food system in East Oakland that is grave danger of collapse. Through continual sacrifice and selfless leadership, I have managed to keep OFC’s mission going, by redirecting it toward building more school gardens, establishing a catering program, and developing a local farmers market. Now we need your support! However, at this time, Oakland Food Connection has no money to cover basic costs. </p> <p> Essentially, it costs $4, 500 to operate each month: one staff member’s salary, stipends for six youth, rent and utilities, and food costs. As the US economy slowly reshapes itself, people have less to give. Moreover, as foundations begin to direct their money towards large scale collaborations and institutional change, grant support for on-the-ground work with community members has become more difficult to obtain. As I continually work to keep our programs going, I believe that you, as a supporter of OFC, will recognize my efforts and the value of Oakland Food Connection and consider supporting us by making a tax-deductible financial contribution today. </p> <p> My friends and supporters, I need your financial help today! Now that we do not have financial support from Unity High school, I am even more dependent on your tax-deductible contributions: </p> <p> • $20 can provide a stipend for one youth participant <br /> • $50 can help us pay our phone bill for a month; <br /> • $100 can help us to convert our 8 passenger bus to bio-diesel; <br /> • $500 can help expand our bulk food section for resale at the farmers market; <br /> • $1000 contribution will cover our rent for one month. </p> <p> Please take a moment to consider which dollar amount would be comfortable for you to give, then dig just a little bit deeper than that to help support Oakland Food Connection. It takes a village to raise a child. It will take all of us, working together, to achieve Healthy Food for All. <br /> <br /> If you’re not able to give as much as you would like to at this time but believe in Oakland Food Connection, consider some ways that you might be able to help fundraise to sustain OFC. You can do this by asking your friends to consider donating, asking people at your church or your workplace to donate, or by hosting a fundraiser for Oakland Food Connection. </p> <p> Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions about your contribution. </p> <p> Thank you for your continued dedication and support, and for helping the vision of Oakland Food Connection become a reality. </p> <p> Jason A Harvey <br /> jharvey@foodcommunityculture.org <br /> Founder & Executive Director <br /> Oakland Food Connection <br /> <p> </p></font>
