Phat Beets Produce
[3] Cadji helps residents have access to nutritious food by coordinating between farmers, institutions, and low-income communities to utilize empty land for urban gardening.
[5] Phat Beets has stated that gentrification is also in part caused by racialized policies that push minority groups farther away from their homes and healthy food.
[1] In order to have a strong food system, programs like “Fresh Fellows” teach youth at risk of chronic diseases how to have a healthy lifestyle regardless of the challenges they face.
[1] Phat Beets has decided to take an open stance against gentrification, “a shift in an urban community toward wealthier residents and/or businesses and increasing property values”,[13] because they believe they should fight intersecting social issues in order to allow food justice to thrive.
[4] In summary it says that if someone agrees with Phat Beets’ mission, then they are ultimately against gentrification because it forces out residents and therefore prevents low-income minority groups from having access to healthy, affordable food.
[16] Phat Beets stood by their belief when a local business, Grease Box, moved into their former farmer's market location, sparking public claims of displacement and gentrification from the organization toward the owner.
[15] Patrick Crouch, an urban farmer and author, also believes that gentrification is directly influenced by government’s economic incentives to bring in more affluent people, and is not caused by community development.
These foreclosure rates and gentrification drive longtime residents out of their homes, an issue Phat Beets Produce makes a huge effort to fight.
Just months after Grease Box moved into the building Phat Beets accused the owner of displacing not only its own programs but also low income Oakland residents in the process of gentrification.
In a statement describing the situation Phat Beets commented that Grease Box is “part of the ongoing process of gentrification where historic Oakland residents lose houses, jobs, and opportunities to newer, wealthier incoming residents with greater access to resources.” According to Phat Beets, for these reasons, GreaseBox has shut down the Kitchen Incubator Program and has forced them to move locations to the Arlington Health Center.
And there were some indicators that for every acre lost, there was a reciprocal loss of economic wealth in our community.”[26] African-American history of agriculture in the United States is an important driving force for present-day farmers of color.
Dr. Mathews realized that it was important to create a produce stand when she witnessed how difficult it was for her Healthy Hearts patients to buy the fruits and vegetable she prescribed because they were too expensive or far away.
[29] The Oakland’s Children Hospital farmer’s market aim is to offer an extensive variety of fruits, vegetables, plants, seeds, and other treats as cheaply possible.
[29] Furthermore, the farmer’s market is on the same day as the Healthy Hearts Clinic, a pediatric program dedicated to preventing and treating childhood diet-related illnesses, so that the patients are more likely to visit the produce stand.
Retrieved 2014-05-06. Low-access means that “500 people or 33% or of the tract population live more than a mile away from a grocery store.” The Federal government is working to reduce the number of food deserts in the United States.
In addition, this partnership has a “Fresh Fellows” food justice program that specifically targets teenagers who are at risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.
At the Oakland Medical Center branch, they have created a Serenity Garden that displays many plants native to the community, with the hope that the increase in nature will be beneficial and therapeutive to patients.
This pilot program goes toward developing the work skills of Oakland youth by providing job employment opportunities through the production and sales of pickles and jams.
In the spring of 2013, Phat Beets Produce launched the Community Healthy Food Business Incubator Kitchen Program to support local low-income vendors.
Phat Beets position on social issues stems in large part from the civil rights movement and political groups such as The Black Panther Party.
[60] The North Oakland Restorative Justice Alliance or council is made up of many different community organizations such as Bethany Baptist Church, the Bay Area Youth empowerment project and Phat Beets Produce.
[61] Restorative justice is centered around both rehabilitating the victim and the offender but also not criminalizing the wrongdoer and try to integrate them back into the community while simultaneously making them responsible for their actions.
[19] Phat Beets understands problems in the community to be cyclical and highlights the connection of how food issues can affect housing through structural racism or gentrification.
[65] One of the ways Phat Beets attempts to combat these diet-related diseases is through food justice work, for example by coordinating the creation of produce stands and farmers markets to make fresh fruits and vegetables more easily accessible to historically marginalized groups.
To achieve his goal he is boycotting fast foods, juicing daily, and installing a 5,000 sq ft organic produce garden in an empty lot next to his house.
Phat Beets attempts to assist its members to change their lifestyles and help get rid of high diet-related illness in the community, through urban organic gardening.
This is because at the children’s hospital or Arlington Medical center, where the clinic is located doctors often prescribe diets of fruits and vegetables for patients with diet-related illnesses who either can't afford it, or do not have physical access to it.
[68] Using one of the Black Panther Party’s principles, Phat Beets gives away this produce with the understanding that individuals in the community, “cannot achieve their fullest potential for self determination and revolution without first eating a healthy meal.
Phat Beets produce has received many angry emails and letters, and even cancellations of their CSA boxes due to their controversial stance on some issues such as gentrification.
However, Phat Beets still believes that although they could be threatening their financial support not speaking about these controversial issues that low income communities of colors face everyday would be even more dangerous.
