Neighborhood Food Watch

Save Spaces for Healthy Places Petition In 2008, Councilmembers passed an ordinance restricting new fast food restaurants within 0.5 miles of an existing fast food restaurant. Now, LA City Council may exempt South LA's Council District 10 from this policy, allowing fast food establishments to be the predominant eating choice in the area for another 20 years. Protect our community from an over-concentration of stand-alone fast food restaurants by signing the petition today.

The Neighborhood Food Watch (NFW) is CHC’s community campaign to provide South Los Angeles residents with the information and tools needed to take action to improve the quality of food in their local stores. NFW promotes access to nutritious foods and the opportunity to select the healthy food needed for longer and healthier lives. The campaign offers a newsletter to keep you current on important issues, training and community events to improve business practices and local food policy.

How can we have fresher foods and cleaner stores in our neighborhood? Take Action!! Here are some simple steps to report expired dates on products on store shelves:

1. Record your experiences: the type of product, today's date, and the expiration date.
2. Take the item to the store manager.
3. The second time, notify the supermarket's headquarters.
4. The third time, notify your local health department. The contact number for reporting to the FDA is (949) 608-2900.
5. Let us know by clicking here. Feel free to Include any details you want; for example, store name and location, type of complaint.
   
6. Join the NFW and record your experiences on the Neighborhood Food Watch Blog or send us your pictures.
   

The Neighborhood Food Watch Campaign provides active members with an online resource center to connect and share information. Members can interact with community leaders and organizations making a change in South LA; read and post stories on both good and inadequate shopping experiences; receive information on diet and eating healthy; and learn about the laws and standards for grocery stores.

Fast Food in South LA
Fast food restaurants make up more than two-thirds of the restaurants in South LA. With obesity affecting 35% of adults and 29% of kids, restrictions on developing new fast food restaurants are necessary to create a balance between healthy and unhealthy restaurants in our community. Read our Fact Sheet to learn why you should be concerned about fast-food restaurants in South LA.

Background

CHC's policy brief Does Race Define What's in the Shopping Cart? was the catalyst for the Neighborhood Food Watch. Through this ground-breaking, multi-year study, Community Health Councils with its partner USC found that race, geography, and the availability of healthy foods play a substantial role in determining what African Americans in Los Angeles eat. To read CHC's report describing the food desert in South LA that appeared in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, see Improving the Nutritional Resource Environment for Healthy Living.

Do you know what the expiration dates on food really mean?
See CHC's Expired Foods Brochure for an overview of regulations for food freshness at the grocery store. What do you do if you find expired food? Take action! Follow these steps: 1) Record your experience: the type of product, today's date, and the expiration date. 2) Take the item to the store manager. 3) The second time, notify the supermarket's headquarters. 4) The third time, notify your local health department. The health department gathers complaints to distribute to the appropriate government agency for follow-up. See our brochure for supermarket and health department contact information.

South Los Angeles Farmers Markets

Saturday & Sunday	Monday thru Friday
Saturdays 10am-3pm Crenshaw Farmers Market Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, located in the parking lot in front of Wells Fargo Bank and the Sizzler	Tuesdays 9am-3pm Shrine Farmers Market Royal Street & Jefferson
Saturdays 10am-4pm Harambee Farmers Market 5730 Crenshaw Blvd.	Wednesday 2-5pm St. Agnes Catholic Church 1432 W. Adams Blvd (Adams Blvd./Vermont Ave.)
Saturdays 11am-4pm Exposition Park Farmers Market 700 Exposition Park Drive (in Expo Park on the South Lawn in front of Natural History Museum)	Thursdays 11am-4pm Trojan Fresh Market Alumni Park, USC
Sat & Sun 9am-4pm FAME Fresh Produce Market FAME Renaissance parking lot (corner of Western and Adams)	Thursdays 3-5pm Expo-Center/CSU Produce Stand 3980 Menlo Ave (at Martin Luther King Jr Blvd)
Sundays 9am-1pm Wellington Square Certified FM Washington Boulevard at Wellington

South Los Angeles Grocery Store Watch

New Stores	Closed Stores
Sprouts Farmers Market 5660 Sepulveda Blvd. Culver City, CA 90230	Von's 6921 La Tijera Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90045

Interested in Joining a Community Garden?
The Community Garden at Ben’s Place is a learning and growing space where South Los Angeles neighbors can learn simple techniques about home gardening and increase access to fresh vegetables. We are dedicated to keeping families in South LA healthy one plant at a time! Learn hands-on gardening techniques, healthy cooking demonstrations, contained gardening and much more. We meet every other Saturday from 9:30-11:30am. Next meetings are March 26, April 9, 23 and May 7.

The garden is located in the backyard of a private residential home.  Enter off 57th Street and Charlene Drive. Make a quick left into the alley and follow the path until the alley ends. 

Contact
For more information on NFW, contact Breanna Morrison, CHC Policy Analyst, at 323.295.9372 x216 or via e-mail Breanna Morrison.